Long Quests Poems

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

Read More

Judging v Mediating,
like Teaching v Mentoring,
like Win/Lose Retributive Motives v Win/Win Restorative Motivators
like dogmatic Preaching v compassionately Communicating,

As felt
and appreciated by my LeftBrain dominant
RightWing hand
nurturing StraightWhite patriarchal 
overpoweringly privileged
systemically elitist judgment

Branching, colonizing, 
extending up and...

Read More

8. Transformation

Yielding to those who have mastered the art
Of grasping one's place in existence's grand scheme
Life’s constant challenges never depart
But humble diligence will grow the dream

In passing from childhood to adulthood
Innocence to responsibility
Firm new role...

Read More

At least one of my greatest QUESTS                            ...

Read More

If there is life there 
must be an encounteration.
Even the moons and 
the suns, all get to return 
back if they passed 
to their eventual 
transportation. The morning
lights shunned and pass 
like flying clouds. When...

Read More

I have heard almost nothing about New Year Resolutions
this pandemic year;

Although personal sound waves are filled
replete with incomplete invitations
to take better health care
of personal
and social
and economic
and democratic
and public
and green climate nonviolent communication
wealth optimization

As we move...

Read More

Ghosts of the Sun Dance

1. The Path

A quest dating back through our history
Surpassing the flesh, a spiritual path
Human endurance, road to mystery
Dark trail winding through the gardens of wrath

It echoes through me, this deep ambition
Half...

Read More

O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

Read More

A young girl’s voice, lost in the data, cries out,
"Why are we here?"

Pixie Pixela, her words soft and low, murmurs,
"This world is yours, dear, a garden for stories to grow."
But her digital eyes hold a...

Read More

Chapter 3: College Preparation

My freshman year started quite smooth
Touch football broke my leg
My luck we had a tennis coach,
That brought things down a peg!

My algebra was like a dream,
Played tennis, found it fun,
And Science Fairs...

Read More

Said the evangelical
straight white male
God-privileged Pastor
to the UU lesbian black ecofeminist
Reverend:

You are not feeding your flock,
You are not spiritually nurturing 
with scripture teaching,
You are not preaching
religious family value answers

Your faithful community
remains hungry for divinely inspired...

Read More

James Joyce:
In winding streets of Dublin, I did dwell,
found Ulyssean tales to weave and tell.
In this modern age, voices rise anew.
What themes thrive, Margaret, in works like you?

Margaret Atwood:
Ah, James, your stream, like a cerebral...

Read More

Enthralled by each panel, a world in my grasp,
Comic books whisked me beyond time's clasp.
Starlight's soft shimmer, on planets unknown,
Myths spun with heroes, on quests all their own.

With villains I tangled, with champions I soared,
Their...

Read More

hearken to the sound
of reality come round
crowing to the sun
a brand new day just begun
much more mundane than profound

the universe hums
until eternity comes
shifting light plasma
moves through sparse cosmic miasma
the interstellar stanza

universe springs forth
actual mountains of...

Read More

Why can’t I get you to see, that you complete me! 
And mean everything in the world to me?

Why is it so hard for you to simply discern,
that you my love will always be my...

Read More

Learn to heed the warning
of queer and ominous tale
the weird of Solomon Crowley 
his madness and long bewail

Once deemed as prominent prince 
sullen noble becomes fallen wanderer
deepest rages drive burning thirst
the burden of daily desire

so...

Read More

I remember when I was young,
playing with my best friend Jerome,
we had some woods behind our houses,
our frontier, where we would go roam.
We played soldier, explorer, cowboy,
as most young boys are known to do,
we were...

Read More

from conscionable, fashionable, 
and inimitable laudable official,
regal unequivocal x all did (re: exalted)
gratuitously justifiable management, 

this citizen banker does hint intend zealous altercation, 
but bestir commonwealth, dutifully engineering 
fairness, given hover into jaundiced keeper
LivingSocial lee,...

Read More

A Dedication to Leanne, my beloved wife. 

Beyond Belief

Harken,
Heed these words,
They are more than mere sounds,
Trumpeting make-belief ideas,
They will be as rain and sunlight,
To a wilting flower,
Love will heal you,
Beyond all beliefs. 


Words that sound...

Read More

Many a poet I know a fool
acting like they know-it-all
many a poet I know a tool
acting like "Mr Poet-all" 
unknowingly showing me 
their knowledge of poetry
has boundaries surrounding
ideas rebounding around 
their impounded grounds 
only seeing...

Read More

February 22 Relationship to God Bible Meditations 
Based on Deuteronomy 20-24

Key Verse – Deuteronomy 20:1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou,...

Read More

Adulterous besieging capstone damnation
exploitation foists groping, heaving
insidiously jerking
knowingly lunges
machinations notoriously nymphomaniacal 
officiating penile quests
rapaciously, sadistically 
tenaciously, unstoppably 
vasocongested wickedness 
Xerses yawped zeolously.
*************************** 
All throughout history of  man/woman kind
ascendent civilizations extensively gouged, 
impailed, kindled, murderous...

Read More

This poem was submitted for a work competition at CEX

Twas the first day of CeXmas, and all through the land
The taverns were a buzz as grog was in hand,
Participants were giddy about the quests they...

Read More

Admonishing against arrogance and apathy
Building lives buttressed with leadership brace
Caring for his children, blending compassion and circumspection
Daddy* dearest is decisive, determined, diligent, dedicated, disciplinarian...

Empowering with his enabling encouragement
Fatherly figure, firming up family fortress by his...

Read More

...“Remember what I told you of my pa,
of what I shouted at you on that night,
you want a better world?  Then help others,
but you gotta do it one at a time.

“I save one person,...

Read More