Autumn Rights Poems

Tenebrous night steals autumn days,
Invading ink subtracts the breath of light,
With tarnished mingling edge,
With dusty dusk’s laments.

Tenebrous night of immutable grave,
Infiltrating melanin loots the golden...

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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...

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~Seasonal darkness descends~ 


Smiling pumpkin faces soon will be at our front doors,
Though children in California may not celebrate Halloween 
anymore!

Will our Christmas and Christ,...

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Spring Flower

Long fine hair, 
that lay softly across her shoulders, 
and trailed down her back, 
all the way to her waist. 
The colors of brown...

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You Lie

No.
I tell you what you want to hear. 
Sometimes when I do not, 
mostly when I do not, 
always when I do not, 
you...

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All In

Is who I am. 
Bright colors that make people gawk, 
I have a funny way I walk, as it appears I shuffle, 
but it...

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Beautiful, You Are
(Maria)

Mary, Mary, sweet Mary, 
It is your lovely face “I” see…
Looking right up to heaven, 
right up to Me. 

I hear your heart,...

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Bipedal Insects

I hate and hate and hate. 
I want to stop others from being happy. 
How dare they be safe, and well fed? 
How dare...

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Trapped

An imprisoned animal walks the bars back and forth at the zoo. 
I have seen my guy do the same thing in the garage. 
You...

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The Long Road

The highway is lined with tall pines. 
As far as the eye can see, 
as far as the soul dare to take in....

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A Pillar Gone

The old man in church, 
sat in the front row, forever. 
He was there when I came, 
and I thought…
he would be there...

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Bricka

I go to the china cabinet and look inside. 
Stuff is waiting for me there. 
Nothing of any serious value. 
Things collected over a lifetime....

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Good Morning

The light from the sun fills the window in the kitchen. 
Not all at once mind you, but at it’s on speed. 
The little...

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Missing You

The wind whispers and I focus my heart to hear.
Are you sending me your words? 
Your thoughts? 

I can think of nothing…but you. 
My...

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Today

I say good-bye, 
but I do not want to. 
I say fair-well, 
but I do not mean it. 
Be gone!
No…
I am not angry. 

I am...

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