Winter World War I Poems

The
Pyramid
Of purple topped
Turnips takes me instantly
Into the memory of lifetime past
In which a brutal winter's cold caused
Such scarcity that purple-topped turnips were
All the children had...

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The territorial aspirations of the dictators
change in the course of aggressive adventure,
the geopolitical scenario through regional conflicts,
with the dreadful potential of global escalation.

Though the cold...

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Happy

Being happy not
True and is false or
Is a mist of clouds...

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"The Road Less Traveled"

Not all roads diverge in a wood,
Some lead to places misunderstood.
They wind and twist, never straight,
Leading us to a different fate.

While others...

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Darkness we had
Light awaits
Life we celebrate
Death awaits
Manhood we had
Oldage awaits
Strength we had
Weakness awaits
Crowds we had 
Lonliness awaits
Friendships we celebrate 
Envy awaits
Love we had
Hatred awaits
Downfalls we...

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Hay now, now sing this corrosion
Of winter wastes and Red stars white nights

And waring tribes a bully on the block 
To kick you when your...

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We thought that the inglorious Hitler
was the last of his kind,
was last of the war mongers, 
ancient and barbaric war monsters ;

The glorious "Winter of...

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I'd have loved to see the bluebirds fly
above the white chalk-cliffs of Dover--
and as they were blithely soaring over,
immersed in thought I'd lie
in calm repose...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems (I)

These are poems about World War II and the Holocaust, which is also called the Shoah in Hebrew....

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Operation Barbarossa 
the panzers start to roll,
Breaking out from Poland’s Baltic,
towards Sevastopol, 
Ten million soldiers strong,
go goose-stepping east,
The Fuhrer’s Wehrmacht, 
alongside his waffen SS elite.

No...

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ashes to ground ashes

	dust to biting dust

		birth to surrender

no phoenix

	just crumbled trenches

		no cross on the grave

        blink of...

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Yamaguchi Seishi haiku modern English translations

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Ceaseless chaos—
ice floes clash
in the Soya straits.
—Yamaguchi...

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Yamaguchi Seishi haiku translations

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.
? Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Ceaseless chaos?
ice floes clash
in the Soya straits.
? Yamaguchi...

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Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good,...

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