Long Homesteads Poems

Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain...

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       ...

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I’d never been outside Victoria except once on the Murray,
where we fished for near a week only giving carp some curry,
but of course that was my highlight going on that camping trip.
I talked so much...

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A common confrontation between
Man and animals
From the wild, are pigs roaming farm lands
Destroying the crops

Of pöor farmers, it’s indeed a
Problem in Indian states
With forest borders, acute in her
Many smaller states.

In larger states where lands are...

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Chapter 11g 

Han and Kwona and their children 
Made their courteous introductions
Then were guided to their quarters
Where they soundly slept till sunrise 
 

Chapter 12a The Fireflower 
 
In the morning light they wakened
Now they saw with daytime clearness
The luxurious...

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The year ends on saddest notes
of crying, dying babies in Palestine 
and obstructed efforts 
to throw them a lifeline 

They ought to have long halted
this ethnic cleansing 
of the indigenous inhabitants
Stop the cruel bombardment
of their...

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THE RUIN 
an Old English poem about fate & destiny
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

well-hewn was this wall-stone, till Wyrdes wrecked it
and the Colossus sagged inward...

broad battlements broken;
the Builders' work battered;

the high ramparts toppled;
tall...

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The trail was long and very dusty
great clouds churned up by hooves
of the vast herd being wrangled on
300 more miles of eating their dust

Bandana's tightly wrapped round faces
cries of "get up there" ringing out
bawling calves...

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An old Point Man phoned, “Do ya think you can do it?.  
Driving doggies and cows from the flanks of Mt. Stewart?"
Fattened on grass for a year they had stayed. 
“Move a river of...

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Great are his exploits
honour and rank
he's celebrated
he's immortalized
He's fondly recalled
Back to memory

The great legends of Old.. 
Great Chief Waiyaki wa Hinga..
Aged nine he killed a lion
with his bare hands...
When the imperialist came.. Waiyaki..
Raised a huge...

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nature, storm, boat, clothes, house, water

AWASH AND AWAY! ©  KIMO

Listen, Katrina will come inland
Katrina has come to play
Playgrounds underwater
Sleepy times put asunder
Bedclothes hung out in tree tops, upended
Held fast in forked boughs
Homesteads beached, broken
Swirl...

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As 
it 
was 
that 
in 
my 
pain 
I 
felt 
the 
agony. 
Building 
up 
inside 
me 
like 
a 
Jericho 
wall 
that 
refused 
to 
fall 
was 
my 
misery. 
I 
forgot 
the 
names 
of 
those 
who 
shot 
the...

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Human life deserves a platform to unfold
Away from straitjackets of pious scrutiny
Whose eyes, ears and hands feel so cold
They reject freedom and project a mutiny  

Born from the scorn society pours on freedom
Curtailing every...

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Once I met a little girl
Sweeter than honey could be,
She must have been barely eight
But looked much younger to me.

She asked with a dimpled smile
If a picture I could draw,
Her eyes shone with a strange...

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LONESOME
SOUND 
			
Old man said he could hear that whistle blow a hundred miles 
and they could write a song about that. 
Said he could tell how many cars a train freighted 
just by how sad...

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Passing thru' the farmlands,
my mind begins to roam
for along the way we travel
lie abandoned, country homes.

Weather-beaten, gray and leaning,
often twenty miles from town,
I wonder how they're standing,
why they haven't tumbled down.

Rock foundations old and crumbling,
all...

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Year five of the Great Depression. 

April 14, 1935 another Sunday of church services praying for
The rain that wasn’t coming.

And the sky turned mean and angry, as daylight was obliterated into The blackness of night....

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Hypocrites’ oath

Dirt-cheep  government clinics  treat death
And disease just like they are  dirt and refuse
Which in a way is just about  fine.

Today’s  multi specialities,  housing as they are ,
A subtle...

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Everybody bears a price tag
Claim tycoons with bottomless purses
With a plethora of dollars to flash and flag
About to entice simpletons who deem their lives struck by curses

Inserted in their DNA
Generations ago
Which render them incapable to...

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Fred Seegmiller

 1871 - 1907


You never met a man who loved my town.
As I much as I did.
Coming here in ’90 by the train.
It nearly killed me, but I stayed on my knees.
I prayed and...

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I love when the first blooms of spring begin, crocus in the garden, peaking from the snow; may flowers and troutlily soon begin to show
   The millions of trilliums gloriously painting the undergrowth of our...

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Freezing ,wet and hungry,
In need of food and rest,
The MacDonalds took them in,
And made them all a guest,

The weather here was always harsh,
A storm could last a week,
But the snow had started falling,
Things were really...

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As you blow past me today wind
Travelling across the mountains…..
As you make your silent journey
Whispering to the leaves
I have a message to someone
You to carry along with.

As you travel the distances
Past homesteads and the trees
Then...

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Cutting stones for building blocks doesn't
bring the whole food at the table. Playing
betting games force them to sell their
clothes and shoes. Saving money becomes
harder than collecting drops of rain during
drought.

Their children toil in the farms...

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Ubuntu

P andemonium the polymorph perverse un-reflected paradigm of our time casts

A narchy tumultuous turmoil killing sprees beheadings senseless hatred and results from             ...

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