Long Modesty Poems

Village in the Valley left behind, and then it's a fine find
Mountain in the making...in the dark alleys of my mind

You're a flashlight
In the night
You are a friend 
Till the end
Bite the bullet
You're the village...

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[Now ShallowMan is quite content
receiving FactoidMan’s consent
to quibble and express dissent
as long as keeping covenant
with fingers crossed and belfry bent
when viewing Facts in sealed cement:]

SM
“The Facts you give me circumvent
those ‘truths’ your chuckles supplement;
although they...

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Veronica Franco translations

Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was a Venetian courtesan who wrote literary-quality poetry and prose.

Capitolo 19: A Courtesan's Love Lyric (I) 
by Veronica Franco
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

"I resolved to make a virtue of...

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ON EVIL DOINGS

I blame all of it, the evil doings, on boredom. 
It is a widely unrecognised source of wickedness. 
Unfortunately, it certainly is.
The absence of purpose is not a lack of things to do,...

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 A sense of belonging 
Is amongst your nobility
Peaceably, truly longing
To give praise to You entirely

Take me all the way with your sway of youth
Give me physical poetry, please, beyond the truth
You are more priceless...

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A Simple Pen

                                Ever...

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I am playing with my dollies
And my princess pram all pink
I'm nearly 5
A big girl now
No more nappies
Or plastic pants
I think

I outgrew the potty
When I was only three
My mum says it's because I am brave
Now...

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Speechless because you’ve gone away
I woke up, so out of breath today
Hold me safely in the blissfulness of yesterday
Can you just forgive me for my negative ray?

Cast me away into the sea of hope
I roam...

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https://youtu.be/c1gNm21YzfI


When last I visited India almost a decade ago
I recall riding on my brother's scooter 
as he drove me around town,
And I saw fully veiled Muslim women
half their faces veiled, masked in Niqab 
driving scooters,...

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In April of this year I began preparing a new organic gardening patch,
planning to have it ready for next year's expansion from a too-small garden
in front of my recently acquired Connecticut Cape Cod home.

I have...

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Once upon this time
I was listening to the Christian Fathers
retell traditional stories
of God's election and predestination.

Predestination
is like being born into royalty,
power,
privileges of humane Earth's regenerative grace.

Election is more democratic.
Selection based on God's vote for mercy,
apparently,
because...

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NOTE: This blog entry was erased because it was deemed "inflammatory". So I ask you, the audience: did this blog deserve to be erased? Let us read on as I have included it in my...

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I know this may surprise some of you.
Not all.
It’s not going to surprise my besties.
But for others,
Let me be the bearer of a
Little surprise nugget of
Information.
I am OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE.
Some of my obsessions are:
Have as many...

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Look out lads here we come
Couple of wild girls out for fun
Perfect hair and makeup's fine
Brand new perfume, we smell divine
Skin tight jeans, mini skirts and skimpy knickers
Can't wait for the party its theme is...

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Anyone Can steal; Anyone Can lie;
Anyone Can cheat and then deny.
Anyone Can be resentful and bitter,
Give up easily and be then, a quitter.

Anyone Can allow themselves to hate;
Feed into their ego and perpetuate.
Anyone Can serve...

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On the spur of the moment forecast by eternal script in the stars

The Bard strummed his guitar and sung a ballade from heart’s lute 

Wild horses would not keep him away from her as he...

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Those rarer men I once fondly 
knew...                            ...

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Mein kampf analogous to one long run on unparsed sentence fragment

Heavily punctuated - hyphen
to embellish poetically
with bracing circumspection,
I markedly exclaim (parenthetically)
cumulative elapsed LXIII obits
around the nearest star
dashed by at lightspeed,
and quoting James Thurber
storied fiction titled
My...

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We came walking blind bends at dusk, 
An overhanging fig picked fresh.
No pavements, just a nervous trust 
that drivers would skirt our single line.

Hugging the roadside with torches lit, 
Phones swung glowing to the ground...

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Opening 
Fourth street and the divide meet 
Near the stream where it's waters Impede 
Five metres walk from the wooden bridge 
A little further away from the deserted car park 
Underneath the third tree with...

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"Shopping List"

Sister Kathy's going shopping and she's asked me for my list,
Needing LOTS of help, so I could not her, resist...

I have a Shopping List not too very long,
But the items listed must be sadly...

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Humus me? My vegetated chokes ingest!
(jokes all in jest)

Hard to believe, I orange in a lee
started life as barely visible speck!

Just in the course of healthy growing
season, this former minute nearly
microscopic entity developed into
quite pleasing...

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Written September 2023


                                ...

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V

Indeed, it is so far, far, far back where last I
Stood in sight of all her unnerving ambiguities...          
This overstated manner inborn of an innate
And intimidating...

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appropriate advice from the THIRUK-KURAL to those* who would be King: VALIARITHAL - Understanding the Wielding of Power, K473 and K474
[*like presidents, prime and chief ministers, dictators or even modern-day "emperors" under the guise of...

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