Long Oppressed Poems

This is the second part of Rabindranath Tagore's Narrative poem - Phanki (Deception). The first part has been already posted. 




              ...

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I have been trying to find the right words to pen this verse, but since I came to this country my words are suppressed and my voice is oppressed. The wind is blowing furiously, and...

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Once,
or twice, 
maybe thrice,
surely not
not fractal

A clan of crazy ecofeminists
conspired within an 88 unit residential castle
in their historically converted 
sometimes hysterically clueless condo
colonial-red predative brick 
badly bald aging building

With a sometimes soggy south walled school,
but...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems V - Ber Horvitz, Yitzkhak Viner, Franta Bass

Der Himmel
"The Heavens"
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

These skies
are leaden, heavy, gray...
I long for a pair
of deep blue eyes....

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - VI - Chaim Nachman Bialik, Erich Fried

After My Death
by Chaim Nachman Bialik
translation by Michael R. Burch

Say this when you eulogize me: 
Here was a man—now, poof, he's...

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Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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Compassion co-arises nondually 
internal-external.

Today I want to talk about possibilities
for integral polycultural dynamics,
which are systemic relationships,
correlations,
between LeftBrain deductive ego-mind,
RightBrain inductive eco-body,
and a boundary between these bicameral landscapes,
which we call unconsciousness.

The feasibility
and health value
of recognizing this...

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Living in a war- wrecked, grass thatched hut,                           ...

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I live in America, as in the United States of America, and that used to mean something. At least to me it did. And it’s not so much in how I was raised but in...

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In our wildly indigenous
western town
we have a notorious Ancient GoodWitch.
Like GrandMother Moon,
she seems to emerge with a new, yet old,
community healing process
about once a FullMoon month.

I heard she would like to co-facilitate
a Future HealthWealth Community...

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MICHELANGELO: Modern English Translations

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is considered by many experts to be the greatest artist and sculptor of all time. These are modern English translations of his poems and epigrams by Michael R. Burch.



SONNET:...

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In his essay "Let's Be Reasonable" 
Rev. Todd Eklof [The Gadfly Papers]
reduces reasonable to logical;

This is a common left-brain dominant error,
confusion between deductive premises
and coldly reductive conclusions
calculated assuming cause v effect linear formulas
more than feedback...

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In America June 14th equals flag day
and in Pennsylvania a federal holiday.

"...I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under god...

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If you would like to have your limerick(s) posted, soup mail them to me.

Ms. Rude is still writing her snide remarks
She sounds like a mad dog who barks and barks
Geeze, lady, give it a rest
Your...

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That's queer!
said transculturing Curiosity,
peering out Her sacred big-boxed window
panes of misty white fog
gently covering her view
of upstream tiding River's
mysterious grey
reverse time flow

Sometimes,

OK, really too often,
I could use more courageous exercise

But, Other times
I'm more content, inviting...

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If we were Earth gods and goddesses,
with powers to create anything we prefer
for our healthiest wealth attainment,
would we settle for living in a swamp
created by our own collective lack of mindfulness
about how to play longer-term...

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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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"The way I see it,
we're all related."
said my EcoTherapist.

While DNA and RNA include infinite permutation possibilities,
their primal core functions suggest simple bipolar relationships
between who's inside and what's outside,
and who is dominant so the Other recessed,
perhaps...

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Mehmet Akif Ersoy: Modern English Translations of Turkish Poems

Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (1873-1936) was a Turkish poet, author, writer, academic, member of parliament, and the composer of the Turkish National Anthem.



Snapshot
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation...

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Oppressor and the oppressed.

Who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor?
Who has the right to beat a random person on the street?
Who has the right when to pronounce a person guilty or to see...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

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A shameful act in this world we live today
surely an educated mind can clearly see the truth behind a mask
Ignorance is the hardness of heart manifests in such violence 
The horrors and inhumanity of it...

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STOLEN ILLUMINATION OF THE STAR

This journey has not been a fanciful adventure, 
we're all settlers in  these dynasty of neo-colonialism 
united only by what divides us. Victims, yes 
victims of civilized inducement, 
terms of...

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2017 - year zero

They loaned to the poor, who cannot repay.
They stole from the old, who cannot recover.
They sold our future, for better or worse
and made our children pay.
They schooled arithmetic to be feared.
They tutored...

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Some of us,
admittedly too few
in my detached opinion,
still search for Beauty in metrics
and for Truth in arts
and integrity in secular humanity 
with and for sacred divinity 
studies.

Probably few LeftBrain dominant Egos
ever thought to bother RightWing...

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