Long Spurned Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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So bridge to bridge, of other things speaking
Of which my comedy does not take care,
We walked; and reached the top, when seeking
For watching the next slit, then we stopped there
Malebolge to see and crying vain;
And...

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The Dance of Salome
Herod bellowed out the night's festive orders..
"Bring the torches, bring the tables..
more wine, that we may rejoice,  
for tonight we revel in kindred friendship."
Herod strolled onto the terrace, nearly stumbled in...

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“He fought often and once bled in the cause of freedom, but his habits of War did not lessen in him the peaceful virtues which adorn his private life.”  Doctor Benjamin Rush, signer of...

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“I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” (Sonnet XLI)
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I, being born a woman and distressed
By all the needs and notions of my kind,
Am urged by your propinquity to find
Your person fair,...

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PART 1:          THE MEETING

Alone one night neath lantern light, I trudged a weary mile.
Forlorn, I went with shoulders bent (the storms around me howled)
until I met...

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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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In glamor-light of sunset
a new crowd of cumulus clouds arrive
and revive a sepia sky-scene—
unworldly woolgatherers gather
spinning fantasy fluff into quixotic yarns
of debutantes dancing with honeymoon hunger;
their dewy eyes blurred by the sawdust of stardust

pseudo-princess-pleasure-seekers
—drama daring...

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THE LONGEST DAWN PART 3 H.C.SONNETS

There is nothing, everything, pain and joy
We can’t go back, struggle on for their sakes 
A blank sheet to fill, take heed of the ploy
Think twice move once keep an...

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Ancient Tree, Treasure And Mystery Even Poe Could Not Solve
 PART ONE -("The Darkness Poe Discovered")

The old tree was tall, dark and gnarly too
Massive limbs reaching up to strike the sky
Once seen, it would hold...

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11	Contracted in this state our marriage made
		And only far too late we recognize
		That gladly with Reptilian Flesh we’ve laid
		The veil torn away revealing eyes
		Of yellow flame exposéd we surmise
		Out from the darkened room these floating...

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I sit here steeping in the History 
of Our Land, a class, my eyelids dense.
Our Flag hangs in the corner of the class
Red and White folds in deluge, licking the
framed portrait of our Thomas Jefferson,
our...

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I've never considered myself nosy, I just care about people that's all,
The way gardeners care about roses, when colored leaves start to fall.

But like chaotically spattered sunsets, often things can get confused,
Like the times I...

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With thoughts of getting fish-faced on a Friday night, 
I dropped anchor in a portside bar 
To contemplate the crooked path to closing time; 
Couldn’t guarantee I’d get that far.

I ordered a tequila, called myself...

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Note: To view the final poem refer to my poem 'We Are So Drawn...'

Here's my work product for this sad, strange poem that I've just completed. I 
include the syllable and rhyme scheme notation I...

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In '48, a state was born, 
But for Palestine, a time to mourn. 
Nakba came, with lands displaced, 
A people scattered, dreams erased.
In '67, the war did rage, 
West Bank, Gaza, a new stage. 
Occupied...

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"Is It I?....Is It I?....
                              ...

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I float …
in the ether -
a roll of sea swells below,
pier toward the west,
little island I know so well -
endless hours there,
but rarely alone ...
then …

moon pixies …
sparkle at my feet,
dancing underneath "me" -
soft, yellow-blue...

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The king was recruiting, He needed brave knights,
To protect all his wealth and his land,
And seek if he could, someone who would succeed,
And was worthy of his daughter’s hand.
A leader, a nobleman, brave to the...

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The Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar

At Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai,
   The Little Master chose to say good-bye;
His Rembrandtesque canvass hat shading eyes,
   He whispered thanks up to high-open skies.

Gods spurned earth but...

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I knelt amidst the mountain's rise
        beneath the weeping opal skies
            there to measure Io's swoon
 ...

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I float in the ether ... a roll of sea swells below, pier toward the
west, island I know so well - endless hours there, but rarely
alone ... then.

Moon sparkles dance at my feet, underneath "me"...

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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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Standing round the ritual fire, white smoke then black entwinning higher, she takes the
book up from the floor, the spell to open heavens door,

This chant kept secret for so long, in her evil hands did...

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Things have really progressed since my childhood,
Some changes are tremendous, some just no good.
When we baby boomers were young TV has just begun,
It came after the Great World War, our parents young then.

In the early...

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