Long Magnifying Poems

The Story
by Kamal Nasser
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I will tell you a story ...
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story...

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Everyone has the freedom of choice 
Everyone has an expressiveness to save their own voice
Who are you who am I to judge this choice 
You don't know me
You don't know me
 I may have ...

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Act 3. A dark, empty stage.

Marat
(standing up)

My eyes went blank. That's how it goes when
you have been doubly knocked flat on your back
in half an hour. He went, he went,
he went, he went, he went,...

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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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2016

Less than 24 hours,
2016 will take over and 2015 will be broken towers
It will be remembrance in a photo shoot album
Reminders of ups and downs in the past, present and future...making us feel numb and...

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weird as it sounds when my thoughts wield their all mighty hold

cast inflictions twist meaning and imply the truth of whats told


I resorted to reason which seems to be a contradiction of terms

of engagement with...

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‘Fragments and crumbs of life, all the little pieces’
                          ...

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Love is alive, a fire inside
Burning away every fear, each doubt
With kindness and hope, light
From the heart who believes and sees
Jesus in every color, each dream
Across all the mountains and even in the sea

Love is...

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When I was a ginger eight
my many cousins and I liked to play
King On The Mountain,
or at least the older and stronger
enjoyed being on top of a grassy mound
as lesser beings formed military alliances
further magnifying...

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The coin has two sides on it, and if you have time you must examine all the details on it, the unique strokes around the circumference will lead you towards the spell bound heavens, the...

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Many times, I stared at it from my bedroom. Every time I looked at it, it sent chills down my spine, and it rose the hairs on my skin. I fear it, I've always feared...

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How many?
how many lives;
how many have fallen 
beneath 
your magical spell? 

If it may be so, 
let each star be named 
You.
 
For your beauty transpires 
our words 
into all shine and sheen cast out
from...

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I don’t deserve
This kind of punch to my pride
You used your best left hook, uppercut and jab to my ego
Here desperately griping the corner of the ring
Unable to believe the idea
That he ever felt that...

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Slowly with unstable steps, she approaches.
The room is dank a foreboding intensity permits the air.
She is shaking as the memories wrap their inky hands around her throat.
The terror starts to build as the anguish she'd...

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Listen hear me out
Had to go in His presence of the throne
Not alone 
Surrounded by majestically
Spiritual trombones
Blowing announcing here she comes
Aisle ready thy Kingdom come
Jubilee ceremonial fun
Keep pushing understanding to some
Seasons change like doubled down...

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Every now and then,
I go on what I call a, "wilderness survival excursion."
Basically I venture deep into some remote wilderness region,
with little more than the clothes that I'm wearing,
and survive on whatever Nature may be...

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As Your called teachers*, Lord, we thank You with joyful praises
Which You surely deserve along what Your Deity enforces 
Keep us jubilantly awed by Your amazing, miraculous graces
While singing to You through our hymn-spirited voices
And...

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Life, 
Filled with complexities & complications 
Wider than the broadest imagination 
Narrower than the thinnest reality 
Sweet-sour 
Beautiful-"ugly" 
Tall-short 
Poor-rich 
Slim-fat 
Bitter-sweet........................ 
The unimaginable, unpredictable & unexpected are all in it 

Sometimes imagined & taught...

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If I was to take a word, say focus,
Stand it on its head,
And ask with growing sense of dread,
Why my friend did you just now,
Fly upon this particular 
Moment’s verbal locus?
Torture I might answer, like...

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I walked outside in the scorching heat moving papers and turning over pages just looking for that one line that goes back to the middle ages. The search was long, the documents were strong and...

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For His blessings for the past, I praise God with all my heart
Trusting Him that this year, His goodness for me will never depart...
Thus, I believe that He will grant each of my desire
And everything...

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In Memoriam Quietly Always Close

Are they whispers, then, settling
So gently upon that slightest breeze wending
     Over the granite crosses and statues of cradling angels,
     Which stand in...

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I arrived clothed in sheer veil
from whence I came I soon forgot
It’s a girl… they cheered!
I was surrounded by smiling faces of loved ones
waiting to unteach all I already knew.

My eyes opened to beauty
and my...

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I walked down the stage with moisture in my faces and a subtle smile on which everyone could rely. I held on to the uncompromising truth that could not be denied from my youth. ...

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"The Forgotten Poets"



Saints and Sinners
all calling out for 
forgiveness 
and wanton recognition

de Sade like minds
libertine and revolutionary
Saints living out their penance 
kiss the sharp lips of Sinners

Juxtapositions of souls
Sinners become divine
Saints become unhinged 
more human,...

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