Lady's Favor

These are poems about recollection, poems about remembrance, poems about memories, poems about time and things we forget as well as remember... Lady's Favor by Michael R. Burch May spring fling her riotous petals devil- may-care into the air, ignoring the lethal nettles and may May cry gleeful- ly Hooray! as the abundance settles, till a sudden June swoon leave us out of tune, torn, when the last rose is left inconsolably bereft, rudely shorn of every device but its thorn. The Effects of Memory by Michael R. Burch A black ringlet curls to lie at the nape of her neck, glistening with sweat in the evaporate moonlight... This is what I remember now that I cannot forget. And tonight, if I have forgotten her name, I remember... rigid wire and white lace half-impressed in her flesh, our soft cries, like regret ...the enameled white clips of her bra strap still inscribe dimpled marks that my kisses erase... now that I have forgotten her face. Remembrance by Michael R. Burch Remembrance like a river rises; the rain of recollection falls; vague memories, like vines, entangled, cling to Time's collapsing walls. The past is like a distant mist, the future like a far-off haze, the present half-distinct an hour before it blurs with unseen days. Swiftly the years mount by T'ao Ch'ien loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Swiftly the years mount, exceeding remembrance. Solemn the stillness of this spring morning. I will clothe myself in my spring attire then revisit the slopes of the Eastern Hill where over a mountain stream a mist hovers, hovers an instant, then scatters. Scatters with a wind blowing in from the South as it nuzzles the fields of new corn. The wildflowers and my love wilted with the rain as I idly wondered where in the past does love remain? —Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Fading memories of summer holidays: the closet’s last floral skirt... —Michael R. Burch Ebb-tide: everything we stoop to collect slips through our fingers ... —Fukuda Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Outside my window the plums, blossoming, within their curled buds, contain the spring; the moon is reflected in the cup-like whorls of the lovely flowers I gather and twirl. —Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Keywords/Tags: recollection, remembrance, remember, memory, memories, spring, flowers, rain, time, tide, tides, ebb-tide