Long Robe Poems

??1 Kings 5:3-5 NIV??
[3] “You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the Lord his God until the...

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Chinese Poets: English Translations II

These are modern English translations of poems by the Chinese poets Tzu Yeh, Lin Huiyin, Xu Zhimo and Huang E. These are poems about love, passion and beauty. 


Tzu Yeh (circa...

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Yosa Buson haiku translations

On the temple’s great bronze gong
a butterfly
snoozes.
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hard to describe:
this light sensation of being pinched
by a butterfly!
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not to worry...

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11 o'clock at night. Everyone is 
In bed. Molly was in the adjoining 
Room with the seven and 
Desharah. Damian was awake
 and Planning. Dominant 
Damian was deeply devious 
in his domain. In bed with...

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The excitement mounted as we rummaged around in the attic looking through old steamer trunks for discarded clothes and props to make Halloween costumes. With an old suit and hat of Granddads, I became a...

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Date: December 2040

Damian is on the phone speaking 
With architects.  He made
Airline and hotel reservations.
 Soon Afterwards he went 
To Molly and caressed her away from
From a sweet dream. "Hey, baby girl."
He sat on...

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Date:  August   2051

"Holannya's  new born baby girls!"
Dolly exclaimed 7  Friday morning.
Molly watched Holly sleep saying,
"Yeah finally and everybody's joyful right?"
Dolly replied, "Yesss so we'll continue 
With party preparations properly after
We...

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I (a youthsome, wholesome, jokesome, handsome,...
gamesome, chucklesome, bothersome,
and awesome modest fellow)...
does not deliberately court immortalization,
and wonders what criteria confer elevation,
exaltation, glorification, hero worship,
idolization, veneration, or worship.

I go about a daily humdrum routine
me, a twenty first...

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Grey Bane and the Dark Lord


Perched on a stalagmite jutting up from the floor
Hugo was staring at length across the cave
My eyes accustomed to the glow followed his gaze
Frozen in ice was my Love whom...

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REMEMBERING JOSEPH FRANCIS GRATES JOE AND MY HUSBAND SERVED TOGETHER IN VIETNAM 101 SCREAMING EAGLES HE WAS ACTUALLY A MAYOR AT ANYRATE HE WAS A BIG PART OF OUR MARRIAGE ACTUALLY WE WOULD SIT FOR...

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Thirty years ago, long before ISIS started executing Kurds, Muslims and Christians, I hired a Pakistani Muslim as an art director in Chicago. I was an Irish Catholic editor putting out a small national magazine....

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A king entered in a robe,
Clothed in a raiment of
Multitudous colors:
Vast and enormous is he,
Occupying matters of matters,
Spaces of Spaces.
His presence accomodates no vacuum.
Before him was raident throne,
Swathed in light and graced
With fire of sulphur...

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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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t was half past five before sunrise, 
when darkness faded into the misty Saturday's dawn, 
just an hour after a bloody confrontation, 
but a brave woman descended into a blood-bathed
street of Lustre, 
with hungry cats...

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There Is This Dark Place Where I Go

There is this dark place where I go 
when feeling overwhelmed
When life is too much to go on
My light all but dispelled

I take myself up to my room
And...

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Niithaar Perumai, the Fundamental Role of Ascetics, Canto 26 of the Thirukkural, the Tamil Classical Treatise on Ethics, Translation and Commentary by T. Wignesan 


[Given the scarcity of information (mostly conflicting even then) on the...

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The Silence In Me
I have been on this road several times, and I have been contemplating 
the movement of the clouds, the direction of the trees, and the depth of the sea. The heart of...

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As darkness absorbed in my reveries, my usual lapse accommodated itself in height of melancholy but not in this conscience. Then I found myself in my room and my window opened. Everything in upheaval, a...

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Translation of David Broza's " ! Ay Amor ! Que seria de mi ! " by T. Wignesan

( I'm not certain if this' s the original title of the lyrics composed by Eitan Nahmias GLASS....

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Moods oscillate in cadences of peaks and valleys
Music to fractious emotions on greasy dance floors
Mistimed cues of flares smouldering relationships

Angst of redundancy seethes from within as lava
Anger is camouflaged with the cloak of reticence
Ardour suffocated...

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Everybody is singing a different tune
Everybody is dancing to a different beat
Everybody is praying to a different God
And here I am feeling very sad
I am here, you are there but I have no fear

The politicians...

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Venite
Come let us sing to the Lord;*
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving*
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is...

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Spring (also known as vernal) equinox arrives March 20th, 2025

at 5:01?AM in Northern Hemisphere
out of hibernation,
sans mancave, I will climb
eastern standard time,
when calendrical, celestial,
and chronological prime
airy factors mark
onset of temperate clime
mitt, also coincides with
'super worm...

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Spring equinox arrives March 20th, 2023 at 5:24 PM

Despite what outside temperature registers
(even absolute zero), the official arrival
of spring occurs, when thee eel hip tic
of coe phish hunt holy Mackerel
becomes tangential to barenaked ladies 
barren...

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In The Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus fell to His knees
As He cried to His Father, let this cup pass from me
His anguish and pain I could never imagine
Sweat turning to blood, as He begged for...

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