Long Puritanical Poems

Spiritual Mahjong
Your Move Lord

Is there a God?
A benevolent entity.
An eternal presence presiding over me.
A creator, watching and observing.
All knowing.
Is my end determined and conclusive before it begins, before I begin?
If so, then to what purpose...

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Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.

This poem has also been titled "Epitaph for a Child of...

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Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus...

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First they came for the Muslims

after Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was...

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Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good, and never mind the Urn.

A lentil and a bean might...

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On this day 40 years ago in 1978 my mother, Jacqueline Anne Trestrail, left this world after a relatively short battle with cancer - she was 46. Jimmy Carter was President and Annie Hall won...

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Book Three of the THIRUK-KURAL on Un-Authorised (concealed) and Authorised (religion-ordained) LOVE: Cantos 109 THAGAIANANGKURAITHTHAL to 133

(Note: Love between mainly the wedded pair from the standpoint of the fair liana-like “lady” of the pliant bamboo-shoulders,...

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These are poems about Ann Rutledge and her romantic relationship with Abraham Lincoln. 

Winter Thoughts of Ann Rutledge
by Michael R. Burch

Winter was not easy,
nor would the spring return.
I knew you by your absence,
as men are...

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Circa sixty one years ago July 6th, 2001 -
birth of dear beloved wife

We now get along swimmingly
analogous to this bro and his older sis
on the cusp of our gifted silver married years
if her presence absent,...

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Night Labor
by Michael R. Burch

for Rachel Corrie

Tonight we keep the flame alive;
we keep the candle lit.
We burn bright incense in your name
and swear we’ll not forget—
your innocence, your courage,
your commitment—till bleak night
surrenders to irrevocable dawn
and...

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The THIRUK-KURAL on Women who know no bounds : Canto 92 – K913, K919 and K920

(Thiru-Valluvar comes down heavily on women of the « oldest profession in the world » in this Canto 92 consigned...

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FIRST LADY OF HOTITUDE

You walk into a bar, all eyes lock on you,			
The fashions which you flaunt reveal quite a view,		
There’s something special ‘bout the way you move,			
You carry yourself with your own kind of...

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Comin Thro the Rye
by Robert Burns
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
Oh, Jenny's all wet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
 
Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the...

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Youthful temptress, aging oracle,
Nymph-like debacle, Gorgon spectacle,
Retreat from retribution’s precipice,
And a transient victory wrought by avarice,
To listen to a parable
Devoid of the empirical.

Several centuries ago in the land of the Saracen,
You were born to a...

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Part Five

Some couplets apart
         much remains redundant
    even obvious
inapt by way of pointing to fresher vistas
  and those that follow the rarity of...

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no emotionally ecstatic experience compares 
   to the seminal instance 
   whence spermatozoa 
   (from profuse ejaculation) beget

the miraculous propensity 
   to procreate despite the steep odds...

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A vast multitude adorn in dregs purloining, 
Fashionable filth clocked with piety, 
Showmanship on sacred alters, 
Multitude of compromised public orators. 
Fair formalities of professors void of sincerity, 
A subtle subversion of ancient landmark. 
As...

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The Madonna looked less
than amused as she swayed
in time to the steps 
of the six men who carried her
aloft down Hart Street
towards the river
and the waiting fleet.
This was no solemn affair
but a spectacle played out
to...

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According to the dictates of Suzy Berlinsky, 
a Hello Poetry sibilant chargé d'affaires 
female equivalent, sans Grand Poobah
aye surmise she deems my preference 

favoring lower case, especially taking 
a figurative page from thee poetic play
book...

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Chapter 11: The Problem with Lakes

Canoes and larger lakes don’t mix well I’m afraid,
The rough equivalent of a margarita and a toothpick.
On the Mississippi a lake means a dam somewhere,
The scenic route buried now under...

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We look back to our yesterdays and wonder why the times have changed
Values and morals are now decayed and our lives are rearranged
We were the ones who allowed the change when battles should have been...

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Observing the realities of today's society 
While contemplating the legacy we leave our children 
Seeing only degradation of morality 
And destruction of purpose 
As we liberalize a generation 
Making murder of the unseen child
Obsession of...

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When Virgins Emerge

Virgins dwell on celibacy when they emerge
Even though the agenda might stray to setting dynamite
To lighting candles, eating celery, and hanging everything in sight  
Displaying imaginary tiny toys and boys with strings...

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There existed…
A Second to look beyond days and nights,
two of its kind saw years keeping them apart.
Puritanical until the very moment, wasn’t it? 

There existed…
Times when kids played with one another,
no one let them have...

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I was wondering how many renowned gay poets I know— 
Like Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and Arthur Rimbaud? 
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Alice Walker, I am told, 
Both Sylvia Plath and Gertrude Stein were...

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