Long Swedes Poems

It may have been the devil himself who prompted the kids in my schoolyard back in 1947 to chant "Patsy Foley's roly-poly from eating too much ravioli."

At first, no one could remember who started the...

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HERE. ONCE STOOD OUR HOME

I can't forget in a hurry,
Here once stood our ancestral home,
As was told my great- great- great- grand father
Who told my great-great-grand father,
Who told my great grand father and who 
In...

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Widsith was a traveling minstrel who "sang for his supper" but may have been prone to exaggeration...

Widsith, the Far-Traveler, Part I of III
anonymous Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem, circa 680-950 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Widsith the...

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Widsith the Far-Traveler, Part II
ancient Anglo-Saxon poem
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hrothulf and Hrothgar, uncle and nephew,
for a long time kept a careful peace together
after they had driven away the Vikings' kinsmen,
vanquished Ingeld's spear-hordes,
and hewed...

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PARALLEL ARE THE RAILS 

(PRE-VERSE 1)
Feeling all alone
Cast away like a stone

Few friends what I got
True friends can’t be bought.

(VERSE 1)
Living is a joke
Think I’m about to choke.
Lookin’ at you
Lookin’ at me
Mirror is true (but...

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SALAD    SALUTE

Listen up everyone, and I mean you peas at the back:
Think you can hide in the mayonnaise?
Some of you peppers feel you are pretty hot stuff, I know;
And our cucumber friends...

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Alphabet soup, homemade, here's how
Begin the dish with alphabet pasta and homemade chicken broth
Coriander is next, chopped finely and bruised in cloth
Dice some carrots and parsnips, add chopped swedes as well
Endives and onions tickle the...

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October 9 is  the 283rd day this year
In history many died and she'd tears
1594  Portuguese empire defeated in Sri Lanka
Bringing an end to the campaign of danture 

1604 kepplers supernova found in the...

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Saturnalia, the pagan worship of winter solstice,

                            ...

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Somebody special just rode into Northfield,
Somebody famous and bold,
Long linen dusters concealing their pistols,
They’ve come to steal all our gold.

James boys and Youngers, they’re up from Missouri,
Riding so slow into town,
Mighty warm welcome in South...

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The plains of the Dakotas seem endless
With rumors of great mountains to the west
And rumors of great lakes to the east
But to the proud pioneers who settled here it was home.

The sturdy Swedes, the proud...

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If only the French could speak German,
and Germans could greet the English,
If only the English could speak Spanish,
and the Spanish admire Italian Margherita!
only if Russians could try be like Swedes,
neutral in war and peaceful with...

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NAMES   FOR  COUNTRIES  OR  PLANETS


I can understand and sympathise with famous cities 
Being named after animals eg Buffalo or Phoenix, if they must; 
But when whole countries are named after...

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Absurd situations amuse me; they get written into poems.
Foolish generalizations about groups of people infuriate me; 
they also get written into poems.
All Irish, all whites, all English, all red-heads, there is no all.  
It...

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Universal love

How to explain( I wrote "explain" seven times
before I got the spelling right)
my nephew, who lives in Spain but not in Valencia   
where the storm occurred, played golf 
A turbulent of Swedes secure of theIr long spell
democracy...

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the things they’ll do to julian

imagine imagine
the things they’ll do to julian---
as mr. assange 
genius founder of WikiLeaks
did open the door to 
let the light in
on so many lies spread by the governments across the...

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White stars, red and white stripes.
	Blue for loyalty.
Waving in the wind, instilling pride.
	Reminding us of pledge.
		Apple pie, Chevrolet, John Wayne.

Viet Nam, Gulf War, 
	Freedom of speech, freedom riders,
       ...

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What does it mean to me
New Jersey
It means smell and warmth
iI…….  oops wrong sort of Jersey
Here we go start again …….

Was the home of the Lenape Indians
Till the Dutch and Swedes came their way
Followed...

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Sweden today
 
What happened to Sweden throwing off her neutrality like it was an old overcoat and to make matters worse joining old NATO, that is a moribund military organization.
I remember Ingrid Bergman, a great...

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King Charles is a foolish megalomaniac.
He constantly sends his armies to the attack.
In the first few years of the eighteenth century,
Swedes have attacked Russia, Denmark, and Saxony.
Sweden exerts its regional hegemony
over the smaller states around...

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NOBEL PRIZE WINNER?

Nasal, sand paper gritty voice.
Why did he win the poetry Nobel?
“The answer my friend” may be
“blowin’ in the wind.”

What were the Swedes thinking
when they voted, what were they on?.
 Probably sat around 
...

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Dad is out back,
speaking to his swedes and turnips.

He only grows tubers, root vegetables,
that I sullenly refuse to eat.

There is one flower
a Passionflower, 'Passiflora Incarnate'
that clings to the garden fence.

I could not see any passion...

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The hophead at the
Music festival next to me
Yells out the instruction
"Everybody shrink!"

The lead singer holds parallel
To the audience an elongated
Truncheon with a dishwashing
Glove on the end of it

A manakin dummy is tossed
Into the congregation and
It...

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Guns in Sweden 
 
Sweden has problems with too many guns
shoots hole in the night.
Many refugees came to Sweden, who thought
when the refugees discovered a Nordic paradise
they would become Swedes overnight.
The inhabitance of this Eden...

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A delightfully deep azure blue sky commandeers the aurora borealis
Somber Swedes slumber in used pup tents, unaware of this beauty
Visitors stare into the night, hoping to capture the sight forever
Some use film, but it is...

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