Long Insists Poems

Pagans Protest the Intolerance of Christianity
by Michael R. Burch

“We have a common sky.” — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

We had a common sky
before the Christians came.

We thought there might be gods
but did not know their names.

The common...

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Chinese Poets: English Translations II

These are modern English translations of poems by the Chinese poets Tzu Yeh, Lin Huiyin, Xu Zhimo and Huang E. These are poems about love, passion and beauty. 


Tzu Yeh (circa...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
And sadly...i start to drive.
Through the unremarkable village with its tall 
Georgian Bay window panes, lightless,
devoid of visages; outwardly staring back at my 
Abject countenance with detached contempt and...

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(Somewhere in late 18th-century Europe a friend, Laetitia, by way of a letter warns her beloved girlfriend, Euphoria--a young, gay and unsuspecting mistress--against the almost inevitable seductions of the infamous and maundering philanderer, Melancholia.).



Dear Euphoria,

...

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Was the place where we climbing down the bank
Then arrived, alpine and, for what was there
Such as, that any eyesight would be shrank.

Similar to landslide that in side bare
Before Trento the Adige just smote,
Or for...

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‘She’s on again - the annual campin’ trip regatta,
and we’ve got ourselves together for our plans to Wonnangatta. 
The high country; you can’t beat it for the peace and quiet
unless of course some plans get...

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alarm goes off*
I sit straight up startled and scared
Just my alarm, I hit the button
Get up and go to the bathroom
I brush my teeth with my toothbrush
Scratchy, painful bristles
Toothpaste that makes me sick
With the strong...

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Here, I am...
Retired,
Happy,
Sitting on the relaxing throne of my age,
Reminiscing what I went through in life.
A mere spectator I have now become,
Observing in silence the works of men,
Having no worries
Of carrier advancement,
Of acceptance,
Of recognition...

My only...

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I'm off on the beaten path
with Little Rosey in my grasp

There's palm fronds like a giant clock,
twenty hands instead of two
And there's the honeysuckle bush
that suddenly broke through
the gap in my neighbor's greenhouse

"Bonnie!" she insists
"Bonnie...

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Suddenly, two Indian boys throw themselves into the water like meteors
swiming towards camp chatty as prarie dogs,
they hail from a Teton encampment of 74 lodges a few miles up river
most of the men are feeling...

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Spring: Beginning, the practice run, 
      Hello, hallowed ..., Aubade;
Cringe reflections and spare the fun,
     hues, tints, oh yes, and shade,   
  ...

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Detrimental, this situation...so detrimental
Why, why do I even persist; why do I even bother to contend
to be a contender, the defender in this pointless game
Am I the pretender, pretending nothing affects me
like a contagious infectious...

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Are My Words So Foreign Or Obtuse 
That You May Not, Within Them, See Truth? 
That We Live Together Within, 
While Without We Share, What May One Day, 
Become A Common View; 
A Mutual Love...

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I look across the lounge room floor and silently I brood.
Looking back is something smug that’s caused a family feud.
It licks its paws; it grins at me, and knows it is protected,
and every wish it...

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Life is sacred and not a sport, but                           ...

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Unquotable quotes: Leftists – XVIII

(Note: What goes for the Left can go for the Right, too. All you need to do is to interpose the words wherever possible. Don’t read ideological warfare where there is...

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AntiPoem 4
“Santo and Johnny”

(Poet’s instruction- Play “Sleepwalk” twice by Santo and Johnny while reading)

Santo and Johnny play Sleepwalk on Fender steel and bass
Just oozing out their mellow electric dream sound as the
Santa Monica Pier exudes...

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I’m Patient with Kimmy (1), Have Patience for Paul (2)

Our political differences ring in my ear
with fake “Fire!” calls in theaters marketing fear!
‘Right’ won’t honor opinions of others, hate facts,
they are traumatized truants, Trump’s turncoats’...

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Yang insists on consistent deductively reasoned,
exegetically Orthodox Business As Usual,
truth of logical proof,

while Yin invites every bit of information
into not win/lose inconsistent
inductively-heuristically resonant
eisegetically polycultural-multisystemic win/win orthopraxis
proportionally rhythmed and symmetrically syntaxed
beautiful trust of ecotherapeutic nutritional discernment
of...

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My classmates
Theresa Trot had a snot
Hanging from her nose
She sniffs and snorts and swallows
But Theresa never blows.

Now it’s run down past her lips
And settled on her chin
Her teeth look really shiny
When Theresa starts to grin.

She...

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I was listening to The Naked Apprentice,
carefully,
cautiously sifting for any substance
behind mindlessly reactionary mulish gruel,
universally bullying
yet morally thin as frozen rain 
on transparent windshield.

He has the mechanical aptitude,
systematic rectitude,
academic attitude
of a tired,
hungry,
and pissed off mule.

I...

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Story of a Condemned Criminal

In a secluded investigatory chamber
a veteran detective is conducting an examination 
on a suspect who insists he did not commit the crime.

The investigator must commit the suspect for trial
because he arrested...

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Translated: Si la vie demande ça by Laura and Chris Mayne by T. Wignesan.

If Life would not wish it otherwise
 
[Note: The two sister French Caribbean-Martinique Black “Blues” Swan : Laura and Chris MAYNE (lyrics...

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The vision of his apocalyptic age 
And the rise of the terrible Queen of Stone
Imprinted a harping chord upon my mind

I stood at the balcony,
Overlooking the depthless, darkening maelstrom
I stood weakly,
As if by accursed flesh...

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