Long Squatting Poems

Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

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Stood I there, that last day,
On an iron bridge...
An aqueduct by design,
Where, looking dreamily out over
The Ernes Lower Lough,
My compressed shadow 
Momentarily paused -
To contently recline:
Amidst coy Junes radiant beams 
of sweet benign!
All was stilled,...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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[Just a little note to help maintain the peace on Soup.          
To cause no animosity among our friendly group
I myself am partial to some tasty asian...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

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"I will continue to broadcast, as time and circumstance permit,
To whomever is receiving on the aforementioned frequency.
My name is Cor Nosduh. I am not infected. Over."
Yea, I thought, continue to broadcast until this massive, power-sucking,
5.1...

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People are wandering around the town
With their heads pointing to the clouds
People are wandering about the town
Looking like fearful clowns
Nasty men with hard backs 
Are walking about the park 
Harassing the women in the boiling...

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Showering white light illuminates 
  Bright-Moon Bay;
   In the overlooking Moon-Inviting Pavilion,
 Li Bai had raised his twinkling, rich amber
Coloured wineglass
    To invite the same reticent Moon.  ...

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I wish I could go back there again to capture the essence of the time recapturing every word you speak and recalling the stillness in deep. 

I wish I could go back there again just...

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Cluttering above huddled rooftops
Of sprawling villages 
And shy provincial towns;
Rising sharply amidst swooping
Declinations;
Hesitating when gathering at the
Tangled woodland perimeters of
Outlying greenland bounds,
Jostled apex ridges detach among
Themselves...
When habitually roused from early
Mornings
Newly awakened sounds.

Electrical milk floats whir...

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This is my best story in 
my mother tongue urdu 
which I translated and 
tried my best to turn it 
into a poem in english 

Luqman who was a 
merchant wiseman and 
his son
bought themselves...

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It must be hard
To carry it around
That load of hate
Weighing on your heart
A powder keg
Waiting to explode

You pretend it isn’t there
But now and again it shows
In what you say
In what you write
The sarcasm hidden under...

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Cuz god made me a Lamb CooCooCachoo,
And Blake a tyger with the potential to do.
I am one of the Unhappy; we’ve seen an unsettling light.
I made myself an Unhappy; I had to search for that...

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They are throwing everything at me to compensate for their broken dreams; they are throwing everything at me and have signed a revengeful decree. They have gathered at the gate to take away the old...

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No one ever told me that your heart could bleed without a drop that anyone could see. I didn't know your soul could lose weight that your shadow could get thin. I had no idea...

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Long ago, in an estuary formed by the erosion of a fjord,
There sat a piano made of petrified wood with ivy cords.

It was created by a council of beavers, which governed the waters,
Who used local...

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When she meets you for the first time she should hand you a card, 
Laminated, that tells you her name and what she does... 
Not a business card you understand, but a warning and an...

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durning a Congraulation ceromony
a guy dressed in tights and  glittring
robe, came out complaining about
 doing all the chres, while
the others had more
time to be with their women,
he wanted to share time with
his woman. He...

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I. The Virgin

Dimpled white dove of a girl,
tell me where did you go
when I opened the little door
to your cage--
did you flutter, supple and blushing
into the half-moon's glimmer?

Floating on the breeze of girlhood,
did you caress...

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Pink and My Buster Browns
                              ...

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The heat soaked day drags on: each daisy sweltering
every buttercup melting into the dry ground,
a golden oozing of petals. I watch them through the window knowing
that I could not be ready, this I that’s still...

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Mr. Spider is an ugly looking creature. He has a hairy face and arms. However, the hairs on the top of his head are somewhat thinner than those on his face, and scattered all over...

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The Carnivore Within...

Meaty morsels besiege
this vegetarian advocate
yet, the atavistic Jainist within me decries,
egg hen hies his, and lamb hence
carnivorous ache that won't abate
case in point being on the horns

hoof ah dill ham ma, neither willing,
nor...

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Written: November 25, 2023
                _________________________________________

A delicate snowflake in a picturesque frosty nook
flagitious, frightful sky, frequently falling
Silently, "I don't wish to...

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Long ago when I was younger, yearn for knowledge I did hunger,
heard about a rumor going ‘round.
Twas a legend told for ages, passed along as time turned pages,
strange as any tale twas ever found.
Rumor said...

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