Long Nail Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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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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Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has...

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Medieval Poem V

A Proverb from Winfred's Time
anonymous Old English poem, circa 757-786
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
The procrastinator puts off purpose,
never initiates anything marvelous,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

2.
The late-deed-doer delays glory-striving,
never indulges daring dreams,
never succeeds,...

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Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are many new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved...

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So many people and the various sores
Intoxicated in such a way my eyes,
That wanted open to crying their doors.

But Virgil told : “What for you look this guise?
Why now your sight is so carefully brought
Down...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

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Legacy accompanied with inadequacy DESPAIR RING
uninvited GUESTS linkedin as the themes of mein kampf.

Despite countless factorial permutations
& combinations, this cyber surfer
avails left and right alm
seeking succor Out Of Human Bondage
invisibles shackles bind head,
shoulders, knees and...

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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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I don't know what came over me that day - an instant of weakness after years of resistance, I suppose.

My beaming spouse leads me, a dog on a short leash, into the forbidden citadel, the...

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Glory to thermodynamics in general...

and generation of heat in particular
cuz yours truly 
spoiled with trappings 
of Western Civilization.

How ideal I imagine 
to dwell in a self sufficient domicile,
where thrum of the central heater...
automatically activated 
upon...

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Now we along one of hard rims are brought;
And a thin spray on the  brook is fixed, 
So shield to rims and water is begot.

As Flemings, Cadsand and Bruges bewixt,
Fearing the high waves pouncing...

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anxiety, intense -
but I am not frightened ...
my heart races ... I want to flee
my blood heats and lies to
my senses ...
'get out! go now! dear gawd, fool, run!!'
for you are formidable -
eighty inches tall,...

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Hard driven by the embarrassment,
                              ...

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I once spent a week in the drunk tank
couldn't handle the spirits that I drank
the cuisine wasn't half bad
we even had a few laughs
but I had to guard my butt with a shank


……………………………………………………………………….


It used to...

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The half elf watched as Lumi spoke with Chroí; then, in the center of the circle the soil began to move and from it appeared the Garden Elf.  He said nothing, he never spoke....

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 2

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

The batter's foul ball killed a fowl that later caused a foul odor.
After painting the room red, he then redd it up and read...

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Officer Gwendolyn Becker - a “newbie” - at Newark P. D. down in 'Joizey', was combin’ the streets for a couple o’ thieves who’d been holdin’ up stations and stores...
When - back in an alley...

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   ...while true feminists say that they are feminists because they care for the well-being of women, the modern feminist group, True/Active Feminism does exactly the opposite. They use the form of "dis-pair"...

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DISCLAIMER : THIS IS AN ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE 
IN ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE IN FRANCE WHICH TOOK PLACE
ON JUNE 1OTH  1944
TO MY READERS , " SOME LINES IN THIS POEM ARE GRAPHIC , AND
SOME MAY FIND...

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Hear my poem announce, then refine and restate
its life lesson suggestion Surrender YOUR Fear!
Yes, Surrender Your FEAR, watch stick rafters release
(note: I’m ‘Missing, Roof’ too, and I still love my life)
see life’s cobbled roofs fly,...

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Please Michelle Obama...
can you save American democracy?

I highly hugely grant 
Barack Hussein belated kudos
what with his wizardesses 
in tow wrought wonders 
to one nation analogous 
while an under dog
sweeping in like... 
It's a Bird... It's...

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They say I write magic 
like I was granted a wish from the genie in Aladdin
An stole Kazaam boom box an secret patent Latin verses from canibus
While using cannibus as incense listening to BOB Marley...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife

I mull mortality 
thru lens crafted occipital orbs
regarding a better future
experience sing a space oddity – 
whar incessant yaks
exuding a big hurt
emanate as cosmic atomic 
bipedal hominids replete roof lee wax
during a...

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It is love, not loss, we expect,
we long for and belong with,
we seek within
a cooperative economic network
rather than a competitive gain-over-loss
capital-rooted value system.

Love evolves more resonantly
and robustly
than fear
and hatred
and apathy
and dispassion,
yet we have planted our...

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