Long Two lines Poems

Sharing my translation of a famous poem (Sadharan Meye) written by Rabindranath Tagore, who won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. It's one of his story-like poems, written in Bengali, which is one of the...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

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Bharathidasan’s “Pulikku nay enta muulai” (To the Tiger, the Dog knows no safe dwelling!) translated by T. Wignesan 

Bharathidasan (1891-1964) was a self-proclaimed disciple of the eminent Brahmin poet: Cuppiramania Bharathiyar (cf. two poems of...

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There once was a young man from Szechwan,
who thought his prick looked like a pecan.
He met Bertha Butts,			
who was hankering for nuts,		
so he gave her his pecan to chew on.
The women in my Viking village
don't...

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Contest : The Prismatic Self
Sponsor : Daniel Henry Rodgers
Date submitted : 19/5/25

—————- 

“Contests around track, contests for followers,
for best tasting wine, most exquisite 
architectural design ~ endless
quests to become best versions of Self,
sharpen mind, mould...

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Long Bridge/final verse:
I need you to move on for me…and I will be free somewhat
I want you to motivate me the way you used to be as you ought
Be gone from the place you were...

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{"I fall into the river drenched in my own expectancy, 
The peddles inside enveloping me as a fairytale destined to be. However I knew life was far from being caressed and revived by fiction once...

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Smoke
by Michael R. Burch

The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in) my mind, and I can't say
if...

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Summer Haze
by Michael R. Burch

The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in) my mind, and I can't...

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(Warning: it has a sexual theme...)

Imagine you and I 
Together, we will fly
But, first and foremost,
Let's spread butter to the toast 

Suicide nervana plays me like the piano player to the piano 
It's a ride...

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What are words other than coffin nails be?
Who does it belong to when it rails me?
An empty vessel at best that bails thee.

Lend me your ear and draw your heart near;
my words might seer, but...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) 
Part One- Final revision

Darkly,  the tumid rushing waters flow
where any man most wisely fears to go.
Liquid blackness singing in epic pain
torture, misery and cries of the insane!
Echoes...

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The Antics Of A Yoyo Thief

Potential life of as juvenile delinquent
(ala bam mean future streetwise thug)
stopped dead in the tracks – manacles
the above two lines hopefully gives hint
nearly changing changing life of one boy
an undersized...

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BULLETS IN THE SOUP POT
I
BEFORE THE MIRROR
Sometimes, I sit on my sofa
Pondering on why war, poverty, hatred
and anguish has become a comforting bliss.
They say life is an unending quest; is it?
They say true love lasts...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) Part One-Revised

Darkly,  the tumid rushing waters flow
where any man most wisely fears to go.
Liquid blackness singing in epic pain
torture, misery and cries of insane!
Echoes of  Eperius...

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The root word for religion is not kind – 
Latin verb that means to tie or to bind – 
as it tends to play tricks on anyone’s mind. 

For some, the edicts lash; they mercilessly...

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It was a freezing night in Alaska, the temperature had 
dropped to well below zero, fifteen below with a driving 
wind that shrieked and laughed as it sped viciously past
causing lashing snow flakes to fall...

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Metre in the THIRUKKURAL: Kural 35 of Canto 4, a random example.

alukkaa ravaavekuli yinnaacchon naangku
milukkaa viyanra tharam (unrefined, given in the original state of  
         ...

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In Search of 50 Names(couplets alphabetized for ease of footnoting the names)

A) A tom cat sits in heather nearby a willow tree.
Rose and jasmine fill the air. A billy goat I see.

B) 50 words that...

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Song Lyrics I

"We Came Together" was written as song lyrics for New Zealand composer David Hamilton.

Song Lyrics: We Came Together
by Michael R. Burch

We came together – people of two lands
so unalike, at first, we hardly...

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No stars tonight, yet eyes transcend towards bright moonlight.
Oh Moon, without words, we converse in lone quiet moonlight.

Angst of two hearts apart, shows in somber persona,
spirit fears her vision will fade with benight moonlight.

Untouched unique...

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A Great Fun
We do majestic on the day of justice,
She will say plz keep quiet for God sake.

Your Misanthropy
Your every verbum has tranquility,
I'm starving for your misanthropy.

Your Gracious
Please don't come for my condolence,
Your gracious will...

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Coplas on Wine

( here, the famous AntiPoetic Chilean Poet Nicanor Parra, b. 1914, uses the more popular form of the « copla » genre that he contains in quatrains of 8 to 10 syllables with...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) Part 1

Dark the tumid, rushing waters flow
where man most wisely fears to go
Liquid blackness sings of epic pain
torture, misery and cries of insane
Echoes of evil Eperius in the...

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Mnemonic Devices: Rhyme and Alliteration in the THIRUKKURAL, a random example: Canto 4, K35 by T. Wignesan

alukkaaru avaavekuli innaacchol naangkum
ilukkaa iyanrathu aram (refined, shorn of connective particles)
The way of vileness, self-congratulatory aid, ire and foul-mouthing...

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