My Most Popular Poems On the Internet Ii

My most popular poems on the Internet (II) A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot of cutting and pasting! The results below are the results returned by Google at the time I did the searches. This Sappho translation has over 700 results: Sappho, fragment 22 loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch That enticing girl's clinging dresses leave me trembling, overcome by happiness, as once, when I saw the Goddess in my prayers eclipsing Cyprus. This original poem has over 700 results for the first line: Child of 9-11 by Michael R. Burch a poem for Christina-Taylor Green, who was born on September 11, 2001 and who died at age nine, shot to death ... Child of 9-11, beloved, I bring this lily, lay it down here at your feet, and eiderdown, and all soft things, for your gentle spirit. I bring this psalm?I hope you hear it. Much love I bring?I lay it down here by your form, which is not you, but what you left this shell-shocked world to help us learn what we must do to save another child like you. Child of 9-11, I know you are not here, but watch, afar from distant stars, where angels rue the evil things some mortals do. I also watch; I also rue. And so I make this pledge and vow: though I may weep, I will not rest nor will my pen fail heaven's test till guns and wars and hate are banned from every shore, from every land. Child of 9-11, I grieve your tender life, cut short ... bereaved, what can I do, but pledge my life to saving lives like yours? Belief in your sweet worth has led me here ... I give my all: my pen, this tear, this lily and this eiderdown, and all soft things my heart can bear; I bring them to your final bier, and leave them with my promise, here. My Plato translation (or “take” on Plato) has over 650 results: Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be, but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea. ?Michael R. Burch, after Plato This translation of a Middle English poem has more than 500 results: How Long the Night (anonymous Middle English poem, circa early 13th century AD) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts with the mild pheasants' song ... but now I feel the northern wind's blast? its severe weather strong. Alas! Alas! This night seems so long! And I, because of my momentous wrong now grieve, mourn and fast. This original epigram returns over 500 results for the first line: Here and Hereafter aka Saving Graces by Michael R. Burch Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ... wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter. I have dedicated the epigram above to the so-called Religious Right and Moral Majority. These Einstein limericks have over 500 results: The Cosmological Constant by Michael R. Burch Einstein, the frizzy-haired, said E equals MC squared. Thus all mass decreases as activity ceases? Not my mass, my ass declared! Asstronomical by Michael R. Burch Relativity, the theorists’ creed, says mass increases with speed. My (m)ass grows when I sit it. Mr. Einstein, get with it; equate its deflation, I plead! Relative to Whom? by Michael R. Burch Einstein’s theory, incredibly silly, says a relative grows willy-nilly at speeds close to light. Well, his relatives might, but mine grow their (m)asses more stilly! This original poem has over 500 results: Neglect by Michael R. Burch What good are tears? Will they spare the dying their anguish? What use, our concern to a child sick of living, waiting to perish? What good, the warm benevolence of tears without action? What help, the eloquence of prayers, or a pleasant benediction? Before this day is over, how many more will die with bellies swollen, emaciate limbs, and eyes too parched to cry? I fear for our souls as I hear the faint lament of theirs departing ... mournful, and distant. How pitiful our "effort," yet how fatal its effect. If they died, then surely we killed them, if only with neglect. This Matsuo Basho haiku translation has nearly 500 results: The first soft snow: leaves of the awed jonquil bow low ?Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Other poems and translations with more than 100 results: Speechless by Ko Un translation by Michael R. Burch At Auschwitz piles of glasses, mountains of shoes ... returning, we stared out different windows. Shattered by Vera Pavlova loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I shattered your heart; now I limp through the shards barefoot. Come, investigate loneliness! a solitary leaf clings to the Kiri tree ?Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Ah butterfly, what dreams do you ply with your beautiful wings? ?Fukuda Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch While you decline to cry, high on the mountainside a single stalk of plumegrass wilts. ?O no Yasumaro (circa 711), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Nun Fun Undone by Michael R. Burch Abbesses’ recesses are not for excesses! Sappho, fragment 156 loose translation by Michael R. Burch She keeps her scents in a dressing-case. And her sense? In some undiscoverable place. Sappho, fragment 58 loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Pain drains me to the last drop . An ancient pond, the frog leaps: the silver plop and gurgle of water ?Matsuo Basho, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly and carried a big stick; Donald Trump speaks loudly and carries a big shtick.?Michael R. 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