Long Scoundrels Poems

Political Poetry

Obama: what bard, what griot, what poet wouldn't want to tell -the miracles of our times in tales.
What courage, what evidence that man can endure; fulfilling the destiny for which he was bore.

Stones were...

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All on a sudden getting awake in the morning, I got stunned seeing, the whole earth had become a great graveyard. Each house was, as it were, a grave. In that grave, all were whispering...

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Humanity Canteen

My restaurant is exclusive and classy no paupers allowed though I
have to declare that I picked up the chef near the township where
on a paraffin cooker in his garden of plenty lots of dishevelment...

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There's a defender among us, a friend who never surrenders or concedes
No thief is he, who offers encouragement to people with his kind deeds

A rapscallion, devoted to negativity, brings gloom to Poetry Soup Forest,
a site...

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The Columbia is a smooth beast that has introduced us to a semi tropic clime
that produces a bewildering humidity even for November
and a panoply of tree types that canopy the mossy turfs
from a sky that...

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Cowpoke
by Michael R. Burch, circa age 16

Sleep, old man...
your day has long since passed.
The endless plains,
cool midnight rains
and changeless ragged cows
alone remain
of what once was.

You cannot know
just how the Change
will rape the windswept plains
that you...

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Born after freedom; I witnessed 
The 25th year Independence Day celebration
The Silver Jubilee; the country was underdeveloped,
Yet there was jubilation, happiness all over

Years went by: I grew bigger
I witnessed the 50th too:The Golden Jubilee
The country...

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Born after freedom; I witnessed 
The 25th year Independence Day celebration
The Silver Jubilee; the country was underdeveloped,
Yet there was jubilation, happiness all over

Years went by: I grew bigger
I witnessed the 50th too:The Golden Jubilee
The country...

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It was a sight that I could not forsee
Ambushed by my own men at morning hour
Hands tight with cord and naked from the waist
A mean air on the Bounty blew unkind
It was the troubled wind...

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Chinese Translations III

Quiet Night Thoughts
by Li Bai aka Li Po
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Moonlight illuminates my bed
as frost brightens the ground.
Lifting my eyes, the moon allures.
Lowering my eyes, I long for home.


Lines from Laolao...

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When you have a gun and they don’t 
and you're  a cop, it takes a certain kind of heartless cowardice
to squeeze the trigger
it takes a certain type of racism only prevalent in racist countries

As...

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Against the backdrop of a leaden sky, where dreams lie shattered,
Beneath the heavy burden of pain, with echoes in sacred silences,
I lay down verses at dusk, where words are lost to the wind,
A saga of...

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Based on the famous linguist, poet Humayun Azad Sir's poem "SAB KICHU NOSHTODER ODHIKARE JABE". However, it is not an exact English translation from Bengali. Edited in different places with tense. Apologies for any mistake...

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What if we make it in time 

Took my eldest brother of heart
I was age eight
Routing me through different foster homes
I could turn to nothing other than art
Script my life to a page, my newly...

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well … you were there - you saw it all
          you witnessed while I tried to scrawl
         ...

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More Beautiful With Age?

Do men grow more beautiful ageing?
It may not be fair but seems true,
Some process that’s secretly working
To bring a man’s heart into view.

And women seem openly jealous,
Divining miraculous change,
While counting their wrinkles...

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When mapping something out 
It should be a subject thought about 
Beginning, middle and the finale 
Everything is there says Rand McNally 
But from the depths below 
A mystery creating ocean wakes to flow 
An...

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It was quite an adventure. I never had sailed. 
Appearances looked like the last trip had failed. 
“That rickety old thing? Ya’ sure it will float?” 
Nodding my friend said, “Don’t call it a boat.”

We...

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The pastor said,
  Depart yee sinner from my sight,
  And I… I ran away in fright,
  Haaa!!  You should have seen my flight,
  The pastor said in hells fire I’d...

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Legend of Fosse Way

Riding hard under a moonlight high 
not a leaf rustling and it troubles my mind
In the distance there's music of the lyre and flute 
rippling over the moors
Serenading the stars  
The...

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More'n nine months on...

and still I feel infuriated at myself
concerning squandered funds
passively, senselessly, and willingly
surrendered nest egg
to computer hackers
(imposters, jackknifing, and liquidating)
coercing me to forfeit funds,
whereby yours truly (me) blindsided
thru convincing telephonic dialogue
witnessing unquestioned trust

I...

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PAPERS I TEAR OFF

                               ...

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For 15 years I have tolerated,
calculated, anticipated, sublimated workplace degradations, derisions,
subversions towards my character,
not today, no more,
yes, my pride has become livid, swollen like a bad bruise on the heart
and I apologize not for my...

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Closed eyes are blinded by the world, claiming that the truth is a sickness.  refusing to listen to the cries of our so real suffering of the soul.  
We embrace the drastic changes...

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Shapes, colors, and surfaces have long nature shone. 
Anthocyanin in plant sap gives blossoms their tone. 

All tones in the universe bear upon humankind. 
Waves and waterfalls etched them and mixed their shade. 

Convey the...

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