Long Unwieldy Poems

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

Read More

Neigh say being  corralled & cult shod 

"Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis"
translation = thus always I 
bring death to tyrants.”

Above the fray of twittering, 
squabbling, and madding crowds,
an arrogantly belligerent creature deified, 
yet vilified...

Read More

“Goooood morning!  I’m Wade, and I’m having a fantastic morning here at Starbucks! What can I get started for you today?” 
I look over at the Starbucks drive-through lane from the Goodwill donation drop-off...

Read More

Callimachus English translations

For Gail White

To the Cup-Bearer
by Callimachus
translation by Michael R. Burch

Decant the wine then toast "To Diokles!" Nor does the beautiful boy Achelous touch his hallowed ladlefuls. So beautiful the boy, Achelous, passing beautiful,...

Read More

Come sit and I will serenade
A sad, colossal flub,
A tale about a marinade.
(Well, truthfully a rub)

It is a long and sordid tale;
Not sure where to begin.
My sensibilities assailed,
Yet I must jump on in.

The task at...

Read More

The new roves are not like the old,
They purvey an unwieldy aspect
To their elderly kindred folk;
Even on this steep hill forms encroach
Upon an edifice grand of bygone grandeur;

 So to ‘Ghurt Muire’ that Jacobean domain
With...

Read More

Serious sibling subluxation... 
rapprochement somewhat salvaged dislocation

Truth be told about following poem 
mostly written quite some years ago, 
and revisions made to recreate
and revise a more satisfactory literary product.

This trademark ungainly, unsightly,
and unwieldy title essentially
huzzah...

Read More

Serious Sibling Subluxation... 
Rapprochement Somewhat Salvaged Dislocation

This trademark ungainly, unsightly,
     and unwieldy title essentially
     huzzah mask queer aid,
and accentuates tendency
     (mine) to administer
...

Read More

The sharp knife of simplicity 
cut a transverse incision through my scalp.
The hands of hope gutted out my psyche,
deconstructed my mind,
and organized it into a coherent tumor
that fills the gap once deep in my brain....

Read More

(alternately titled “How art thou dear reader?”)

(Inexplicably triggers domino effect
and doth indirect
lee send favorable
     ripples vibrantly unchecked.)
vagaries of an uncertain
     today or tomorrow
    ...

Read More

The corpus millennia has crawled down the vale,                           ...

Read More

Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces 
(INF) Treaty nixed, asper (gasp) infinite
wisdom (quite unsettling) trumpeting  
commander in chief de facto gave green

light, thus signals fasttrack, sans arms 
race activating Armageddon churning 
noble nuclear warheads damn the...

Read More

On life’s rebound mere months ago
caught head to toe in throes of woe
the youngest in my fam’ly crew
with insight to my rescue flew
she wrote me in, the caring mite
as member of a friendship site

From every...

Read More

ULYSSES

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now...

Read More

Oh, for the love of God... 
      Why must you always stay 
 Tethered to me? Sever your strings.

     You keep creeping behind me;
  ...

Read More

Spring necked victim 
                  Will be decked again
          ...

Read More

Genesis: God’s plan unfolding
Father, with the Word, creates;
Spirit on the water hovers
God, how great and wise you are!

          Caterpillar - slow, unwieldy
    ...

Read More

Words as offensive weapons
dwell on ugliness of bad-humored life.

Words as effective tools
dwell on beauty and truth
of good-humored health,
empowerment,
love.

Yet, swords become plowshares.
Plowshares are repurposed as unwieldy swords.
Regenerative intent becomes degenerative chaos.
Degenerative discontent becomes regenerate
tipping points
within silent...

Read More

The ship of state lumbers along the horizon
Like a gigantic seagoing vessel, she struggles
To stay afloat in turbulent waters she lies in,
A pilot must keep her afloat during troubles.

Like a gigantic seagoing vessel, she struggles
With...

Read More

Life leaves scratches
        her fear of limitations
        in an unwieldy gait
        uncertain in her...

Read More

Pummelled intensity, underneath we face her force
Exhaled wide eyed in white, witness rainforest exhibit
Splashed grins enfold a third tongue, waterfall
Her glistening christening combines us in sublime


Drilled by severity, her embrace as strong as yours
Like waterfall's...

Read More

Watercress  Heaven

Thirty-five years I've travelled these backroads,

.....renewing my soul, while being nourished by local artisans, I now call my friends.
Bread they've baked, milk coaxed from unwieldy goats in the wee hours,
beauty defining paintings, in...

Read More

If We Don Need Um-Why Feed Um
 
We do not need to feed -
who we do not need
Every since they yelled
thar's gold in dem dar hills
dars oil in dat der groun
there's
diamons in dat der mine
there...

Read More

As I drink from that strange fountain. 
I’m going to give you a single clue. 
And tell you where the treasure lies. 
The whole treasure, 
Could take hours to explain through the sparkles. 
I have...

Read More

I woke up to see such a ginormous granny.
I woke up to inhale the aroma of the gravy.
I woke up in a surrounding full of grouchy.
Though am little grumpy but am like a guppy.
I woke...

Read More