Long Hamstrung Poems

Deor's Lament

(Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem circa the 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland endured the agony of exile:
an indomitable smith wracked by grief.
He suffered countless sorrows;
indeed, such sorrows were his bosom companions
in that frozen...

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Approximately three plus days elapsed...
without yours truly experiencing urge to defecate

Neither bloating nor constipation
arose, but one nondescript anguished
logophile anticipated intestinal blockage,
hence prophesying worse case scenario

I (predicated in direction for an adult)
ingested three Dulcolax tablets
and subsequently...

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Daughters of Medusa


                   
Grey hair, ginger hair, dark hair......
All simmering in an inverted jar,
Cooked and fried
Headshrinkers doing...

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The Carnivore Within...

Meaty morsels besiege
this vegetarian advocate
yet, the atavistic Jainist within me decries,
egg hen hies his, and lamb hence
carnivorous ache that won't abate
case in point being on the horns

hoof ah dill ham ma, neither willing,
nor...

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Vane glorious and absolutistic,
     though I defiantly,
     cavalierly, and blithely attest
Yukon bet your (laugh-in) sweet bippy
     mine acidic breast

houses anarchic, anti-poetic ballistic,
 ...

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(sung – in a round pussy willow warble - to the tune of -- 
Oh Where Oh Where has my little dog gone)

With a flam boy hunt deft jais nais sais quois 
firm lickey split...

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My younger self ran a huge karmic debt; everyone saw it but me.
     For the way that the world worked was to me a big mystery.
Not a clue what to do,...

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Harry West was an Aboriginal stone age hunter,
 on the Kokoda trail  Second World War in New Guinea in 1942...



HARRY WEST  of KOKODA...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFVC072rJk

One man from Goodooga, black,
 yes a "Murray" so true ...blue.
He...

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Affliction with comprehension,
now plain as day
predisposition to experience
(particularly abstract) cognitive
acquisition assailed at bay

posits me to suspect mental
deficiency within gray
matter of yours truly, whose
academic track record lay
in abyssal ruins, and

as three score orbitz round
the sun, yours...

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FATE LEADS THE WILLING
when my life 
my very wellbeing 
depends on the actions of those around me 
it’s a trial to my innate sensibilities to bring my side 

if my destiny is to live my...

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Alas ample alliteration available?!

True (terrific) title: Trump's truckling tutored troopers...;
wily word wizard worried,
where world wide web wickedly wends.

Triumphantly tenaciously (try to) trample treacly
traffickers target timid testifiers traducing,
their traitorous tractable toxic troglodyte:
today transition toward
totalitarianism tidily trends.

Quasimoto...

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I wish I was a Tory,
It would be another story,
So much simpler not to care
Or have to be aware
Of how other folks must strive
To make a crust to stay alive.
I could keep my privileged indifference
Surrounded...

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The Jihadi’s got an entire hour to kill
Hundreds of helpless patrons shocked and awed
An eon of murderous rage until
The long awaited reward from his “god”

Like schools, this Orlando bar predictably
Missing the one thing mass shootings...

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The uncaring profession is thriving once more, 
no more laid to rest it has kicked down the door 
and exploded again into all of our lives;
political cut backs with blunted old knives. 
The tax –payers’...

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Black girls mollycoddle,
dandle cranky babies;
some cradled on arm and hip,
some hustled along
on low-riding wheels.

Brown men lounge outside bodega’s,
some soft-soap, play imaginary guitars,
some flash smiles at the slackening sun,
dare it to glitz elsewhere.

White girls sit on...

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Wasting a Monday morning mooning
Till dawn creeps west in a slowly crawl
Across cunning cliffs of clouded sky
Bade dawn drawn down to noon bye
Bears a clear day brought so cheerfully dear
Soft as your loving grace in...

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Jumbled and distractedly jarred,
I awoke beside myself like a wraith,
a spectator to my primal confusion,
hamstrung by the goddess Chaos,
psychotic and frightfully broken.

Drifting through scrambled shrapnel,
a witness to my scrappy scrabble salads
chasing my fleeting thoughts.
I was...

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Whom Do We Trust
Written: by Miracle Man
7/21/2019

Every now and then, we all lose our bearing,
Facing days that become gloomy, often despairing.
We only check our compass for direction of travel,
When it appears that life is just...

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The reflex of ego is to go toe to toe with evil
the more mental bloodshed the better...
But ego is a sloppy plodder with ill-conceived plans.
its artwork is far from perfected.
Too often the victory is short...

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Now Bungeye Bert was a bit of A SQUIRT....
And came from the bush you see....
Had a squinty eye an open fly....
Was bandy round the knee....
He came to Brissy town this day....Brisbane
First time in the big...

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Bung eye Bert

Now Bung eye Bert was a bit of a squirt
And came from the bush you see
Had a squinty eye, an open fly
Was bandy round the knee

He came to Brissy town this day
First time...

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Last Days



Trembling with trepidation, 
  You count days lived and enjoyed
Hamstrung with anxiety, stock take 
  Time your future has destroyed;
You seem to wait with baited breath
  To evaluate what you achieved
And,...

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The new pedagogy, such sweet success!
Brittle crispy teacup children abound.
Wan eyes fused to the screen, don’t look around.
Take me to my safe space, just too much stress.

Who will fix what’s broken? They don’t know how.
Fighting...

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WHETHER GOOD OR ILL

Whether good or ill
just be still
When the ant tries to hamstrung,
Let it know you were still even when the bee stung

Whether good or ill
Don't be caught with you fingers in the till
Walk...

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A simple choice 
  presents itself
Play it safe
  or take a chance

I sit and stew
  and analyze
As if my choice
  is do-or-die

I sift and sort
  and sort and sift
Hamstrung by
...

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