Long Trampling Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers I

I translated the first six Native American poems for my father when he chose to enter hospice and end his life by not taking dialysis …


Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation/interpretation...

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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

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Hark and listen well, if those foretoken in the eyes of hungers lust
Trapped in their illusion, trampling the Stars into dust
Forced with the detestation stench by the swamp of absolute disgust
Thou blackest scorpion be accursed,...

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My stalker arrived ripping our flag crawling over veterans memorial plaques aiming through an assault rifle from across the street her anniversary of the murder meant to end my life 20 years later in shambles...

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The Exaltation of Inanna: Opening Lines and Excerpts 
by Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon I of Akkad and high priestess of Inanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lady of all divine powers!
Lady of the resplendent light!
Righteous Lady...

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Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

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A MINISTER RETIRES :  
SOLILOQUY 

I arise as infant Phoenix 
from Akasha ashes 
counterparts frozen 
with foibles intact
a still Arctic of death
sheath for recalibration 

Source Light breathes into 
fontanelle slowly sleepily  
Sekmet my...

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Joseph Robinette Biden Junior

The last prescient perspicacious politician, 
who presided at the White House
ran out of office despite victorious landslide win
most Democrats gave their signed, 
sealed, and delivered grudging approval, 
but could not stem the...

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My terror began decades ago as I’d witnessed the plotting plans of taking a building down meetings conversations of how dynamite hand grenades including golf balls with draino finally dust pans to pour gasoline underneath...

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In the raw expanse of land where rivers sigh,  
marked by the shadows of cats and dogs,  
with each puddle of yellow reminding us  
of lives once lived, hearts bound to the...

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“Strange Ways, Here We Come”




the devil’s advocate
came waltzing 
through my doors

“I had no choice”
the supercilious harbinger said,
“to intervene, to parlay away

something 
not 
mine

now 
you're 
doing time 

not the criminal recidivist
nor usurping interloper
and their profound lies

every...

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Unquotable quotes : EVIL PEOPLE – VIIIL (42)

Animals (amphibians, reptiles),  birds, insects, dinosaurs and even imaginary beasts kill to eat. Humans for pleasure, pain and profit.

Evil people never think of Evil lest they feel...

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Crazy Horse Monument

Up there! On the Black Hills Mountain, 1
A work in progress sculptured in granite,
Of a stern faced warrior, strong and determined, 2
Unadorned in a war bonnet, with his hair flowing in the wind,
And...

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Talismanic mystical duties of an aardvark is best performed upon a desert landscape or in a dense jungle for it is merely in these two places that wild fauna can be located and ancient brands...

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I see an angel fly across the sky.
She stops and haloes Rigel,
    and looks down upon me,
         with answers I already knew.

Have you come...

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I SAT HERE IN CRISIS HEARING MY FETUS HEARTBEAT SEVERE EMOTIONAL MENTAL ILLNESS BREATHLESS PANTING SEVERE DEPRESSIVE DISORDER ANXIETY DISORDER PANIC DISORDER FINALLY STAYING FOCUSED ON MY HEART IRREGULAR HEART BEATS FUNNY BEING I WORE...

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My time on the shore
Along the edge of the shore there are no footprints
nor are there bits of driftwood from lost voyages
just the dunes behind and the horizon bedding down
It’s been this way now since...

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Animal Chain Atrocities

No longer a bucolic photo op
bedecking a cover of Life magazine

Free grazing
pastoral images
now but bewildered enslavement

Animal commodities
factory farms and feedlots
CAFO habitats raising
sixty billion a year for dinner tables

Chickens

Hi-Tech slaughter
football fields long
alethic poor
four walled...

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(alternatively titled: tardy duff fender of assertiveness,
especially after adjusting following insanity clause
affixed with rubber baby-buggy bumpers)

Methinks I nearly got snookered
courtesy CVS employee at store number 7569
(address: 1206 North Gravel Pike,
Zieglerville, Pennsylvania 19492)
September ninth, two thousand...

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Along the edge of the shore there are no footprints
nor are there bits of driftwood from lost voyages
just the dunes behind and the horizon bedding down
It’s been this way now since I first set my...

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Talismanic mystical duties of an aardvark is best performed upon a desert landscape or in a dense jungle for it is merely in these two places that wild fauna can be located and ancient brands...

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"The Golden Chord"

I have stories
caterwauling
to be told,
I will caste them out there
no matter how bold.

They will not drown,
they’ll survive
soaked to the bone,
transfigured transporting
they’re magic
for the one who sits absent
on her Royal Throne.

Some are parked on...

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