Long Prevail Poems

I believed that I was rural … that I lived in country style,
where the city was close handy … that big distance was a mile.
Trains and buses ferried daily; a freeway ran close by …
comforts...

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The angles are in the storm
Just before  the break of dawn
Sending a message to everyone
Telling them to remain calm
The angels are singing out loud
They want to break the treacherous cloud
 and relinquish that awful...

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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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(In a Lush Garden Somewhere Out There)

The student stands where shifting sands of thought,
Once firm with reason, now elusive truths are sought.
Its splendor wanes, a threadbare, fading strand,
A quest for wisdom, in this digital land.

Sage:...

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Additional free advice to those* who would be King from the THIRUK-KURAL with Commentary
[*like presidents, prime ministers, dictators of declining (falling or fallen) nations or even empires]

K442: urranOy niikki uraa amai munkaakkum
   ...

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He just appeared to me, like wispily curling 
Chimney smoke, 
One grim and early morning in the very midst of 
Decembers briefest days, on the highest slope,
Toiling through my daily round; where, slowly 
Driving up...

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The Philistine troops gathered up for war,
Between Azekah and Socoh amassed.
Israel encamped near in Elah vale
And drew a line against the number vast.
There Saul, upon one mountain, made a stand,
To face the other tribe across...

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as the PROPHETS of profits, WE lead and WE’re fair
while WE’re living the life of the poor BILLIONAIRE
– silver yachts, pearly castles, cash (plenty to spare) –
with the world on OUR backs... ah! the burdens...

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Introduction: once again I incorporate 
my trademark penchant 
to fabricate fictitiously
portions of the following poetic endeavor
can you care to 
discern fact from fiction?

Attempts at lifelong friendships and holy matrimony...

Shot thru with figuratively cankerous nub,
cuz yours...

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Mary was a virgin girl:
With big dreams and aspirations!
An angel came to visit her:
With honor and salutations!
Troubled by his sayings:
She did not know what to think!
The angel said to Mary:
My dear, no need to shrink!

Mary...

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Continued from
‘CATONITA STRIKES - PART ONE’
A Freezer Mice adventure


When no-one was around they did the finger-clicking thing
And grew to human size in time for what the day might bring
Their guns were charged and ready and...

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At the edge of a wood, in days of summertime,
Lived Hansel and Gretel, once upon a time;
Whose dear father, a poor woodcutter,
Could no longer earn their bread and butter.
Late one night, a conversation overheard--
As from...

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Our lusty voice was in the tramp of narrow, winding,
     Scree-littered, deep-rutted roads;     
 Ravens, uttering guttural croaks, slow-wheeling above      
 ...

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Tasting Africa (One L****ick at a Time) Part 1
(Though the title's a joke, my limericks are not!)

1. Life's Always an Adventure (Morogoro)
Can one's life be that safe when all live in a zoo -
Friend on...

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Synopsis
The lovely Lady Isabeau and her lover, medieval French Knight Etienne escape to flee the lustful advances of wicked Bishop of Aquila causing them to run afoul of him. The evil-bishop places them under a...

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Ugg and Ogg, on a rock they sat.
 The pair were in hiding from the sabred cat.
 They had hunted for a whole week long.
 But, recently it had all gone wrong.

The ladies were waiting...

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Hard driven by the embarrassment,
                              ...

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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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Quietly, the memory of my grandfather manifested itself,
In the colors and shimmers of the Holy Spirit, 
I saw his human face,
The familiar lines, the flesh,
The pair of oceanic eyes, slowly blinking 
Smiling,
Like a heavenly beam
Splashing...

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At first, it wasn't my father's Oldsmobile.
Then, there came a longing for a new identity
with an invasion of one morphing after another.
Next thing I knew, there was 'no' Oldsmobile.
It seems that so many things started...

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I imagine the ecological sciences
as interior formal, and not so formal, systemic voices,
speaking of biological sciences
as exterior systemic function,
biology evolves what ecology resolves,

Ecology refines healthy regenerative biological reasons
for cooperative ecotherapeutic intent,
political practice,
design,
and  economic development
of...

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I got friggin heebie jeebies

Cuz buzzards circle o'er me
eyeing these lovely bones prithee
id est Roy L. T. Canard, Si
hence impossible mission 
to be lovey dove vee.

Vague remembrances of dream  
which recurred with frequency
transfixed by...

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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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If you spill your secrets to the breeze,
Don't blame the wind for laying them to light.
Once said, words are disclosed, even to trees.
And claim peace in the leaves that rustle and fight.
Whispered tales of a...

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In a sense
each person capable of understanding these words
and those who speak diverse languages together
are island nations
splitting in two
by love
or fear
or both.

I have been concerned about the U.S. island of fundamentalist Christians,
formerly part of the...

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