Long Guerre Poems

Here he stands, Edwardian vogue, sometimes with his spats, 
sometimes with his brogues below his dungarees. With rounded collar points and tie, and jacket donned below this flying suit, his waste is tied with simple...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s Twentythird Legal by T. Wignesan

Le vingt-troisième légal

pendant la guerre le peuple devient obéissent de nouveau
plein du respect (et) de la confiance les enfants naïfs dans la foi
la gouvernance nécessaire  ...

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Claquée j’ai quitté mon lit douillé 
J’ai peur de sombrer dans ma tête souillée 
Dans mes rêves je suis toujours exilée 
Je n’ai jamais trouvé le sommeil espéré  
J’ai savouré le mal qui me...

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 La Fête foraine de Scarborough (La Version complète)
 
      For the medieval English poet and Simon and Garfunkel 
-	In admiration -

Allez-vous à Scarborough fête foraine ?
(Sur la côte d'une...

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Transl. of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private - 4 with a Clive Bush comment on Mottram's poetry 

Excerpt from an article, “From space to caves in the heart recreating the collective world in Eric Mottram’s...

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There was poetry,
In the open fields,
On the slanted blueberries,
On the skirts of schoolgirls,

There was poetry,
In the sunny cupboards,
In the quiet gardens,
In the sweet air of spring,

There was some poetry
In the caressing hands,
In the chalk of...

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Translation of Eric Mottram's The Nerves of Proust and Sitting Bull by T. Wignesan

Excerpts from an article, “From space to caves in the heart recreating the collective world in Eric Mottram’s poetry” by Clive Bush,...

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I can’t stop thinking,
That the earth is round, round
Like African women,
That the seagulls are white,
That dogs are crazy,
They bark at poets, writers,

I can’t stop thinking,
That the sun is a guitar
Who plays in the summer, in...

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Far as the (ease) 
severely myopic eyes can see,
nothing but polluted atmosphere
where skull and crossbones
memento mori betokens beware,

especially with increasing chronology
mortality becomes crystal clear
existential crisis yours truly didst despair
not so much death itself, but failure
(inadequacy)...

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Who waits  on tomorrow when today is barely tolerable?
greet the sun
and the light
Green leaves,
Warm brown bark.
How many dawns will see them still,
as they have always been?

It happened a century past.
See the Black Hand. See...

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E dopo tutto, tutto questo, amore mio
Ti amo, ti adoro e ti amerò per sempre
Dopo tanto trambusto e confusione
Dopo tanto caos e tribolazione
Dopo tante sfide folli
Dopo tanti divertenti conflitti
Dopo tante false accuse
Dopo tante deboli opposizioni
Dopo...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private 5 Homage to Humphrey Jennings by T. Wignesan

                    ...

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Rappelez-Vous
(English translation below original French)

Rappelez-vous les petits fils 
Qui ecoutaient leurs grand-peres
Raconter des histoires d’ infanteries 
Et de battailles de la premiere guerre.

Rappelez-vous des braves garcons 
Qui s’imaginaient etre des soldats,
Qui plus tard servaient le...

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Tu le fera, n’est-ce pas, Papa ? – Translation of Kevin Gilbert’s « Won’t you, Dad ? » by T. Wignesan

Si toutes les jolies mélodies
de ce monde eussent été chantées
et toutes les chefs d’œuvres des...

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I look at a pile of books bringing the memories of my past libraries
as a child only comics from the kid next door 
that I will cut and paste to make my own adventures 
the...

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Humpty Dumpty, it was not his real name,
    A nom de guerre that brought widespread fame.
    He played a court jester, amusing the king,
    To act...

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Je m'appelle Ivan
Je ne suis pas un étudiant
Je suis un garçon solitaire
Et un Légionnaire de la France. 

J’ai écrit ce poème
Parce que je sens quelque pour toi
Avec le temps tu es devenue
Une grande personé pour...

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I am very well aware
of the Thomas Crown affair.
As I sit here in my chair
running fingers through my hair.

Now I solemnly declare
that it certainly is not fair.
So I really do not dare
to pretend I do...

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manifest pentru pace
(antipoezie)
  
 traim sub tunuri ?i avioane 
 cu armele încarcate cu propriile noastre pacate traim
 pe timp de pace sau razboi 
  
 (who cares?... nobody gives a shit!) 
...

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In a corner of France stands a gravestone,
To ‘The Unknown Soldier,’ never to go home,
It represents all of the fallen brave,
Who fell like skittles, in that stark enclave.

The Victoria cross, the Croix De Guerre,
The Iron...

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Bustling corridors, places to go, 
you can’t stand still or move too slow.
Make a plan, plot a course, 
there’s an entire campus to traverse.
Other things are good to know, 
like the best place for lunch...

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In a corner of france is a gravestone,
'An Unknown Soldier' the only tribute shown,
It represe , in that stark enclave.

The Victoria cross, the Croix De Guerre,
The Iron Cross, and the Lenin Bear,
Symbols awarded in the...

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Marianne (Bearer of Tricolour) 

Marianne; the Goddess of Liberty and bearer of Tricolour,
Triumphant French Republic revolutionary figure,
Evokes solidarity with breasts exposed and barefooted;
Wearing a Phrygian cap and armed with a bayonetted musket.
Personifier of liberty and...

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We are the pals brigade me lads,
the finest that you've seen.
We tilled the land just like our dads
or picked the coal black seam.
And now we're off to a foreign clime
to show Fritz a trick or...

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If you should hear him coming, fear his roar
His grizzled warnings, you should not ignore
A formidable champion is Ursus, a carnivore
His claws protects those he loves with vigour

He confidently stands on two powerful legs
to liberate...

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