Best Puritanical Poems

Comin Thro the Rye
by Robert Burns
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
Oh, Jenny's all wet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
 
Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the rye.
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
 
Should a...

Continue reading...

Spiritual Mahjong
Your Move Lord

Is there a God?
A benevolent entity.
An eternal presence presiding over me.
A creator, watching and observing.
All knowing.
Is my end determined and conclusive before it begins, before I begin?
If so, then to what purpose am I created?
How does something so perfect, create something so...

Continue reading...

Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus thorns;
clouding your eyes
like sandstorms.

Here we shall remain,
like brick walls obstructing...

Continue reading...

Youthful temptress, aging oracle,
Nymph-like debacle, Gorgon spectacle,
Retreat from retribution’s precipice,
And a transient victory wrought by avarice,
To listen to a parable
Devoid of the empirical.

Several centuries ago in the land of the Saracen,
You were born to a tribe called the Bedouin.
Clad in hijab to protect you from...

Continue reading...

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.

This poem has also been titled "Epitaph for a Child of Gaza" and it has become my most popular poem on...

Continue reading...

Chapter 11: The Problem with Lakes

Canoes and larger lakes don’t mix well I’m afraid,
The rough equivalent of a margarita and a toothpick.
On the Mississippi a lake means a dam somewhere,
The scenic route buried now under dam water
Its prurient writhing now veiled from prying eyes
By puritanical...

Continue reading...

On this day 40 years ago in 1978 my mother, Jacqueline Anne Trestrail, left this world after a relatively short battle with cancer - she was 46. Jimmy Carter was President and Annie Hall won best picture at the Oscars that year. I mark the...

Continue reading...

Book Three of the THIRUK-KURAL on Un-Authorised (concealed) and Authorised (religion-ordained) LOVE: Cantos 109 THAGAIANANGKURAITHTHAL to 133

(Note: Love between mainly the wedded pair from the standpoint of the fair liana-like “lady” of the pliant bamboo-shoulders, light of tread, fresh as the lotus-shoot of a light-green...

Continue reading...

Part Five

Some couplets apart
         much remains redundant
    even obvious
inapt by way of pointing to fresher vistas
  and those that follow the rarity of your verse
imbibe nothing else from this age’s handy cornucopia
 ...

Continue reading...

First they came for the Muslims

after Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was not a homosexual.

Then they came for the feminists
and I did...

Continue reading...

The THIRUK-KURAL on Women who know no bounds : Canto 92 – K913, K919 and K920

(Thiru-Valluvar comes down heavily on women of the « oldest profession in the world » in this Canto 92 consigned within Book Two since the stress laid on the wishes...

Continue reading...

When Virgins Emerge

Virgins dwell on celibacy when they emerge
Even though the agenda might stray to setting dynamite
To lighting candles, eating celery, and hanging everything in sight  
Displaying imaginary tiny toys and boys with strings and hooks
Around their necks as ornaments
Christmas trees come to mind...

Continue reading...

According to the dictates of Suzy Berlinsky, 
a Hello Poetry sibilant chargé d'affaires 
female equivalent, sans Grand Poobah
aye surmise she deems my preference 

favoring lower case, especially taking 
a figurative page from thee poetic play
book of e.e. cummings, (not to be con-
fused with Elijah E....

Continue reading...

I was wondering how many renowned gay poets I know— 
Like Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and Arthur Rimbaud? 
Edna St. Vincent Millay and Alice Walker, I am told, 
Both Sylvia Plath and Gertrude Stein were rather bold. 
The “Beat Generation’s” W. H. Burroughs and Jack...

Continue reading...

A vast multitude adorn in dregs purloining, 
Fashionable filth clocked with piety, 
Showmanship on sacred alters, 
Multitude of compromised public orators. 
Fair formalities of professors void of sincerity, 
A subtle subversion of ancient landmark. 
As scandalous abomination alters this call,
The affinity of sheep and the...

Continue reading...