Long Poplars Poems

I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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Take me to the tombstone 
let me touch the gray stone that stands
where life could not
I will put my face to that touchstone of deaf thunder,
What happened  to your breath baby brother,
what happened in...

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Spiritual guides,
of all persuasions,
all religions,
all anti-religions,
with robust economic forecasting contracts,
and those without political capital,

Encourage their deep listeners
to avoid attachment
to positive thoughts
and feelings
and dissociation 
divestment from negatively felt thoughts.

And yet connection,
synchronization,
interdependence,
organic unity,
resilient relationship,
resonance,
harmonic tone,
bullish and mountainous...

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Far from having a nascent thought that envelops my rabid self,
Like inside of an accurate Swiss watch that had been given -
A present to presidents and diplomats from the 70’s era,
Memories in the kaleidoscope of...

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Melted candles atop a resigned dresser
Wilted roses lying atop a white cloud
The flickering of fires and shadows mesh well with your
Batting eyelashes your heavy words and your breathing in rhythm with
the cadences of muted car...

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With canoe and hook of a jawbone
  below a great fish Maui snared,
and his brothers half-crazed behaving
  leapt and gouged in frenzy craving.
From Palliser Bay to Cape Reinga 
 (departing place of the...

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Nero the god! I had a dream. 
There I was at the foot of Mount Olympus.
 Mother was with me as usual. 
As we reached a cross-roads, Agrippina said: 
"Come Nero, here we turn left"...

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How are you, dear Temirzhan? Is the village fine?  
Has your yellow colt grown strong, a true design?  
Your children must have flourished, now grown and bold,  
Once they sat by the...

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" Imagine a place where there is beauty, bliss and plentifulness for all. It is nothing short of utopia. Though we are far from realizing it, isn't it thrilling to imagine a version of the...

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I love trees but I am not an expert…I just know they touch my heart…
Except for some maples, poplars and a few oaks…I can’t tell trees apart.

Because I’m not an expert…but still love the way...

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Seeping through families of oaks,
Surrounded by pines, laurels and all…
Gentle leaves, so alive – yes, they breathe,
Silent like the peace I find here,
Enclosed in their embrace, 
Soft music of dove and robin, praising,
Ever praising with...

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Some Glimpses of childhood Memories

The town where I grew up seems much the same 
Its many features yet retained
Still central fountain that caresses the sky
Its hazy droplets against the winter dregs of sun
Gone, the regiment...

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April is the month Persephone comes back 
from Tartarus, crossing the river of death, Styx, 
with her stillborn child in her breast. The river she crosses with 
her child though flows while carrying the empty...

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Through whispers that furrow the silence, the cursing horn sounds,
Over plains of shadow the dusk of night descends all around.
Hyperion of night glows with embers beneath lids of silver light,
In silence watches over sparse poplars,...

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I carry within me the rhythm of a winding road, a dance of freedom and longing,
how to resign myself to being constrained within the limits of an infinite world,
rows of poplars as pillars sustain the...

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Arrived is now Spring,
The scents of flowers 
scattered in the fields 
Awaken feelings of sleeping children.

Here, the breeze that goes 
Between flowering almonds.

There, weeping of poplars 
Are spreading like white snow.
Far away, along the path,
White...

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8/12/16


It started out with our hands across the lands
For women and man

Later on, changed to wood, and stones
As well as tools made of bones

After a while it was gold
For the lucky, priviledged and old
It stilled...

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From neglect comes deviation, electrifying radiation, like a leaf in the shadow,
Drying stanza so bore-some, a bit much candidly said,
In the Sun thinly it is spread,
As it comes to - an End.
Unpropitious almost as a...

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the streets are scarred for good and we know it
after the hits of untamed hearts
after this abstract damage of cyclic returnings

there's a window in my chest
a sight of iron garden and crystal steam
where colour of...

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The sunlight sparkles across the sky
Whispering joy through my smile
Reflecting wonder inside my heart
Breathing warmth across my soul

The stardust night glimpses my hope
Sparkling and shining – a silent glow
Growing praise through the spirit
Singing with worship...

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An early breath of air fresh by the cusp of a rising sun
up in the sky a gold coin shines bright, tinged in ruby red    
All of life is good when it...

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English version by Liviu Martinescu

- a solo nijuin renku -

waves covered in wind
in our blood the salt of the sea
is seeking the shore

autumn clouds scattered
by viola d'amore

insatiably drinking in
the image of those conches
lurking amongst barren...

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I call for you 
when my stomach hurts
I call for you 
when I cannot swallow

I call for you from ghosted parts of my body
that are disturbed in the performance 
of the smallest acts of mercy

How...

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I feel as if I'm on a boat,
floating on a narrow river,
driven between its banks
by an invisible strong current, 
leading me to God knows where.
On either side tall upright poplars
stand on guard as if I...

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In the temple abandoned by time, in the silent whisper,
Our palms unite, masters of the subtle light,
You watch over with the warmth of spirit when angels dart,
You, the reliquary of divinity, the guiding star when...

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