Short Portuguese Poems

All Porto geese 
speak Portuguese.

Volodymyr Knyr
2014...

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Portuguese-born Paula Rego
feminist issues her artistic lingo
In a suite of pastel etching
her spotlight did bring...

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  The Head of Spanish Geese
    couldn’t find a single Portu-geese

  Even the prettiest of ‘Pretty Pleases’
    Couldn’t persuade those geeses
                     ~ to renew their visas
...

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Plus silver  pledged word
you desire Golden silence
I wish  beach bronze





PS BEACH OF bronze... means tan under THE sun, in portuguese bronzeado,
amorenado, our color when we go to the Beach......

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If you're in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo,
or a little further north in Rio De Janeiro,
there is one important Portuguese word to know.
If Lisbon is where you go,
or if you travel to Oporto,
to thank anyone in these cities, just say "obrigado".
...

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A Beach in Cascais

On the beach of Cascais
Human seals, jam-packed
Soaking up the sun.
Female seals
 are eying each other.
Who has the best tan?
Then they all go home
To dark shuttered flats
The fear of being seen
At home by prying eyes
sits deep in the mind
Of the Portuguese....

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Caper with asparagus porridge,
accompanies fake ravioli
with supreme sweet eggplant ...
All sipped with a porto wine
of passion fruit ....
Hawaii vermicelli,
rubbing mussels
bread crumbs
crowded larva sections
inside peanut crumbs
portuguese cognac within
and pineapple with avocado
al juice...

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After all this time
Dare we go there?
Eventually we have no choice
Unknowingly the decision was made for us  
So although I am a little sad this is adieu; until we meet again


*Gerald (suggestion of the word in Portuguese)  & Jack (his persistency :)
Hope you are not disappointed* 

©146011092013...

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National day

25 of April Portugal's
national day
It so happened my ship, birthed that day
a night Lisbon didn't sleep
Great Jubilation
whores gave their wares for free
thieves didn't steal
and the bar owner splashed brandy.....
generously into your glass
I came back onboard five in the morn
waving a Portuguese banner


...

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A Portuguese Village 

One has to deal with gossip
the trick is to be polite
but don't get involved
Be friendly but not overly so
They all have dogs
get them to like you
your neighbors will see you
as a friendly sort
The villagers drink wine
but you will not see them
drunk on the road
Follow these simple rules
and you can do as you like
and be free  

...

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My language
of latin language powder,
fights between Hispanic
and Anglicism...
but lives curdled
of the many languages...
It harbors Arab subtleties
and Africans presents
and is studded with neologisms
of the inventors of words and concepts...
My Portuguese is a patchwork quilt
fruit of a base and several sources...
Fight for its universality
in the immense Babel
that is our world.. !...

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Fado 
What do we do with Fado, this guitar sound and 
guttural Portuguese voice that has a twang of
Arabia in its heart and is pure poesy.

Life, loss longing and the finality of death, is in 
songs that celebrate love’s unbearable sweetness, 
our tragedy and the unobtainable.  

Yes, sing me a Fado, let me hear the guitar and
I will close my eyes float in a sea of melancholy
and remember you....

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Here always in fight
    inconfidence,  never ends...
       for bread and for life





   PS Liberta quae sera tamen !
The Inconfidência Mineira was a political conspiracy organized by professionals, the military and members of the economic and social elite of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais in the late 1780s – a time when Brazil was still a Portuguese colony.
liberta quae sera tamen was the motto...

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i only
know of
one to ask

so don't
know if it's
true that and

so i'll
ask in
poetry if

you dare
say what i
write might be

thought
of or taken
as if it were a

poem 
but this
is more of

a linguistic
question only
asked because

someone
told me that
it was true so i

thought
of you Alkas
and so am asking

when you
speak Portuguese
can you use or not never

use a
double
negative?...

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   ~ Portuguese Corpora-tease ~

    If, in a manner of speaking
       as it were

    The thing is, to my mind
       in all honesty 
          
    Transparency, at the end
       of the day, is our #1 priority

    at the heart of our mission
       the foundation stone of our culture          

     And you have my word on that
       so to speak



   ~ Copyright, all rights reserved, 'Doubletalk Jabberwock,' Anywhere, USA
...

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I'm looking for rare verse to cover my mouth, let my chest throb ... May it be flawless May It be absolute... Verse of chaste love ... It can be a smack it can be a kiss !

      Busco um verso raro
      desses que me faça
      calar a boca... 
      Que faça palpitar
      o péito...
      Possa ele ser absoluto,
      possa ele ser perfeito...
      Verso de divinal amor,
      pode ser só uma beijoca,
      pode ser um grande beijo... !...

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Dark as a demon, but with the soul of
an angel, he's a Portuguese Water 
Dog who's never been to sea, but, as 
he oughta, he loves water, and highly
proprietary when you're watching 
TV, downtime is shared, so it's his paw
on your foot, or else it's his head. 
Morning ablutions, one leg in the air, 
he waters a thicket, which wakes up a 
cricket who begins to sing. The world 
is his lavatory. Noblesse Obligatory. 
It's a Water Dog thing.

                   for my granddog......

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The Norwegian club

We went there last night
it was set in a wine bar and the prize,15euro each, 
I refused to pay that much.
The bar was almost empty but for a group
of Norwegians who sat whispering in a corner
And there was no one to welcome us.
I was donating some books to the club
 left some of them on a table.
No one stirred.
I thought the scene was surreal.
We left and had a meal at a Portuguese
restaurant.
I suppose the books were thrown away
after closing time....

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Angolan Shipyard
Portuguese Courtyard
Slaves
Indentured servants of
Black seed

Sadist sovereignty 
Dutch property
Animals
Herded into a treasure chest
Of disease

Shackled humanity
Shipwrecked Christianity
Excess 
Baptized on the bottom
Of the sea

Altered Destiny 
English colony 
1619
Stock on a manifest
Of greed

Work your land
Savage not man
Bartered
A pound of flesh for
A crown overseas

Sold by brethren
Held by heathens
Caimile
Your daddy was 
Born free...

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