Long Weighty Poems

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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Now we along one of hard rims are brought;
And a thin spray on the  brook is fixed, 
So shield to rims and water is begot.

As Flemings, Cadsand and Bruges bewixt,
Fearing the high waves pouncing...

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Madison's defense of the establishment clause to the Virginia legislature:
"Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, and not only during the...

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Money
and Manna
both root back to Maneh
of deep and weighty Babylonian coinage.

Maneh transcends spiritual/natural divides
to nurture nutrition's co-present values,
dew-fall grace from Earth's diamond curious treasures
tribal communions inspired with physical bread

And yet also 
more deductive
reductive Win/Lose seductive...

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POTD 30th August 2018 

The gently swaying branches of the old oak should elicit calmness
And yet a sense of foreboding permeates the midnight air
Wild imaginings?  Or did shadows flit across the leaf strewn path?
No...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

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A Debate

The Atheist
I see no reason for a god
Indeed for any type of god at all
I look around at all the churchmen
The pompous richly dressed ones
And wonder what their founder would have thought
And then at...

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Weighty governance,
to optimize bicamerally Timeless Truths,
integrate bilateral Ways,
to health-grow binomial ego-eco
in-out
Life,
was RNA elder
and remains DNA
fractal stuff
of ZeroZoned Taoism,
4D RealTime Zen,
FourSeasoned Permaculture Design
Four spiraling ecosystemic points
in Work and WinWin Play That ReConnects
healthy systemic-game restoring justice,
local with...

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Written 28 April 2024

“Genius begins great works. Labour alone finishes them.”
          Joseph Joubert

             ...

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We have come into this epic time
for survivors of dispassion
to age into sacred communion
we can all share,
monotheist
and atheist
and pantheist
and all non-anthrosupremacists
in-between leftbrain 
snarky opinion leaders
and rightbrain 
slippery felt foolish followers
dancing what we must dance
while silently...

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IS THIS...?             Poem 8/17/

Written for Jim Eslinger , 37-year anniversary

What are these specks we must trudge over, 
Transplanting ourselves from one wilderness to
Another?...

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Joulupukki was hastily making preparations for his morning departure when Lumi and Chroí entered the room.  When he saw them he hurried over to help Chroí find a suitable chair in which to sit....

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The Way of the Coconut

The Way of the Coconut, that is our creed,
The coconut gives us all that we need.
From mental to physical, nothing left out,
It covers everything, without any doubt.
Where to begin, it’s really...

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Having been unemployed for some time, I had a fresh job prospect,
As sunlit rainbow beamed jaunty colors, the last time you checked.

I really needed some good news, as my savings were almost gone;
And without the...

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I see us
cowering within
our safety walls
of sterile
nonorganic comfort

I feel us,
almost smell us,
struggling
vacillating between pungent stink
of fear inside
and acrid
acidic anger
about life sucks outside

Emerging toward viral hate
directed against entitled Others
unwelcomed emoting immigrants
encroaching on our safe home space

It...

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                                  ...

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Convalescence of Richard McGeehan

Spouse of my eldest sister
marital bond fixed in place
strong as mortise and tenon,
he hales of hearty Irish stock
genes of said septuagenarian
analogous to pith and marrow
wrought courtesy divine providence.

At present aforementioned brother in...

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The heart calls the safety of the beats the melodic beat the beats that love beats from destiny doors  and the two shall meet to become one faith one Lord one feeling one love...

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Teeter totter

This is my voice, writing from within too without
For a long time, I wasn't listening to my soul.
I was wearing shoes to protect 
From the stones and the mud and the bugs in the...

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The sky benighted, cloudy, grim,
In such a way that even dim,
Was every thought of mine.
And ponderous drops of weighty rain,
This morbid air and smell maintain,
Thus frame this scene malign!
With eyes as dreary as the soul,
Of...

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On the Trans-West Africa High way we drove
Thoughts of decades we carried 
Rich history to be unfolded
Beautiful sights of trees and mountains we view
Hail God’s creation
For his handiwork is perfect
Stories of the Liberian camp at...

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Tell me why they criticize
why they lie
why they compromise
tell me why truth is like the jam in jelly

taken lightly stick to the belly
Tell me, yes a collar fits the neck
without choking cracking self with debt
here...

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Letter to My Wife
by Miklos Radnoti
translated by Michael R. Burch

A poem written during the Holocaust in Lager Heidenau, in the mountains above Zagubica, August-September, 1944

Deep down in the darkness hell awaits--silent, mute.
Silence screams in my...

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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...

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I have heard “The mirror tells not a lie, ’ 
I assuming myself the gorgeous one 
Abased in front of the looking-glass. 
I was one but the reflections were seven 
I was baffled either one...

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