Long Prometheus Poems

Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis, high bred poiet?s of mine

     ("Thus always I cause the death of tyrants.”)
the purported line Brutus uttered 
after assassinating Julius Caesar.

     Alternatively...

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Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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   Hypocrites sucking off the silicone tit 
of the antichrist spirit.
Man infestation from the pit of 
deliriot.
In hallowed halls of discord, whispers echo,
the chorus of the damned proletariat,
a venom, seeping...

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"The Crow Bar"

she said,
here I bury my dead,
you can hear them sleeping
somnulent forget-me-nots,
snoring blithely unaware,
in neat rows between 
the thick,
ink injected lines,
their soiled lives
ploughed and 
turned over 
replanted
sunnyside down
expunged and 
wrung out

eventually,
not totally oblivious, 
they...

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Note:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley,  Born 4 August 1792
Horsham, Sussex, England[1]
Died , 8 July 1822 (aged 29)
Gulf of La Spezia, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy)
Occupation	Poet, dramatist, essayist, novelist
Alma mater	University College, Oxford (no degree)
Literary movement	Romanticism
Spouse	Harriet Westbrook
(m. 1811;...

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In It,  I Saw Prometheus Chained And Bound


I was reading Salinger's, "Catcher In The Rye" 
A follow up from Leo Tolsty's,  "War and Peace"
I heard a voice say, "seek wisdom before you die"
Remember...

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Ashen faced Prometheus aghast at inferno gone awry

Whether arsonist at fault
or confluence of ripe conditions
triggering perfect firestorm,
the titan of fire beside himself with misery,
though no fault of his own
the raging bullish conflagration
a taste of inescapable...

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Over harvested fields —

I walk beneath the fading afterglow
of a forgotten lantern   a path worn
by wanderers older than the scroll of Zeno
its damp salve seeping through my coat
into my bones

Fog an Erebian curtain...

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Booth made famous on April 15th, MDCCCLXV... 
Sic semper tyrannis ad mortem
("Thus always I bring death to tyrants").

Ever since early forerunners 
of twenty first century
mankind (sprinted 
across trackless expanse extant
upon planet Earth), 
modern Homo Sapiens...

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For the third time Pandora stands before the box
Inlaid with jewels ivory and gold
In her hand is the key – she closely examines
Intrigued by its intricate patterns - so ancient- so old

Her Creator’s mandate she...

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Umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer
sizzles Delaware Valley today July 16th, 2024

Said geographical area composed of counties
located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey, Delaware, and
Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Sweltering temperatures
figuratively grip human zoo
bipedal hominids (yours truly,
an olive...

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The Greek gods were egotistic, arrogant, jealous,
Said to be excellent lovers, fanatics, and zealous
About everything and anything, lounged around
Adorning places like Marathona, the Acropolis
The Parthenon.  Archaeology
Maintains that Greek Mythology 
Goes back to the Bronze...

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Of Fate And The Choosing Between Scylla and Charybdis
(From Continued Greek Heroes And Mythology Series)
Part Two....
referenced, 
*Scylla and Charybdis, *Homer, *Iliad and The Odyssey, *Hades, *Heaven

Of Fate And The Choosing Between Scylla and Charybdis
(From Continued...

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Similar if not identical to last year...   
umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer...
sizzles Delaware Valley today August 26th, 2022

Said geographical area composed of counties
located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey, Delaware, and
Eastern Shore of...

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Umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer...
sizzles Delaware Valley today August 25th, 2021

Said geographical area composed of counties
located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey, Delaware, and
Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Sweltering temperatures
figuratively grip human zoo
bipedal hominids (yours truly,
an olive...

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One day in my shop, as many before,             
there appeared a beggar at my back door.   
His dirty old hand held...

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If vain thy earthly hopes did prove, thou canst not mourn their flight; Thy brightest hopes were fixed above. And they shall know no blight—Anne Bronte   

Overjoyed      ...

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A GLIMPSE OF HERITAGE

To Visit the past, is to understand your future.

The storm was moving away, the noise no longer pounding,
Sky turned blue from dark, thunder abating, hail disappearing,
I took refuge under a bridge during...

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Saturn ! You magnetised with 
enchanting icy rings
promised white gold
endless skates on 
Chrysalis circled cates
said we would go round 
like fairy rings 
said you had so much
Love to give I would never 
go wanting nor...

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after dark April 26th, 2022

Prometheus bound out the heavens
to strike fear in the hearts of men and women
reminding us mortals how like oxen yoked
(together via a wooden beam forced
to undergo strenuous labor)
unlike most elderly residents...

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Told with truth                                ...

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I may not be
The highest mountain
The deepest ocean
The most desired emotion
Or the youthful fountain
But I expected more than this decree

I see you walk off from me
Ignore me completely
As soon as you no longer need me
As...

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These are modern English translations of epigrams and poems by the ancient Greek poet Erinna...

On a Betrothed Girl
by Erinna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I sing of Baucis the bride.
Observing her tear-stained crypt
tell Death who dwells...

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Prometheus
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

obscure Your heavens, Zeus, with a nebulous haze!
and, like boys beheading thistles, decapitate oaks and alps.

yet leave me the earth with its rude dwellings
and my hut...

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Death by gypsy violin
Will push you out then pull you in
Requiem for a burning pyre
Raising twilight ashen choir

Up beyond that frozen place
Up beyond all time and space
No hungry knife shall clip thy wing
No wild wasp...

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