Best Commentary Poems

Melancholy days, listless, all through
Then, out of the blue,
A comment comes along to cheer you

My friends, I feared I had reached the end
Those words, once so lively and hale
Now crumble, numb, on my tongue
Tasteless and stale
Repetitive rut, creative gangrene
(Seriously, how many similes
for sunsets can there...

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(So many were protesting about America's secret involvement with ISIS but I didn't believe it until I read this latest news, shocking and disgusting. Poor innocent Muslims are being blamed for Americas furtive atrocities) 

Wolf disguised as sheep kills the poor sheep
Makes many in the...

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Additional free advice to those* who would be King from the THIRUK-KURAL with Commentary
[*like presidents, prime ministers, dictators of declining (falling or fallen) nations or even empires]

K442: urranOy niikki uraa amai munkaakkum
            petriyaarp peenik...

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K373 and K374 of the THIRUKKURAL: Translated with Commentary

The poet's name, THIRUVALLUVAR [Thiru = Sacred and Valluvar = the name of the priesthood caste of the « Pariah » (whom Mahatma Gandhi prefered to call "Harijans", "the children of God"), is very probably a misnomer....

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165 and K166 of CANTO XVII of the THIRUK-KURAL with Translations and Commentary (continued)

(Commentary: The more I delve into Thiru-Valluvar's work, the more I'm convinced that it's not in each and every couplet that the poet's inestimable worth is ingrained; rather the self-imposed "decade" for...

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Commentary Notes on Peaceful Protest…
In the spirit of peace,
Patrick Henry once cried:
“Give me liberty or give me death!”
In the spirit of peace,
he was eventually granted his request.
how true it is---wonders
never seem to cease.
Where there’s peace,
there’s no need for protest;
there’s no instant
in this country’s history
where it...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private - 1 by T. Wignesan

                                ...

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K375 and K376 of Canto XXXVIII of the THIRUKKURAL Translated with Commentary

(Biographical details of an author, especially of someone having thrived in a land given to scant regard for documenting history in a systematic manner and in a milieu where the oeuvre took precedence over...

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near cultural shock
fall rain brings thunder...lightning?
San Francisco weird

Brian Johnston
November 9, 2015

Poet's Note:
In the Bay Area rain itself is unusual, but thunder and lightning are very rare here. On the other hand, gay people, strange political ideas (to you), super-rich people, and fashion absurdities are normal...

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Rare earth materials in cars and phones
help us hear and travel and stay in touch.
Much of human capital is in loans,
funding needs like a societal crutch.

Every device turns over in a year
to support immediate stock deadlines.
Endless mining is what we have to fear.
Endless growth is...

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K169 and K170 of CANTO XVII of the THIRUK-KURAL with Translations and Commentary

[If one could put together all that has been said, written and published on the Thiruk-Kural and on its progenitor Thiru-Valluvar, it could easily, I'd wager, exceed the volumes of the heftiest encyclopaedias,...

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you see, he grabs what he can get
that bearded fellow in the sky
because its the future and we forget
for what once people gave their life

everyone seems to forget
the bible was a book of philosophy
changed in the past for illiterate peasants
but it still carries the same...

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Hindsight 

you are watching someone all too familiar
hovering anxiously above and apart
a shadow puppet
bound to neither be seen nor heard
again you sigh and shake your head
they stumble down the wrong path 
unhurried though running offensively late
how many times must you wince 
as they pluck poison...

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Did you know there are more than 20,000 known species of bees, but only 5 percent are social bees? Only 5 percent allow you to get to know them. They’re minding their business, building their nests, and you interrupt their day to tell them, “You’re...

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