Long Usurper Poems

"The Messenger"

Love is rich with 
venom and honey. 

there was a female ...

snake, 
it watched 
with green-eyed 
avarice, covetting
a dove’s nest

the dove, 
was white as snow, 
not young, getting on,
tiny flecks of grey

the dove 
alone,...

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“The True Mother”

What part of a heart
in another could one trust
when betrayal comes
like a silver bullet, words and deeds
sharp piercing to burrow 
bleed out Life’s dreams 
rust crumbles to dust

Virulent apathy spreads 
Betrayal’s destruction 
hand...

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Fadwa Tuqan has been called the Grand Dame of Palestinian letters and The Poet of Palestine. These are my translations of Fadwa Tuqan poems originally written in Arabic.



Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by...

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English translations of Arabic poems by Fadwa Tuqan aka "The Poet of Palestine"

Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Enough for me to lie in the earth,
to be buried in her,
to sink...

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"White Noise and the Mother Load of Dark Matter" 

underneath the static
what exists 
is never seen nor heard

for what it truly is 
the eyes and mind 
retaliate in the deciphering

the invisible return 
each night and...

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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...

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“The Tear”



How many oceans of salt 
does it take to form a tear?

Unrelenting waves of sorrow 
pounding a broken heart
hears the howl of sharp beaked foolish flying monkeys
ignorant feeding frenzies swallow whole lost families 
swept...

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The weeds have sheathed the garden from its care as more nails than wood appear of a house lacking adjectives. A sun liberated from scathing entrapment amongst an overburdened forest whose boughs are heavily laden...

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Was Saul a Deeply Flawed Intellectual Snob (Perhaps a Prude as Well)?
Does Christ's Protest Still Ring True Today?

Part 1:
I'll state my aim clearly, "I come, not to praise Paul (Christ honored?) but bury
usurper? Profane, anti-Christian's...

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"Understood"




My feet stand solemn
grounded they're barefoot 
sinking in the undertow,
feeling what’s real

my toes grip the past

while the slow words 
wash it irrevocably away 
the ego sashays
and hangs that Faust in the wardrobe

Locks it away
turns the...

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THE BLOODY TOWER

I am so trapped a phantom princess, on an ethereal plain, spiritually
Forgotten in isolation's domain, in hell's chamber of brick and mortar,
In this imprisonment of the unjust, I'm the innocent accursed, in England's
Bloody...

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Q:  When the Lord Jesus Christ destroys the old heaven and the old earth, will he
      completely destroy it by fire?

A:   He will destroy it by fire...

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from conscionable, fashionable, 
and inimitable laudable official,
regal unequivocal x all did (re: exalted)
gratuitously justifiable management, 

this citizen banker does hint intend zealous altercation, 
but bestir commonwealth, dutifully engineering 
fairness, given hover into jaundiced keeper
LivingSocial lee,...

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Where did you find safety when you were a child, 
?Did flight also help you, I wonder my friend? 
?I felt like it did me, but that was because
?My mom didn’t try hard to suss...

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“The Big Blues and Baptismal Alice”



In the land of the dirty politician
Steely resolve was borne bidding
farewell to thinly veiled conceit and division
that particular brand of milk had long in the tooth turned sour
in her red-hot...

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The stranger is strange, pariah, leper sounds offbeat,
 Neither truculent, nor relevant, all destined to encounter the doomed relic;
The bizarre outlander, alien to stimulate the instant pulse-beats!
The uninvited hobnobber, one despises to welcome in routine...

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She hailed from the kingdom in the north named Israel.
This woman must have had her beginnings in hell.
She was wicked princess of Ahab and Jezebel.
Intemperance nearly led to great Judah’s death knell.
A heathen worshipper of...

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                   The in-sense of dying night falls 
         in...

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Ephesians 4:27 admonishes all believers in Jesus Christ, not to give a place to the devil.  As a direct result of our anger because when we lose control of our own emotions, the devil...

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Absalom’s Rebellion

After Amnon raped Tamar,
who was Absalom’s beautiful sister,
Absalom plotted to kill
His incestuous, lustful brother.
Amnon fled to Talmai 
to his mother’s father, the king.
Absalom’s rebellion may have been avoided, 
with punishment David failed to bring.

King...

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Bow the great dragons, unto the mighty,
Ruler under heaven.
The divine master's iron heel, lies upon the
Serpents neck.
For brilliance illusion a golden throne shines,
Blinding those whom refuse to see the truth.
The trail leading unto the river...

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They practise their guns on the land of the innocence, 
these loathsome creatures wipe out the lines of our army,
now we are what left to secure this homeland, 
"Come forth my soldiers" the cry of...

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Rufescent clouds descend on the Victorian horizon as the sky dies
Beneath them bone chilling winds roar as salvos,
I feel like an acceptor who adheres to the doctrine of disguise
While looking through the prism of a...

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Powerful and prosperous, all laws are far from his sight.
With pride, he boasts of victory and valour in the fight.
His winning ways, captures his victim's heart and mind.
Whilst vilifying the peacemaker, the humble and the...

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"My Kingdom will rise above all others. I'll always put it first."
He spoke with the devil perched upon his left shoulder,
but no angel sat on the right of this diabolical sinner.
The king pointed his scepter;...

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