Long Occupants Poems

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

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My love is light (a fairy kiss?)          
               Like the pressure of...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 4 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

A water cannon screeched around the corner on two wheels
Four and twenty Terror Bugs were nipping at its heels
Their acid blistered paint work but it...

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Imitation! Creative Compliment, Lacking in Originality, or Plagiarism? 

This week takes me back to college days. I was taking a graduate course (as a Physics major)   in 'Modern Poets' at the University of...

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Unquotable quotes: The Janitor, Gardienne, Landlady, Housekeeper, Portero, the Sereno and the Hausgast – XXXI  Part One

Be they so named or not in these here parts, visions of shrieking furies with Gorgon heads and...

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Date:  April  2051
End of the first week of April 
late morning.

The Hakim Family was preparing 
For a quick exit. Desharah DJ 
Sashi Amadeus Amani and Jordan 
And Justin were in Desharah and
Sedanah's room...

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Dear global leaders - keep on rockin' in the free world
after implementing long overdue criminal justice reforms,
especially affecting marginalized groups of people.

I vote for more lenient, progressive and tolerant treatment
towards undocumented immigrants, plus implementing
a humane...

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It's styles of a nameless brand pristine day
an exclusive star-sheathed shadow after 
overwhelming luminous glare fainted
a somewhat true-to-life footpath in
a back of structured quaintness

Encountering myself at a passionate spring
oozing its life gliding o'er its rocky...

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The table is old and worn
nicks and scratches 
its red plastic tablecloth left over from a forgotten Christmas
its holiday pattern worn and forlorn
many a Thanksgiving dinner was hosted
the plump turkey as dry as yesterday

many wars...

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Reflections upon mine gender identity redux

Although heterosexual 
predilections punctuated
physiological pulsations 
about five inches below
innie belly button of mine 
showcasing undersize
male member, when fully erect 
not much to crow
about, contributed 
diminished masculinity within
body electric regarding 

wordsmith...

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There came a time in the history of Nigeria when she dreamed for independence,
There came a moment in the history of Nigeria when she groaned to gain freedom from the British;
There came a season in...

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The room is an object in its entirety.
Singular in form and mind,
and multiple in purpose and pleasure.
It is a secret capsule.
Though it was once adorned with bright reds and greens and plated golds
that climbed up...

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In case you don’t remember them they came from outer space
They were to be the first beginnings of the human race
But when they crashed they came down in a stark and frigid place
Antarctic ice interred...

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Let fortitude confront the raging beast
for wolfen corps from Hell have entered in. 
They surge in packs, savagely unleashed,
to mutilate the innocence within.
Let ev’ry child and mother of its name
be fodder for this apathetic rage.
Let...

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TIME WILL TELL

A modest planet and quietly progressing
Troubling no other and fealty confessing
 Surviving well enough and paying its dues;
 Quiet corner of the galaxy. No foreseen surprise to bemuse

The ruling committee were in contented...

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July first 2023 will celebrate...
our sixth anniversary at Highland Manor Apartments
	
Subtitled: The perspective of one festive folky fellow
friendliness ofttimes prompts me 
when crossing paths with another to say “hello,”
whose demeanor trends toward being mellow
courtesy about...

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Where have all the John's gone ?
they all been murdered by the ones
Who have the right to bear arms
It was 1963 and I was walking home from school going home for lunch
While in Texas something...

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As a resident of Schwenksville Boro for five plus years...

Intersection upon adventitious
encounter, when first seed of genocide planted
unsuspecting subsequent rapid usurpation
quickly eradicated rightful breed
of what coalesced into thee Americas. 

I experience stir of echoes haunting
Perkiomen...

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I kept drifting, drifting, drifting, I wasn’t sure where I was going but I kept drifting. The winds set in my back spinning around my new frock and I kept drifting.

 I kept focusing ahead...

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Shattered dreams of New Canaan

no longer land of the free home of the brave,
original rightful occupants hoodwinked, petrified,
where diseases xeroxed
ambushed, crushed, extinguished,
squashed, trashed, wampashed,
the entire kit and kaboodle zapped
violent unwelcome intruders
celebrated acquisition or outright
annexation of...

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Interview With a Rock   
I was conceived in the warm haven of a mother’s womb.  Developing, growing, morphing through the epochs of time.  Then, on no day in particular, I emerged...

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This nonestablishmentarian (Iman) kant riff!
Otherwise titled as: Thanksgiving
nothing more'n gobbledygook 
we stuff ourselves with.

Mine suburban outpost 
approximately thirty seven plus miles
southeast of where liberty bell marks
history upon cobblestone streets 
where sounds of silence 
from walking...

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ISLAND HOPPING
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS


My first day of community service at Glen Oaks
Assigned to spend time with a few elderly folks
Spotted an old gentleman staring out into space
Weathered beaten hands and a sun etched face
How are...

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Ill suited for madcap twenty first century world

One garden variety generic male - the
very writer of these words feels akin
to an anachronism, whereby his being
alive at this juncture within the space/
time continuum (July 29th, 2022...

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after dark April 26th, 2022

Prometheus bound out the heavens
to strike fear in the hearts of men and women
reminding us mortals how like oxen yoked
(together via a wooden beam forced
to undergo strenuous labor)
unlike most elderly residents...

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