Long Rabble 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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With my Uyghur poetry translations I am trying to build awareness of the plight of Uyghur poets who are being sent to Chinese "reeducation" concentration camps.

Elegy
by Perhat Tursun
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Asylum seekers, will...

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Like Hannibal we crossed the pass and crossed 
   the Alps (okay, the Brynderwyn Hills) 
and a bridge too far on north-west passage.
   From out of the Valley of Mizpah 
to...

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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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.                          NOW

Well, GI Jack is welcome back, he left his...

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The Lay of The Best Man - Part 4

I ask you this: Have you ever known a man to ‘buckle under stress’?
Or have you never seen a man have a ‘moment of madness’?
Have you not...

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Ask your friend, neighbour or even a stranger newly-met
Have they ever been damaged by a ‘trust’ ….now turned ‘regret’?
Most men, if not all, have fashioned their character on personal experience
Yet these damned hypocrites are themselves...

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Once upon a ZeroTime
we suffered great terror and loss.

People,
animals,
and plants
refused to speak kindly with each other
because of a Big Bad Wolf
named Ms. Climatic Change 
by her delightfully demented transparents.

Most all credible scientists in that day
were...

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“Never forget 
everything Hitler did 
in Germany was legal.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

drop by drop lady liberty bleeds
red on white and blue
common sense vexatious 
verboten spins askew 

“We can and we must 
write in the...

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1

Sunrise, late winter
skunk smell
turkey flock
playful otter, too.

The white heron
a great blue,
white phase,
in the abandoned beaver pond.

Purple clematis
its long-awned achenes
in globose heads
spidery, fiery, extravagant fruit!

To identify or classify
birds by
the complexity or beauty
of their songs.

And so
what is...

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* Content Warning: this poem touches on physical/emotional abuse*

        ~

        “dabble, dabble
         roiling...

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She struggled frantically as she was yanked from the bed
Hauled into the street straight to the temple, no match for her rabble size
With bare foot struggling to find their footings
Hammered fear, cold deafeningly in her...

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THE MAD MAN IN THE CORNER
By Roy Merritt

A mad man in the corner was ranting on insane
A man who was blinded wracked with mental pain
He couldn’t believe they lost couldn’t believe this be true
No they...

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From 2010. Narrator is Robert Gibbs, snooty White House Press Secretary.

Lay, O Lord, a curse on press men, rude and churlish, sad, obsessed men 
Who persist to query me on matters they know I must...

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1. Your few dents don’t join to form a rabble
I am still in growth, talking in babbles
not bad to be a hen and a sparrow
still much needed by me, a straight arrow
from the two sides,...

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Achilles, The Journey To Troy, 
(Part Two) of (Part One-titled, Achilles, His Heart and Soul Were Mortal)

Achilles, The Journey To Troy

Woe! wretched horrors Olympic gods sent that day
mighty king suffered, his treasure stolen away,
power of...

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 Part 3

9th Delerium: Emptyness
Water wheels in wastelands... turning,
drowning relics in the slum
Rumpled rags of fashioned burlap... burning,
lit by bandits blind and dumb
Pastured prisons, ponies bridled ... yearning,
forest fairies under thumb
Sounds inside of cauldrons coughing......

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Sire she's been sighted
two miles south of Sinai,
our sentinels say she has brought a river,
her baggage train stretches into the ancient sands,
the envoys of her retinue spoke of marvelous gifts,
beasts and creatures of the Orient
gems...

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I had been placed in chains 
Where the cripples shed their canes 
And the blind regained the art of seeing.
It was a robbers’ den 
And as all God fearing men, 
I had assets needed freeing.

Sometimes...

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Elegant in burnt orange afterglow, 
sparkling starlight opens the show.
Neighbors and strangers appear all aroun’, 
porch lights and car lights enlighten the town.

They arrive afoot and atop handlebars.
Tots wave from strollers like famed movie stars.
Mothers...

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“They Stole My Crown”
©2021 Jerry Brotherton

On the eve of Coronation Day, the old king had lost the fight.
He called his court jesters together; told them something didn’t seem quite right.
All in my kingdom love me,...

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They taxed us without our consent,
we who though we were Englishmen,
said we had no say in governance,
so we simply boycotted them,
threw their tea into the harbor,
let them know that we’d had enough,
they sent troops to...

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In Dickensian time 
Upon sunset hour
Overshadowing Thames
Is London Tower
Blackened cobble streets
Shimmer in the rain
Big Ben at Westminster
Chimes an eight bells refrain

At Euston Station
A passenger alights
On Platform 3
And enters the caff
for a nice cup of tea

At...

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On the news today

The headline storyline was presented
and reported as follows

In Liverpool today some local right wing
protestors who's arms are up in flame's 
replacing pitchforks for placards 

Which was later retracted in place
of rabble of...

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"All the Dark Stallions"



Calliope burns 
ecstatic bright star
fire brands, all her marks

both hands 
holding the ropes
firmly fast today 

slow burn 
tomorrow
warm whispers 

gently towards
the unlit shadows
love wanting always stays

driving all 
the dark stallions
towards heaven

where the...

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