Long Syracuse Poems

UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLVII - Tongue Twisters

If you want to « have » your cake and « eat » it at one and the same time, simple enough, just split it into two equal parts like...

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Ancient Greek and Roman Epigrams

That country wench bewitches your heart?
Hell, her most beguiling art’s
hiking her dress
to seduce you with her ankles' nakedness!
Sappho, fragment 57, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Stranger, rest your weary legs beneath...

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The bombers began to bleed
their heavy tears of death
from 20,000 feet above the breathless battlefield, 
B-17 Flying Fortress formations
moving with apocalyptic aplomb
the shadows of high metal crosses by the hundreds
rippling along the rugged roman earth
bringing...

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Hymn to Aphrodite
by Sappho
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Immortal Aphrodite, throned in splendor!
Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress and beguiler!
I implore you, dread mistress, discipline me no longer
with such vigor!

But come to me once again in...

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Friends , I present to you a slice of History about the ancient Greek scientist and 
mathematician Archimedes , who ran naked across the street
of Syracuse , in his birthday suit, after he discovered the...

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Ancient Greek and Roman Epigrams

Stranger, rest your weary legs beneath the elms;
hear how coolly the breeze murmurs through their branches;
then take a bracing draught from the mountain-fed fountain;
for this is welcome shade from the burning...

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He didn’t have a native land, 
therefore, he had no reminiscences of any sort,
neither good nor ill, other than reckless killing 
at the battlefield where he was compulsorily taken into 
and deployed to fight unwanted...

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TURK TATIL MIZAH 





FOREST GUMP

Did you hear about old Forest Gump
Went up to do a parachute jump
Gave the rip cord a jerk
Found out it didn't work
Hit the ground with one hell of a thump...

JED

In the...

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GUN VIOLENCE BLUES - corrected

They built a gun-violence memorial 
in a god-forsaken corner of my 
struggling city
A collaborative effort of a few academics, 
a handful of neighbors, a preacher or two, 
and some interested parties...

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GUN VIOLENCE BLUES

They built a gun-violence memorial 
in a god-forsaken corner of my 
struggling city
A collaborative effort of a few academics, 
a handful of neighbors, a preacher or two, 
and some interested parties with a...

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TAKING THE OATH
For those who are born again through the Oath of Citizenship	
at the Onondaga County Courthouse, Syracuse, New York!  

The morning prayers over
the neighbor’s car cold, the ride
to the court house quiet as...

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On a snowy Sunday night in the City of Syracuse, NY, as I sit at my computer and write part of my story from the past.
The weather is very cold outside and I am snuggled...

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She was raised on the shorelines of Lake Wawasee
her mother a full-blooded Miami
and her father now buried on Syracuse Hill 
said she will have his eyes. 

She’ll always remember the day that he died
with fading...

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I loosen my belt and remove my shoes
   So, dear, what's going on in the news
They blocked the streets; tore down statues
   No surprise there; of what were they accused

The protestors,...

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AT THE WINDOW

She had cut her hair
and wondered if he liked it
“Not a problem” he said
acutely aware of her perpetual
pattern of cyclical change 
She was a Cynthian spirit,
a sensual soul, a life giving poem
healing all...

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When Philadelphians wanted to see a basketball game,
the “Warriors” was their first team’s name.
They had several players achieving great fame.
Familiar names included Joe Fulks and Paul Arizin.
They were joined by Tom Gola and Wilt Chamberlain.
However,...

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For a love I would sacrifice my sanity, sleep and whole lifetime dedicated efforts; heartache won in the meantime from cradle to rubout life; you are innocent not to requite ingenious angel.

____________________________________________________________

Pilish is an extraordinary...

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OCTOBER 6, 2022

Fall in the Finger Lakes,
a meeting in Canandaigua,
a nature reserve visit on West Hill
north of Naples, the season at early 
peak, all the colors including green,
the thick, deep forests of the Allegheny
Plateau chasing...

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Salt City Syracuse, You dwell in Mid State,
You are used for testing new products,
Rebuild, rebuild where you are,
15th Ward East, Southside of town,
81 came it decimated you,
Know home you know more,
81, Upstate Med is now,
What...

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Considering all the people there, it’s a big state!
Many members from New York have talent that's great.
Poets hail from Syracuse, Rochester, Albany,
Plattsburgh, Scarsdale, White Plains, or Schenectady.
They may come from Niagara Falls or Binghamton,
or one...

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POEM BY BASHO

We were quiet now,
still breathing deeply from
the sexual exertions of our
late middle age, guided by
the music, gliding toward a
landing through the ambient
haze of unconditional love

The Japanese singer with the
black eyes and hair and...

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SYRACUSE DEPARTURE

Twelve degrees at seven AM
and the weather a sharp bitter
force off Lake Ontario
The daybreak is luminescent
gray, the bright star rising, the
cloud cover glowing like the
opalescent door to the mysterious
power source of some
Jules Verne wonder
Passengers...

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