Long Unrecognizable Poems

Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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A young girl who’s lost & wandering in the darkness cries out

“If there’s a God out there please save me!”

The darkness replied with silence

But she kept listening so intently to the nothingness around her,

Clenching and...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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Endless sunflower field 
Rhythmically swaying in the wind
Like lazy ocean wave stretches 
To the distant line of horizon
Touching the edge of the sky
Melting into hot noon brilliance
Boiling all shades of yellow into
One burning brightness of...

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Ah... tis nothing greater than...

malfunctioning heater 
on that brisk winter day
recorded here as proof positive
regarding following reasonable rhyme.

While scrolling thru 
poems crafted yesteryear,
I chanced to jog my memory where
there
occurred power outage necessitated 
more than divine...

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I relished being hungry for Thanksgiving pop slop gloppy grub

whereby the missus didst potchke
created whirling dervish hubbub
after enjoying repast, 
(fit for a tarnished king),
yours truly able, eager, and ready
to soak my ego freezing carcass in...

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A Mutual Enemy
By Reg Rhodes



My friend and I have a dangerous and mutual enemy. It is called alcohol, and 
it is killing her. 

Masquerading as her best friend, the alcohol is cunning.  Repeatedly, it...

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The Power of Forgiveness
By Reg Rhodes





Today, I found a key to set myself free from the nightmares of my own 
shattered reality.  

Today, with the key known as forgiveness;
I will cease to languish in...

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It was a day like every other day, sunny and warm they said
New Yorkers smiling and happy, looking for their daily bread
Taxis were darting here and there, planes flying everywhere
Children were going to school, parents...

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An image of the netherworld envisioned by a misanthrope

Mein kampf fraught re: 
emotionally/psychologically challenged 
impossible mission to cope
compared to classmates, I felt like a dope
and entertained escapist fantasies,
whereby Miss Rainbow 
(sixth grade student teacher),
though robbing...

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She was having a certain level of difficulty discerning the exact moment it had started. She knew it started somewhere…everything else did. Maybe it had been during the summer that she could not smile. Not...

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there comes a time when
people you once respected
reveal
or you discover
the real
person behind the mask

face facts
people who never wanted you
to do better
than them
are now wishing
that you would 
shut your mouth
stop your tweeting
delete your facebook
get out of...

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Deep within the bowels of the Earth
(dark visceral centre)
immensely distant from the sheltering sky
amidst a thick fog enveloped landscape
with here and there a projected
craggy, derelict chasm
precipitously crooked 
rocky claws pointing toward

an infinitely wide yawning abyss
dwelt...

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This dread disease that has afflicted my home, 
This malady, this plague on my house;
This making convertible the former quaintness and provincialism thereof 
Into something wholly despicable and disgustingly homogeneous,
Yclept "cosmopolitanism," and "worldliness," and "globalization,"...

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Can you see them run to me – arms wide and laughing,
calling me, Mama: keeper of the stars, moon and hearts?
Can you see them kiss away my pain, healing every hurt
that’s ever marked me broken,...

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Slowly with unstable steps, she approaches.
The room is dank a foreboding intensity permits the air.
She is shaking as the memories wrap their inky hands around her throat.
The terror starts to build as the anguish she'd...

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Take me away with a wave of fantasy
To an ocean of wonders so full of glee
A world where I’m empowered and free
Where no sorrows can bother me.

Traveling in time, to different places
To many eras, filled...

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Mood Swings.
That's what you're made of.
Mood swings and lies.
That's the only thing you're good for.

You keep playing your game.
By the end of this quarter you'll lose your fame.

Funny thing is,
You used to be my hero.
Now...

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For reasons unspeakable and meanings misunderstood,
Her body was desecrated, mistaken for his good.

Battered, broken, betrayed, and bruised,
Her spirit was robbed from her, her trust misused.
	
Confused and weary, retreat her only choice,
The pain of betrayal silenced...

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More than 1,000 men, sometimes women
forced to clandestine detention centers.
Relatives mystified as to there whereabouts.
Some Russian troops bribed 
with money, weapons or ammunition.
Returning gave rise to evidence
of rape to both women and men,
constant beatings rendering...

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Ah... tis nothing greater than...
malfunctioning heater on brisk winter day!

Thee particular date being
December twenty eighth,
two thousand nineteen, I saith
the Jack of all trades
maintenance technician

Kevin Blank said he would notify
HVAC expert in good faith,
yet to compliment...

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Deep within Earthen bowels
immensely distant from sheltering sky
amidst a thick fog enveloped landscape
with here and there a projected
craggy, derelict chasm

precipitously crooked 
rocky claws pointing toward
an infinitely wide yawning abyss
dwelt kindred spirits 

comprising soul asylum
where grateful...

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Early/mid afternoon May 22nd, 2020...

Raindrops percolate Perkiomen Valley watershed
pleasant reprieve versus quite warm temperatures
yesterday found yours truly averse attempting re:
ding outside, the secluded alcove visible looking
thru single bedroom window here, once upon time

former Schwenksville Elementary...

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All rise for the Honorable D.O.J. is now presiding, Guilty was all that I was embracing, everyone knew that I had done it, yet God had a different decree that He was making, Gun shots...

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All rise for the Honorable D.O.J. is now presiding, Guilty was all that I was embracing, everyone knew that I had done it, yet God had a different decree that He was making, Gun shots...

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