Long Recounting Poems

A born lioness my untamed heart? ha! 
a mouse, this pulsing token ruled by unruly wants
at times given, traded or stolen - sometimes
thrown down on a dare to be won or lost 
till it became...

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A babe born, in darkness braved
Bring love to the world if only for a day
No questions asked, nor answered, nor saved
Let peace abide in every child, we pray
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they stood watching their son, enthralled in...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems II - Bertolt Brecht



The Burning of the Books
by Bertolt Brecht
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned, 
teams of dull oxen hauled...

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In the Last days of January 2016 father Antony was wondering where he could find a person or persons who would be able to clear the badly overgrown Church garden He had inherited just two...

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I know what it costs
to parent a tyrant
24/7
52 weeks/year
and yet avoid judging,
feeling guilty,
self-blaming shame
for all I am not sufficient,
yet.

I remember learning curious distinctions
between genuine remorse
given, when LeftBrain verbally requested,
yet without RightBrain capacity
to feel even the...

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The very abridged version recounting untold tragicomic storied life of Matthew Scott Harris

I led a boring life.
The end.

All joking aside, now the epilogue.

As a bookish fellow born January 13th,1959
he attended school and got promoted
as a...

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Man: 		woman do not with me begin this morning,
Don’t want to go through the day with mourning.
Look I’ve got enough woes on my desk and shoulder
So I don’t need words that sting like adder.
Your mates,...

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What does it cost
to love a degenerating Earth,
home,
habitat?

Where NO TRESPASSING signs
speak out for natural sound
defensive silence,
for spiritually medicinal fragrances
only,
in sacred space and times
forbidding mechanized transport
across Earth's MotherLands
and feminist HealthCare Oceans.

Degenerating natural landed bodies,
spiritually disconnected minds
cannot...

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Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania circa early 1970'S

(just in time for end of summer reading...
recounting emotionally disastrous campy turbulence)
intended food for thought indulgence. 

A boys' life aborted
miscarried golden opportunity
for adolescent romance to be courted.

Amidst a raft of fellow...

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Figurative paralysis laid waste body electric of mine

This is Spinal tap 
bamboozling, binding, bleeding, bombing...
ripped from every dog eared 
and book marked page
recounting latest ill fated fiasco, 
now peppering my life and hard times
causing quite...

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I awakened to butterscotch sunshine, pouring through my window;
And I lay there for some moments, feeling the balmy wind blow.

I would have basked in it longer, save for a job that I enjoyed;
And being late...

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Though all are blessed with eyes to see,
Eyes never lay sight upon the seer;
No retina perceives the seedling
beneath its iris.

Ocular nerves sense Occam-ented pictures
Of identity: portraits framed by
Ourselves, Us, and Others
- Whose eyes perceived whole
But...

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Chicanery grabbed lustfully repeatedly - yup!

While merrily bobbing along
the boulevard of broken dreams,
which in truth measured
no more than a furlong
think envisioning myself top banana
analogous to bull headed Donkey Kong,
I felt on top of my game,
which...

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These are English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose name is also frequently spelled Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 

Last Night
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch

Last night, your memory stole into my...

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I am curious about when
and how
you find joy,
or at least achieve brief contentment
during your day,
enduring your night,
endearing your days
between nights.

And, yes, also curious
about when you feel 
slow-roasting anger
or at least short-term sparks
of fear
during our long-term...

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Nascent pristine morning awakens charisma,
curtains of anxieties pulled aside-- oh look they reveal!
A whitewashed wall proudly flaunting the crayon drawing,
my daughter's innocent fantasies when she was nine.
Windows of paraphernalia bask in golden glory,
transparent dew drops...

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...He loked at one and he sighed:
”Wished they still made them like that.”
I said,”I know at least one remains,
if you’re willing to haul a pack.”

Nick didn’t seem at all convinced,
I said,”Trust me when I say,
if...

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 It's the weekend.


So here's a brief distraction for those needing something to read and absorb.

Salute.



Q:



What made you write poetry?



Was it an unconscious calling?



A need or just a natural progression of self-expression?



Or maybe even the...

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There is no way forward should even if against I’m to plead
The only way for a return, is how the ancient words will read
And only for a return, nay a way it opens forward for...

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(just in time for summer reading...
recounting emotionally disastrous campy turbulence)

Amidst a raft of fellow (Brandywine Valley
     Y.M.C.A) resident campers
     who, didst excitedly quiver
donning a "NON FAKE" lifejacket

...

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To my left, a withered lady
recounting each and every blink of life
To my right, an empty seat, Rather, occupied but the presence I deny, grown cold
From an asshole in a suit reading a Maxim magazine...

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"touched"   

	He wasn’t there yesterday.  I know the landscape of my mind. Today He came, like music on the wind,  blown through an opening high upon the wall. Fragile crumb of...

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Apology to the missus at nighttime...
first day of January
two thousand and twenty three.

While the wife then in the process
of leaving a telephone message
for our eldest daughter,
(on vacation, thus unreachable)
her cajoling tone of voice
beckoned, intimated, and...

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Recollections of childhood
when life was simplistic,
brings to memory, days 
filled of toilsome work
and long hours.
Yet in its own way, bestows
feelings of warmth, safety 
and at given times, even
conceived to be glitzy, 
shimmery.

Children, courteous
and respectful
executing daily...

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There was a bongoman, and he dreaming
Where the rock hovered above the blue sea
Looked through the white mist of a dew drenched morning
And clenched tight his memory of history
Black as midnight: showed me shining like...

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