Long Overlooked Poems

With my Uyghur poetry translations I am trying to build awareness of the plight of Uyghur poets who are being sent to Chinese "reeducation" concentration camps.

Elegy
by Perhat Tursun
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Asylum seekers, will...

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In a small village in the green valleys of the Peak District, Sarah gave birth to a son, after a decade of trying for a child with her husband, Peter B Perfekt.  It was...

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Prelude to what…..

I see you,  /  you / yes, come into my…… 
laboratory of alchemist mystical languaging.
where arsenic spills into the whirlpool of thought 
and savage syntax shatter like glass on concrete.

Where Titans...

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*** Notice to the residents of Milton Creek ***

Tom serves as mayor. never complaining, so he gets what he requests 
No blood in his steak, apple pie with sweet cream. Aces cooks that meal
to perfection...

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Patience
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

If you refuse to speak, I will fill my heart with your silence and endure it.
I will remain still and wait like the night through its starry vigil
with...

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I saw how martyrs longed for love, and so began the play of my flitting heart
A strange girl had I become, with airs of fickle dream,
My heart an embodiment of wonder to all that dared...

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I don't know how it started

But it's an annual event

But I don't think that an egg hunt

Is the best way to present

The story of our saviour

Chocolate eggs you go and find

I don't think that's the...

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RED

One hundred years ago in Pollockshaws
A man was laid to rest,
From humble beginnings to a martyr
They buried Scotland’s best.

A man who stood for the people
A man unshaken and proud,
Till the imperialist and capitalist murderers
 Connived...

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" We Will Get Our - Hyphen "


                           ...

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“I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Erlenkönig passed from our world nearly fifty years ago.”
     “Fifty years?”  He could see the sadness envelope his face as 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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You see the past in me
I'm alive...I survived the disdainful rainfall
Don't be shy to ask for help
I arrive...undone and I must've lost it all...cuz I get no where in life at all 
Can't help, but...

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Mark 14:62 NIV?
[62]  “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
?Luke 21:31-32 NIV?
[31] Even...

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Race Track Thinking

16… little did I know the initiation began. 16 is hard enough navigating adolescence. Hormone dumping, the anguishing struggle to fit in any way—- relinquishing my individuality, and being true to myself. Unbeknownst,...

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The roof’s the limit, hon, sorry – I can’t change the rules nor can I mask the night with delight that will let you down in the aftermath…
So, stop throwing your two-year-old fits…once again, darkness...

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Awakened and degenerated, I feel I am clashing somewhere 
The clouds appear and then depart, just another face amongst billions  
Millions of colors of the rainbow at one point I thought I was rare...

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Botched and bungled interpersonal opportunities viewed...

tonight October  25th, 2022 
terrifically summarily requoting 

poetic outdated iteration,
I share the following lines
echoing in the valley 
of love and delight.
courtesy 20/20 hindsight
October twenty fifth
two thousand and twenty two
admirable,...

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Lisa and I finally tested covid-free! When we saw our results, we began an impromptu dance that felt like levitation.

Although my covid case seemed much milder, Lisa’s been nothing but supportive. Why just yesterday morning,...

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It's been just over seven months since I fell off the roof
I'd never believed in miracles, but they happen I'm proof
Apart from a limp when walking I was feeling quite well
And that I'd suffered a...

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I.

In the beginning was the Single Stroke Roll—
left-right, left-right, the primordial heartbeat
of existence itself, each alternation a binary choice
between being and non-being, the eternal paradiddle
of consciousness striking against the drumhead of reality.

Listen: the Buzz Roll...

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The bar is tacky and unclean. The lighting early modern neon.
dead insects litter glowing tubes.
I found him in the corner nursing an empty glass.

“Are you recording this?”
“Yes.”
“Good, very good”

“Let’s get started then. Are you a...

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I romanticize the single room without a jurisdiction
If only I could filter through a voice of logic over reaction 
Would it impel my inner child to regress into an illusion?
My mind composes a structure but...

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Catalytic cascade of mirror gleam relish on sleep encrusted eyes,
such sylvan surreal therapy aligned to  dulcet bird lilt,
garnish to the willow weave wayfarer of iridescent poetic inkling,
vernal vivid verse drought a derelict damnation for...

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For the third time Pandora stands before the box
Inlaid with jewels ivory and gold
In her hand is the key – she closely examines
Intrigued by its intricate patterns - so ancient- so old

Her Creator’s mandate she...

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A country of dreams has burst its rainbow at all ragged seams

In a state of affairs illusion of fusion and widespread delusion

The constitution hallucinates as night settles scores of deceit

Bereavement takes its toll in anger...

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