Long Lay out Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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We need to talk.

Is this one of those times
where you need to talk
and I must pretend to listen
while you rant?

Well, yes,
if you could extend this favor.

Your topic?

Social Darwinism.

Isn't that the birthplace of unfettered Capitalism
and Fascism
and...

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Over the next two evenings after the Council had recessed, Seileach visited each of the Councilman who had voted to release Dyndoeth in an effort to assess their feelings about whether they were inclined to...

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“We have never heard the devil's side of the story, God wrote all the book.” 
Anatole France

"I heard you wanted to see me Boss?", Lucifer asked.

"I can always see you Lucifer", replied God. "No, I...

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Villanelle: No man can on his own escape written fate

         For Thiru-Valluvar, the “nameless” author of 
the THIRUK-KURAL

Note: In my previous posts, especially on Canto 38, I...

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Additional free advice to those* who would be King from the THIRUK-KURAL with Commentary
[*like presidents, prime ministers, dictators of declining (falling or fallen) nations or even empires]

K442: urranOy niikki uraa amai munkaakkum
   ...

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"The one thing that eludes me is if the throne is the one in the Council Chamber there are no windows for which the sun to shine through.”
     “I agree with...

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With the Trolls passed out on the grass...the regrettable task
    now fell to the brave Talkalot.
He moved to the gate and taking a sip from his flask...
    he stared...

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You must be laughing your head off at me thinking I'm so stupid that I don't know what is really going on, sorry to bust your little bubble but I know what is exactly going...

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By 9:00PM I was ready to go.  Dark pants, shirt, shoes, and watch cap.  The classic night on the town combo setup for a not so hip killer.   But these days...

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A Coffee Merchant was the first man to find,
The corpse as he started off on his daily grind!
What he saw filtered through, so he had grounds
To send for the Police, to investigate what he'd found!

He’d...

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IS THIS...?             Poem 8/17/

Written for Jim Eslinger , 37-year anniversary

What are these specks we must trudge over, 
Transplanting ourselves from one wilderness to
Another?...

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We enter through the glassed-in porch
And I feel even more at ease, 
Remembering that as a child
My own room once had been a porch
But there are even more windows here
With glass on all three sides.
Old...

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As a child, I was taught that God created everything
But when I went to school,
the theory of evolution was the accepted doctrine

That kinda teaching didn't sit well with my parents,
they gathered the kids around, read...

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It’s the way the back of your hand touches mine and we instinctively entwine our fingers..

It’s the way you find new can of shaving cream when you are almost out of your old one without...

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Stepping out, tired and weary, feeling just so
What the hell..... I have no place to go
The desire to turn back would be bad
I’d be returning to the same life style I had. 

For me, my...

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~ (~) Oh of You Lord royalty heavens light lies down beside you, peace, consumes... and still 
I do not know as of yet the truest brilliance, purest of reasoning yes perfect majesty, always 
looking...

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Mayan Poetry Translations

The Receiving of the Flower
excerpt from an ancient Mayan love poem
translation by Michael R. Burch

Let us sing overflowing with joy
as we observe the Receiving of the Flower.
The lovely maidens beam;
their hearts leap in...

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I let me offer you some advice for you. 

Do the things we didn't. 

Take her to the carnival, where you two will ride everything together. Where you'll kiss atop the ferris wheel. Where she'll...

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Emotional conviction from a minds depiction
Lays out mind restriction 
But will only bring friction
I can try to explain my explanation
With the utmost diction
Elaborating the reasons for stitching a heart that needs fixing
The slightest concern never...

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The huge sky overseeing the emerald and bluish earth...
wouldn't be the only sky in our incredibly diverse Universe,
if limited sight weren't the obstacle to the awesome images that surprise couldn't conceal;
but many more galaxies hiding...

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I used to always say,
I would never ever,
Be backslidden some day.

I used to always say,
That would never be me, 
No how, no way.

I used to always say, 
I refuse to give up, 
That I was...

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When Robert was a small child
he watched those brave cowboys
riding across the TV screen,
their exploits he enjoyed.
The horses, guns, and shinny stars,
the ever stylin’ hat…
It all spoke to Bob way deep down,
he wanted to try...

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It's there I dream of you but I am awake. 
Why do you think they call it daydream when it is night 
to which I am now having these thoughts? 
The day has pass as...

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