Long Ribbons 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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Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

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"Azure Vistas"

Azure vistas presented themselves to me
rolling inwards the clouds like tumbleweeds
mercilessly bump fallen angels off the map
like torrents of rain falling petulantly on blunt contracts

I glimpsed the sweet refrain of a resurrection
swift upon a...

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Begins with Hyundai's my stalker fatal attraction 
rushing in front of our disabled vehicle then rams break 
hard causing us to panic my spouse and I both disabled 
this has cause severe discrimination and victimization...

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I'M REALLY SORRY TO HEAR THAT WE HAD SO MANY LAUGHS ON EVER SUBJECT BOY THE FBI SCRATCHED THIER HEADS LISTENING TO US 7 YEARS  RIGHT SOMETIMES I WISH I COULD ORDER THOSE TAPES...

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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

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Used As an Experiment

THE SILENCE IS BREAKING MEEEE….CAN’T YOU SEE?


V.1: Strong AS STEEL, wrapped up with silver, heartfelt ribbons
Give it to me – the rope of hope
You smoked me out like a cigarette…
Used like I’m...

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They had kept me imprisoned there for three full days,
In that sparse, solitary room, of scarce sunshine rays.

Having good food to eat, had never been a problem; 
They brought hot meals, but the problem was...

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"The Reptilian Anthropocene"



The Reptilians
war daily 
enrobed in their
stiff distinction suits
rainbow coloured badges 
pinned to their lapels
they beat their breasts 
and oily palms
profiting from all 
the soft-boiled 
foxes on the run
cerebral cortex bound
thinking they are free-willed
and...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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I don't know how it started

But it's an annual event

But I don't think that an egg hunt

Is the best way to present

The story of our saviour

Chocolate eggs you go and find

I don't think that's the...

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Summer Memories
Summer Realities

This, the first day of summer, two thousand and two, finds me,
slipping back into what once was my desire, my need, my reality.
This step back into, and into times passed, has allowed me...

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As I watched my daughter playing with her son, I couldn't help but see myself in her. I still think of her as a child, but I guess parents always see their grown children as...

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"Burnt Aqua"



I can taste the sun
on my tongue
it spills down 
my throat
like burnt aqua
healing the beating frisson

I am ebony inside
shading in my shadow world
some somnolent soul
waking from slumber’s dream dance 
a small death in life...

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Pink- Pink- Pink-

Every peak has its own attractions,
Like the mountains,
The mounts of a woman,
Have always remained, 
Her pride possessions. 01

It has the charms,
More intoxicating than wine,
As it reveals the beauty,
Of a woman's alluring binds. 02

These...

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Spirit of Christmastide
Beneath the mantel's alabaster gleam
Where verdigris flames pirouette 
     in cerulean ballet's beam...
We gather close—a familial love—
In hallowed halls where chimes of 
     crystal laughter...

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Awol absent without 
leave results in a court 
martial dishonorable 
discharge Absence 
with out leave from 
work due to mental 
illness is indeed a crisis 
which will result in 
relieving one of their 
duties too...

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They are conflicted haunted images from black and white photos of America 1933, when there was no place left to run. 

It was the hunger of people lined up, scraps of food ladled out, the...

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(Warning: it has a sexual theme...)

Imagine you and I 
Together, we will fly
But, first and foremost,
Let's spread butter to the toast 

Suicide nervana plays me like the piano player to the piano 
It's a ride...

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The Naked brazen placid blue
Meets its foe the dark forbidding nemeses
Who unleashes his growing anger and fury
Obliterating and defeating his enemy
Proclaims a victory and unrolls his miserable shroud
With utter contempt
And spews his venom
Impregnating his virgin...

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MY GRAND  AUNT
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


She is still as elegant as I dare remember
Those early springs: its now late december
She is sitting  with her back perfectly straight
I’m afraid she’ll chastise me for being late
She...

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The Great Falls of the northern Plains is actually a chain of five seperate waterfalls
varying in height and majesty extending over 12 miles,
they also confirm that the right river was chosen,
we had hoped that the...

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BREAKING THE SILENCE : NO MORE

Sponsored by Ink Empress 

Glass shattered a
Saturday afternoon tea ~

Silence holds steady
black fleeced momentum 
for its own ripping
when lightning as whipping 
fire from Heartbeat of
Sun slashes its Void
loudness to tumble...

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PFC ABBETT WAS MORE THAN JUST ONE OF OUR FELLOW MEMBERS HE WAS MORE THAN A VIETNAM VETERAN HE WAS THE COMPLETE PACKAGE HE WAS A HERO WORKING EFFORTLESSLY ON THE VETERANS MEMORIAL PARKS IN...

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