Long Unrivaled Poems

These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Look up in the sky ! It’s a bird ! It’s a plane.
It’s Superman !
More powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. This fearless...

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Yet at this very moment the cathedral was crumbling
down upon the cries of foresaken refugees, 
the monastery's walls wobbling from war's wreckage, 
and as the black bursts billowed into sun drenched brutality
with the bodies of...

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As I ascend the podium, a predator of piquant pontifications, my eyes ravage the assemblage of adversaries, their countenances a canvas of consternation and morbid fascination. The atmosphere is heavy with the miasma of malignant...

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They tell us once there was a crow.
Wavering alone in the peril zone 
The feeble is not straight on a clue.
It has been winging since the era of stone.

The crow saw the cost of the...

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Earth         was a perfumed garden
residing in a single                   ...

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Sappho Translations XIII by Michael R. Burch

In these translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any way, shape...

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Gym lights take a little while to run
Flickers, bickers with itself
Fade on
Nightly, he lays, contemplating
The escape of his talent
When did it happen
While I run my manicure on his scalp
Attempting to purge anxiety 
He always said...

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gripping numbness
ripples across my face,
infinite timed tears
burn through my skin, 
glittering a fire
of unrivaled suffering 

grief beyond measure 
rips apart my psyche, 
keening at a moonless sky 
I am bereft of my star,
mourning an existence...

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Choking Back The Tears!

This papa did accurately
surmise undeclared war
strong armed lance pierced my armour,
ah...how fondly he recalls
early fatherhood days of yore,
when daddy's first born girl

did effusively adore
yours truly, he likened self as topnotch
trooper, who mustered...

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The night descends upon the kingdom of Gaa
As the king prepares, in his chambers, for his night
Upon summoning the queen for all of his desires
He is confident of success for tomorrow’s fight.

Meanwhile, in Sura, a...

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You, my homeland
Are of a beauty unrivaled
From one coast to the other
Your plains and rolling hills and pointy peaks
Cry to the heavens of freedom
Your jagged coasts and sandy keys
Offer the arms of welcome and opportunity...

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African-American and abusive, my late step-dad 
     was a reverse racist:
an army sergeant; a Vietnam vet; and, a backhand,
     face-hitting sadist.

I once bemoaned that I was a...

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Clad in his double-breasted royal toga
Filled of nothing but pride and anger
His face as grim as a Pallbearer’s
His gaze dreadful and fearful like that of 
A raging rattlesnake about to strike
His eyes crackling charcoal fire-red
His...

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Written: December 30, 2024 for Contest Sponsored by: Edward Ibeh

Fearful individuals may find claustrophobic environments enticing. He battled his formidable opponent Cacoethes for the final two furlongs and won. By Poet


    ...

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upon waking from a splendid plunge 
   into the depths of deep dreamy restful sleep
anchors away set adrift this body electric, 
   which succombed instantaneously 
   (without counting sheep)
nor...

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Bronwyn the Barbaric was a buxom lass
the envy of all her peers
She spoke with unrivaled swashbuckling sass
her pirate-ess fashion was fierce

She could charm off the arms of the most hardened men
how they'd swoon at the...

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Reprobate fictional schnorrer...

Who never did a lick of work 
gifted lifelong entitlement,
yet possessed webbed wide world reputation
actually humble contemplative earthling
jump/kick started cosmic consciousness
as modest (née supreme)
unrivaled spiritual leader
with natural born talent
to resolve conflicts
without uttering a...

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My life, my apprehension        		

	(1)	Quietly, into this life, I came in creeping 
		The life my mother gave me, 74 years ago, 
		As a John Doe, while the whole...

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There's once in a lifetime

and there's once in a while...

The difference is more than a million miles! 



The long road to a journey's end

From the moment of birth to the birth of best friends

A fitting...

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I have hit a point in my life that’s unfair,
And I say to you, welcome to my nightmare.
My decisions have all become so stale,
Continuing like this I will surely fail.
I expect to become nothing, why?
Probably...

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We are the tintinnabulating trolls
To the rock rock bottom of our nonexistent souls.
Madder than the maddest hatter,
Hear us bellow, bray, and bleat;
And we prattle pitter-patter
In our jabberwocky chatter
To a bumbulating beat.
See us zim zam zoom
As...

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Author Note:  Anapestic tetrameter: two unstressed syllables followed by a 
stressed syllable.


So I queried some poets who dance 'cross our pages,
With such lightness and patterns and passion-filled phrases.
"When your guidance is sought by one...

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She’s the princess of the world of silence.
Existing outside our normal human touch,
She sees every good, bad, deed we do.
She passes no judgment, just perseverance.
Realizing this world has choice, as such.
Caring not what we decide,...

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"recently scenes of early life have stolen into my mind, like breezes blown ..."

                     ...

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