Long Plaint Poems

Translation of Oothukkadu Venkata Subba Iyer (circa 1700-1765)’s « THAYE YASHODA » by T. Wignesan


This devotional song and poem in Tamil (the principal Dravidian language which has spawned over twenty languages in the southern Indian...

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Judge Daniele Saggio

This year of our salvation, sixteen twelve.
Now.  Gentileschi? Don Orazio?
This suit is yours.  You’d press it?  Drop it?  Shelve

it?  Very good.  And you are Tazzio?
Beg pardon, Tassi....

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A Daniel, Come to Judgment!

Before I give my judgment in this case,
my custom is to have the plaintiff read
aloud, before the other party, face to face

the statute law that’s pertinent.  The screed,
Miss Gentileschi, starts...

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So slick and sexy.  Purred past Temple Bar.
That throaty engine advertising punch.
All legal London, strolling out for lunch,
with turning heads declared, “Now that’s a car!”

So many barristers are – if not losers, 
low earners...

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Nature, Friend and Foe

Speak out the words to the soft petaled plants, 
that grow wearily in the distant corners
It is there that the scrub jay alights,
squawking and gorging on berries.
This habitat has brought the wildlife...

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Penuriousness long did acquaint
yours truly, who feels loath
to lodge complaint
regarding series of unfortunate events
(Lemony Snicket be damned)
imposed monetary constraint,

now aghast with horror
(ain't no trick),
I unwittingly did faint,
only negative indebted interest accrues,
now if ever mister money...

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Africa, can rise.
But that is only if we are ready to fight.
And to end our plight,
Our weakness should come to light. 
But Africans think is normal?
That our children under five should be dying of malaria.
But...

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To think what we have done to this plaint
And now it is fast starting to lose it's worth
But we have been warned by mother earth
Just look at the mess we have made of it

At one...

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Your voice was born from twilight's
Breast.
Your name stole the mystery
Of the night.
Ambrosial hand of gold
Bowled along the white
Surf
To glorify the lost souls
Of a time
Winding off with each chord,
the locked secrets of the world.
Orpheus!
You are the...

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   Acquainted ! Attracted ! I adore you, Hello Miss !
   Beautiful  bud of love bloomed in bliss.

   Cheered ! Charmed ! Caring craving on your charisma.
 ...

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Oh! To possess the freedom of an eagle able to soar!
'Twas the plaint of ancients, their gods to implore!
To cast aside the shackles binding man to his sphere,
And wing skyward, to space, that final frontier!

On...

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Hear across my native soil,
The calling, 
Echoes ancient voices,
Raised in prayers ritual.
A forgotten people, leaving,
Their mark upon histories
Legacy.
Mysteries great questioning,
Lain outward for generations,
To wonder why?
Beneath the heavens vastness,
Behold gray monoliths reaching,
Upward.
In the circle of life...

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Small Wonders

I count the things…that still work right
While on my morning stroll
My eyes still see the morning light…
(Tho as seen from a deep dark hole)

My knees this morn are trying hard to please
Flexing without a...

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Blue diaphane, tobacco smoke
 Serpentine on wet film and wood glaze,
 Mutes chrome, wreathes velvet drapes, 
Dims the cave of mirrors. 
Ghost fingers
 Comb seaweed hair, stroke acquamarine veins
 Of marooned mariners, captives 
Of Circe's...

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All gods, each god-man and god-woman, have preached love on earth.
But who, except Jesus, has taught love for the enemy?
Do good to those who do good—this we've learned from our birth.
Love, He said, and do...

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UNSUPPORTED CODE 
`Shuttered windows

The absence of any corporeal presence 
Is counterbalanced by the ethereal essence
Of the Human Spirits still in residence
In forlorn foyers and empty rooms

Vacant eyes peer in unspoken plaint
through dust hazed windows...
seeking the...

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In her solo
Angel
Divine lyric
Rhyme
I met
In ascent magical thy space
Where no scarcity
In love
Where
You paint
Dreams
You pick real
Where in plaint
You plant
Roses
From words
Pouring
Deep of heart
Healer of my soul
There is
A silent sigh
Lass shed tears
Lost and faded
In her faint
As she lost...

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For loves attestation had brought them to grief
in all but their filament of hope
lay in the witness ruined
until burden be undone
and from their promises, released

Retire silent and plaint of regret
no longer decry, no longer defend
no...

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IT'S WORTH IT ALL
He carves and sands where I am rough
And smooths those corners down
And “ouch” it often hurts, I say
As His tools go all around
And yet I know that when He's through
No more a...

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Dried sand eclipsed over the Season’s fall, 
sullen rhyme sings singer-birds over scale,
the storm-dance sprays dust against broken wall,
To the hat-worn folks, sorrowed, narrates tale;
Done seasonal harvest with plaint-dried tears,
With diseased cattle shrunken skin to...

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The wont of sleeps will may trip on illusive tonight 

and stumble on a rhythm 

laying plaint and wet in some other dream 


Sleep may gnaw at my pillow tonight 

as the drug of you...

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From silken mists scarred stones give tongue
To canticles raised to twilit drear,
Of frolicked hours when seasons were young,
And Promise chastised every fear.
Once brightly smiled upon our days
The kindly sun of Life's beauteous womb,
The reaching hearts,...

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The little girl on maintain peak 
She can not speak 
And left heart broken
Word unspoken 
Turn her into crazy 
Everything became so lazy 
Sitting at a stone 
On lonely maintain alone
Her life crumble 
How she...

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