Long Quays Poems

PART 1:          THE MEETING

Alone one night neath lantern light, I trudged a weary mile.
Forlorn, I went with shoulders bent (the storms around me howled)
until I met...

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Coffee or tea?

Fragmented frogs frolicking fruitlessly freeing flavoursome fairy freckles,
But what of the speckled hound in the bin?
Well he growled,
He snarled,
The sole paw pilot pivoting,
How interesting was it to note though that the frogs although...

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Arthur Rimbaud Translations of Antico (“Ancient” or “Antique”), Rêvé Pour l'hiver (“Winter Dream”), and Dawn



Antico (“Ancient” or “Antique”)
by Arthur Rimbaud
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Graceful son of Pan! Around your brow, crowned with flowers and...

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how the  else you going to progress
if you don't Sherlock Holmes the mirror
look what we've become
men hunting each other
for sport money and babes
an insane ability to believe anything
and that's all there is to it
you...

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Still smarting from stupid scamming fraudsters...
five months ago to the day

Twas the cusp of tooth thousand
twenty three summer solstice,
when yours truly (a fool
and his money went separate ways)
mine cherished nest egg,
I would immediately miss
lesson immediately...

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Glancing down from breathless heights,
Amidst climey sighs,
The looming colossus awakens from slumber
And stretches across Thelwalls linear skies.
The hot engines hissing steam -
Recalled from fond memories long back -
Tumbling like huffing little rain clouds
Down from the...

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A young woman named Meredith
took a cook’s job on a great ship,
raven-haired and dark of eyes,
she stood slender as a whip.

For five years she traveled wide
across the ocean’s of the world,
seeing so many exotic places,
an...

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FLEAS


Alarm clock   shows   Saturday   7 30. Yes, please!
More sleep  - a professional  delight for this catcher of fleas. 
For the  present,   I’m working from...

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Vane glorious and absolutistic,
     though I defiantly,
     cavalierly, and blithely attest
Yukon bet your (laugh-in) sweet bippy
     mine acidic breast

houses anarchic, anti-poetic ballistic,
 ...

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The journey lasted for not more than forty glorious and blessed years
Before your smiles gradually faded as you journeyed to a land far away, 
The hearse swallowed you into its belly, while hearkening not to...

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T'was eighty two wonderful years,
Before you departed to leave me in tears, 
My loneliness hearkens to the fears left by the hearse,
Even the harmattan couldn't dry my streams of tears,
Because I know now you are...

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The mothers of blessings
now, are dead

No honey in the buds
No money in the pockets
No gracefulness in the flying-
glow-worms of full moon night
butterflies of May-days 

The goddesses of blessings
now, are dead

The cacophony of city vehicles are...

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The grandfather clock solemnly struck two.
In the pitchy night, shadows seem to flit about.
I close my red rimmed eyes tight
Yet I can see all around me for sleep eludes me.

I lie on my bed like...

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I saw a homeless man 
Begging on O'connell bridge 
Behind him the dark stagnant waters of the Liffey 
Flowing aimlessly along the quays,
All around him a large crowd of people 
Walking to and fro
And somewhere...

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Come sale with me my suite suite rows,
Wheel flea together in corn rose,
I am your mussel soleful night,
Who byes you flours every knight.

Let’s sing suite melodies til’ horse,
Astride our whether beaten hoarse,
O’ my deerest blew...

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Quarantine divine for spiritual quest
   Quietude with God to silence qualms
        Quitting from stress toward solitude quays
         ...

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QUIET RIVER WAKES


A  river lays still on a hush
Of edges mild in deepened blue;
Until her trail unfurls a change
As if to wake from rare debut.

Beneath the stars first dazzling rays
Old marbles glaze on hillsides...

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Churning listless feeble foaming waves
Pods of Humpback whales splash and dive
Reflecting sunset’s waning rays.
As curly crimson clouds arrive,
Far Edgecombe’s volcanic cone
Shines bright in alpenglow, alone.
Cloudy embers ease into eve,
Flushing Ferrari fires from day
As sun dips...

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VIKINGS

Erik  went east  to Yamal peninsula’s spring  
For Russian hides and terrifying antlers
From the world’s biggest  reindeer herd,
In April  crossing the thawing  Ob River, 
Safe from predators : ...

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On the morrow ships will sail
To roam beyond the hidden veil
And brave the stormy seas to see
If ships holds carry destiny
Yet here we will to seaward keep
The watch that holds our wandering feet
From paths and...

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The moon has a face like the clock in the hall,
She shines on thieves in the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birds asleep in the forks of trees.

The squalling cat and the...

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