Long Maxims Poems

Borrowing from David Holmgren, Permaculture Principles and Pathways Beyond [Win-Elite v Lose-NonElite] Sustainability, 2002, p. 1

Health ethics are Beloved Community normative principles
used to guide action toward good and light and right outcomes
and away from degeneratively...

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K373 and K374 of the THIRUKKURAL: Translated with Commentary

The poet's name, THIRUVALLUVAR [Thiru = Sacred and Valluvar = the name of the priesthood caste of the « Pariah » (whom Mahatma Gandhi prefered to call...

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Niithaar Perumai, the Fundamental Role of Ascetics, Canto 26 of the Thirukkural, the Tamil Classical Treatise on Ethics, Translation and Commentary by T. Wignesan 


[Given the scarcity of information (mostly conflicting even then) on the...

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K169 and K170 of CANTO XVII of the THIRUK-KURAL with Translations and Commentary

[If one could put together all that has been said, written and published on the Thiruk-Kural and on its progenitor Thiru-Valluvar, it could...

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Book Three of the THIRUK-KURAL on Un-Authorised (concealed) and Authorised (religion-ordained) LOVE: Cantos 109 THAGAIANANGKURAITHTHAL to 133

(Note: Love between mainly the wedded pair from the standpoint of the fair liana-like “lady” of the pliant bamboo-shoulders,...

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THIRUKKURAL: Translation of Canto XXXVIII with notes and commentary

Canto XXXVIII of the Thirukkural on the topic of FATE which I give here in translation (by stages) forms, in itself, a separate "book" in its own...

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These are English translations/modernizations of Medieval poems written in Old English and Middle English.

Exeter Book Gnomic Verses or Maxims
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The dragon dwells under the dolmen,
wizened-wise, hoarding his treasure;
the fishes bring forth...

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But breakfast’s subject beckons: 
the booster affair effect in Tumblr-
land? The digital map surveillance
co-sponsor the soccer mom sauce
minivan project, relay & speech 
to cell battery fiasco. Batteries 
have lives too, reads the cloud script.
FML maxims...

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There are some who say that marriage is old-school and out of style…
Yet single-parent families still devastate the child.

Some claim that the old writers are problematic, their works should burn…
But human nature doesn’t change and...

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Habit is Heaven's tame redress:
it tugs down the skirts of Happiness.
—Alexander Pushkin, translation by Michael R. Burch

Till, conquered by gusts of cold air,
as Winter approaches, I find,
on a branch that is otherwise bare,
trembling, a leaf...

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KING ALFRED THE GREAT MODERN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

King Alfred the Great (circa 849-899) was the first English king to be a notable scholar, poet and translator. Alfred has been credited with translating Latin works of Boethius...

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Maxims for eyes, a cast of racing clouds, and a sky
What else could be wrapped in lexical display?
Climate crises, inflation, and dire behest worry me
Pale-blue slicing of an idle cul-de-sac and apathy

Seldom do I feel...

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Written: September 18, 2023
Unwritten Absence Poetry Contest              Sponsored by: Ink Empress
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In the absence of ink—in a nexus of poetic dreams,
Anathematized by disconsolate...

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I hear their idle chatter and wish that sound was optional.
A box checked in a menu, a simple click and forget.

The rapid dilation of my pupils brings me back.
Back to hypnotic aisles of temptation and...

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Man cannot be woman,
woman cannot be man,
if man thinks he is woman,
he is already damned.

We all have opinions,
estimations and thoughts,
but if God says otherwise,
our feelings matter naught.

Trying to live by feeling
is a failing of youth,
the...

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My soul's eyes look upon the past,
and see hers meet mine for the first time;
I watch as our love's die is cast,
as the bells signaling our fates chime.

I watch as the fires within us ignite,
as...

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I wrote a great book, part memoir, part novel
Shopped it around, I ain’t too proud to grovel
Got kicked upstairs to a big publishing head
He invited me in, and here's what was said:

This screed you call...

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Sophia's ABC Masquerade Ball

A masquerade ball of wisdom’s wisdom in a wink and a smile
Blessings in disguise –uncovered - not hidden in plain sight
Costume ball for aha moments comfortable in their own skin
Dancing discernments so...

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Through dreams in purple and infinity, where ceaseless yearning throbs,
A voracious dance of constellations, through my veins relentlessly flows,
It's an ode of bodies, igniting with touches, in boundless love aglow,
And each whispering of fingers murmurs...

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Immanuel Kant, changed the spelling of his name from Emmanuel to "Immanuel" to accord with its Hebrew meaning: "God is with us." So, this quintessential Enlightenment thinker  - and Thomas Jefferson a little after...

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They approached me in an inconspicuous way
as quaint & confusing disillusionments do,
saying, " Hello,    you're the best - "
I replied reluctantly,
" Thats why I weep every night - " ,
crying like a...

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Are we going to be pruned now like limbs left exposed naked to the elements?*

He is just a simple man
born and raised in middle America,
loves God, country, family and apple pie,
but raising his voice in...

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                                  ...

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Apollo, 
God of prophecy, music and eloquence
Had advised Man two things he had to do
In order the truth of things to discover
And as a result to see the world anew:

"Know Thyself" and " Nothing in...

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In a cold bleak field, a soldier lay dying.
There were others around him, Who also were crying, -
The medics had already tried to gain ground,
But the incessant chatter of maxims and mausers,
That chewed up the...

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