Long Ukrainian Poems

"Blue Sky, Why?"

stories speak to us.
inside our heart 
is crying.

Blue Sky, Why?

why do children
holding sunflowers
watch their parents die

why do sweet children,
now war torn, 
some the battle's orphans,
daily lose their lives

lying in their sick beds
bombed in...

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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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Whatever Happened To Glasnost And Perestroika?

Hobbit those characters who lived 
within the realm 
of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
as far removed as
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
upon squelched cusp of progressivism,
now most likely 
experience bitterness at the...

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Mary; After entering the room, the sounds that continue to cry on the phone are heard from three doors in Joseph's room. Joseph; He knew it was downstairs and after a few days, he agreed...

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Eminent domain, manifest destiny, usurpation...

Maternal grandfather of mine
long since passed among the living;
He left his Motherland 
before onset of Holodomor,
a policy of the Soviet Union 
aimed at the destruction 
of the Ukrainian nation,
the 1932–1933 genocide...

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Glory to the Ukranian Freedom Fighters
 
Democracy and freedom are under attack
Beaurocracy and greed man,
Don’t let this war criminal come back
Putin is lootin’ the streets of Ukraine
His crimes against humanity are bordering on insane
His unprovoked aggression...

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Whatever Happened To Glasnost And Perestroika?

Hobbit those characters who lived 
within the realm 
of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
as far removed as
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
upon squelched cusp of progressivism,
now most likely 
experience bitterness at the...

Read More

Eminent domain, manifest destiny, usurpation...

Russian soldiers in general
and Vladimir Putin in particular
perpetrate outright injustice
against Ukrainian population.

Impossible mission to comprehend
the mindset of belligerent, egotistical,
indignant, NeoNazi, tsarist
self anointed totalitarian zealot.

Gross violation of human rights
blatantly carried out
courtesy diabolical...

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There was poetry,
In the open fields,
On the slanted blueberries,
On the skirts of schoolgirls,

There was poetry,
In the sunny cupboards,
In the quiet gardens,
In the sweet air of spring,

There was some poetry
In the caressing hands,
In the chalk of...

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“Sunflowers”



She planted the seeds
in their minds 
that perhaps 
something of beauty
could come from the bad time

could grow there
in their dead pockets
spreading like wildfire 
futile men in their beds of disarray
across the battlefields of Magog

Sunflowers

faces turned...

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Me very late mum, a funereal day...

courtesy latitudinarian, nonestablishmentarian, 
sexagenarian, and Unitarian son
and modest mastermind maven maverick.

Another anniversary of her death occurs
upon advent of 
May fourth two thousand and five,
not quite seventy years since her...

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Limericks IX



Scratch-n-Sniff
by Michael R. Burch

The world’s first antinatalist limerick?

Life comes with a terrible catch:
It’s like starting a fire with a match.
Though the flames may delight
In the dark of the night,
In the end what remains from...

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These are poems for Ukraine and Ukrainians. 

We Are Here
by Michael R. Burch

“We are here.” – Volodymyr Zelensky

We are here. Were are here.
And we won’t disappear.
We are here. We are here. We are here.

We are...

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Sappho's Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

Hushed yet melodic, the hills and the valleys
sleep unaware of the nightingale's call
while the dew-laden lilies lie
listening, 
glistening...
this is their night, the first night of fall.			

Son, tonight, a woman awaits...

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Dear God!
by Taras Shevchenko
translation by Michael R. Burch

Dear God, disaster again!
Life was once calm, serene...
But as soon as we began to break the chains
Of bondage that enslaved us,
The whip cracked! The serfs' blood flew!
Now, like...

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Love in Kyiv
by Natalka Bilotserkivets
translation by Michael R. Burch

Love is more terrible in Kyiv
than spectacular Venetian passions,
than butterflies morphing into bright tapers–
winged caterpillars bursting aflame!

Here spring has lit the chestnuts, like candles,
and we have cheap...

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Translations of Holocaust poems by Ber Horvitz aka Ber Horowitz

Der Himmel
"The Heavens"
by Ber Horvitz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
These skies
are leaden, heavy, gray ...
I long for a pair
of deep blue eyes.
 
The birds have...

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Trump poems and epigrams V

The prez should be above the law, he sez,
even though he’s no longer prez.
—Michael R. Burch



Mercedes Benz
by Michael R. Burch

I'd like to do a song of great social and political import....

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"The gift I got was a lesson of life about gratitude, friendship, and more I was taught." Gratitude poem by Max Burchett

by Maxwell Sebastian Burchett


I once received a gift
Not much did it cost.
For me no...

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This story  tells the reality of the Ukrainian, Russian war. Not all Russian Soldiers want to be there but are forced by their Russian Commanders to fight. This is such a story, the ending...

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There is at least one USA politician in Congress that believes, "World War 111 is happening in Europe!" And yet the USA and the rest of NATO are offering no military support to Ukraine because...

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Ukraine is not being fully supported by Europe because Russia has been putting pressure on it.  Because Russia has threatened Germany, they are only sending Ukraine 12,000 helmets and what good will that do!...

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Picture in your mind, a 70 year old mother and grandmother, hitchhiking from her village into a war shattered town of Bucha, desperately looking for her son's dead body. Wanting to bring his body home...

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More than seventy years ago, during WW 11, the original Axis of evil nations first existed.

It was the nations of Germany and of Japan that spear headed that former Axis of evil nations. Concerning the...

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Putin said he wouldn't invade, but then he's known for his lies
So when he sent in his murdering scum, it came as no surprise 
It will go down in the annals of history, as Putin's...

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