Best Discloses Poems

Crows gather around the mysterious, abandoned castle, 
Its bastions and towers drowning within a mournful silence. 
Ghostly shadows loom within the dungeons and the murder holes, 
Screams of perished souls are locked within the castle walls. 

Long it has stood there upon a mountain of...

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Soul passion is not a simple task. 
This is grasped as a soulful bask,
To reserve one's sound mind and soul,
To your loved ones, but not a hack. 

They set down those blessed vows as rule,
In a precise scheme, that's the goal,
Since the pen-pusher by now...

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"Road to Lovejoy - Piano for the Self Taught" (Part 1)



Liberation
of a sort
head out the car window
hair blowin’ in the breeze
I can hear the Crickets chirping
in the chilly winter freeze
I’m smiling 
it’s good to be alive 
until the old man shouts
“Hoi!
pull your head in a...

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To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen—
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me as I do for you?

I have trusted my jewel to...

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Renee Vivien Translations


Song
by Renée Vivien
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When the moon weeps,
illuminating flowers on the graves of the faithful,
my memories creep
back to you, wrapped in flightless wings.

It's getting late; soon we will sleep
(your eyes already half closed)
steeped
in the shimmering air.

O, the agony of burning...

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Darling Afghan grandmother, your weary hands narrates a somber tale
Your bowed head discloses your day by day yearning ail
You have masked your happiness deep under your time-honored veil
Oblivious-- that your offspring’s will follow your footprints-- and abide by this wretched 
trail.
Anosha Zereh...

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No Mark
by Michael R. Burch

A wave implodes, 
impaled upon
impassive rocks...

this evening
the thunder of the sea
is a wild music filling my ear...

you are leaving
and the ungrieving
winds demur...

telling me
that nothing returns
as it was before...

here where you have left no mark
upon this dark
Heraclitean shore.

Heraclitus said we can't step...

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Sweet sounds of every day enriching the life

Empty dark lucky enough into your lights

Life looks in the mirror at its crimson strife

Feeling within how the stars getting bright 


As I walk in the garden looking for your window

Curious to collect the crystals from your braid...

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Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here...

2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves you famished;
earthly tides
soon call you back?
one long, descending glide...

3.
Disgruntledly you...

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A pant-less lady
liked to go places
she was rather bawdy
and liked to loosen her laces

she was spied by a grandee
he pulled up his braces
then gave her lots of brandy
alas he could not undo his breeches

A pant-less lady
liked to go places
one has to admit she is barmy
as...

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Wonderland
by Michael R. Burch
 
We stood, kids of the Lamb, to put to test
the beatific anthems of the blessed,
the sentence of the martyr, and the pen’s
sincere religion. Magnified, the lens
shot back absurd reflections of each face:
a carnival-like mirror. In the space
between the silver backing and...

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Examining the measure of my calamity
I grow resentful and I inflict pain
Seeking to surrender all that possesses me
I lash out at the innocent which discloses my shame
I reach out
The intensities of my suffering I shelve out
Because my quantity is so immense

I become incoherent 
Chaos is...

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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 her thorn.


The Harvest of Roses
by Michael R. Burch

I have not come for...

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violent power seduces within
moments equipping assurance,
swirling senses of embrace, 
separating 
             circumstances
confusing the present.

our bodies succumbed-motionless
form clouds above, trembles of loneliness.

outpouring rivers of wine, 
her innocence, 
my softness 
aching squalls of temptation,
tender flesh...

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Morningstar shining.
Venus discloses brilliance.
Sunrise appearance....

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