Long Sardine Poems

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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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 4 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

A water cannon screeched around the corner on two wheels
Four and twenty Terror Bugs were nipping at its heels
Their acid blistered paint work but it...

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I look across the lounge room floor and silently I brood.
Looking back is something smug that’s caused a family feud.
It licks its paws; it grins at me, and knows it is protected,
and every wish it...

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She maneuvers gracefully without fins or flippers
creating no ripples in deep blue waters
sneaking calmly upon jittery preys
and disguise herself in the middle of the day

A sudden thrust from beneath the fog
she buries herself under a...

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Chapter 14d (King Ptolemy the second, cont.)

https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Africa-adventures-Phil-Salmon/dp/197392479X


“And upon the open ocean
Far from land in roving sail-ships
How to find the congregations 
Of the sharks and rays and tuna

“Where the seabirds thresh the water
Diving after shoals of...

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AND WE ARE STILL HERE…
While beating our drums—singing, dancing
and giving praises to the Most High
for family harvest, peace and love,
we blinked—became victims
of colonial rape—stolen from the womb
of our Motherland; snatched like babes
from their mother’s uterus;...

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Chapter 1 THE FISHERMAN

At the dawn of humankind in
Africa's great land of sunlight
This adventure of survival 
Of a family's arduous journey 
 
One of exile and betrayal
And of hopeful brave endurance 
Happened long before all...

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Ch. 13 b (The whale, cont.)

Now the sardine hunt developed 
As they glimpsed beneath the surface 
Flashing rays of gold and silver
Of the dolphins and the swordfish 
 
That converged with blue-fin tuna
To the swarming sardine banquet 
Then not fifty...

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The biscuit is sitting on the plate waiting for a humongous date; the sardine is screaming in the can while she waits for the unfaithful man.
He is out dining and casting lot with a dollar...

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Upon (die) re rhea ding previous poem
     All In The Name Of "Progress" zen
a glaring, leering,
     and twittering left par wren
     dared to...

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We got the call this morning...
your soul checked out 
you left this 
world in flight...

a good man of kind spirit
you surrendered the last
battle - 

We salute you you gave
a fine fight...

little did we know just
how...

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Once, 
About ten minutes ago in the year 
2006 or 
2549, depending upon which avatar or
 Messiah is consulted, I  
 Tumbled out of my bed to the 
Untranslatable 
Predawn
 Cackle of 
Frantic voices
Descending.
...

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He said
my people come from a place
where the dung beetle reigns
I heard those profane utterances
and remained composed,
though he word assassinated my ethnic character
Once upon an ancient time ago,
my people dwelled in the land of Ham,
(it’s...

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As young children, we were happy
but as adults, most of us not.
why so? Cause ideas what's thought
as right, differs -none takes gladly.

Adult unhappiness derives
from rigidity as stuck in
own ways though always wish to win
often leads...

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One Tuesday evening recently with the house empty but me,
I thought I’d spread out on the couch and see what’s on the ‘telly’.
It was close to half past eight and so I thought I’d watch...

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The rails always hiss and scream 
a steel Woman pierces the ear
drum. We all shake, bobbing and 
dancing no skill required you
all do it equally as good 
Doors open and close. People 
enter and leave....

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A frog once asked a wizard to turn him into a prince.
So, the wizard granted his wish and cast a great spell.
The frog was pleased and he hopped off into the distance,
Looking for a princess...

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 Last good days of innocence

He did came 
with no trace
with no chain no fame
no frame or mark of true repentance
In skeletons of liquid pawns
carved in satirical steer

Streets bubbling
enchanted in silence
men wailing, 
choking, bundled like...

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Dad had threatened for some time, to reclaim the land behind the shed,
where rubbish over many years, had stockpiled but now instead
of being easy to be shifted, blackberries, docks and thistles grow,
entwining history of ours…...

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Dad had threatened for some time to reclaim the land behind the shed,
where rubbish over many years, had stockpiled but now instead
of being easy to be shifted; blackberries, docks and thistles grow,
entwining history of ours...

Read More

Drac's the new food taster at Halloween
He dare not admit, he wasn't too keen
For solid food is not his natural cuisine
But Satan chose him instead of Wolverine.

First to be tasted was the eyeball terrine;
A little...

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They fatten up the grazing cattle,
roughly milking the goats and cows
Shoveling the pigs their slop,
throwing chicken feed to the hens walking about
They do the grunt labor,
always with their mind on the feast
Puffing up people’s chest...

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"Egin superbe a la robuste echine, par toi Marseille a pu au prix 
       d'un long effort, retirer des flots bleus, la celebre sardine 
    ...

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