Cricket Poems

This river has fallen since the beginning of time
Giving life to the Fern, the Laurel and the Pine
The rocks and the rapids share a fast dance
Over Rainbow Trout twirled in Spring's romance
The river bellows its mighty roar
Calling high above where...Read More

Brittle autumn leaves
crumble to dust
in the freezing wind.
—Takao, translation by Michael R. Burch

This frigid season
nothing but the shadow
of my corpse survives.
—Tadatomo, translation by Michael R. Burch

With the departing year
I have hidden my graying hair
from my parents.
Ochi Etsujin, translation by Michael...Read More

She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful
by Michael R. Burch

She was very strange, and beautiful,
like a violet mist enshrouding hills
before night falls
when the hoot owl calls
and the cricket trills
and the envapored moon hangs low and full.

She was very strange, in a...Read More

Lanterns on a black canvas.
Fireflies dance, prance like ponies on a carousel.

Ricocheting cricket-squeaks,
Bounce among the frog-croaked airwaves;
Bouncing from one wet tip to another.

Spectral trees in the distance
Dance their ancestral dance to this music;
The heartbeat of the waves, keeping time;
natures’ metronome.

One...Read More

Tricksters filching filth from ditches,
Sixty thickly sickly witches,
Quickly hitching prickly britches
Backstitched to restrict the itches,
Depicted on lit cricket pitches
Bewitching fickle ostriches.

...Read More

Awaken at dawn to a chorus of birds
Warm sunlight on my pillow
Cumulus clouds in a cerulean sky
Fields of golden wheat below

The buzzing of a honey bee
As it passes by unseen
The distant sound of a cricket game
Being played on the village...Read More

Come to pitch
with bat, ball, wicket
It's cricket 


-Thursday, May 30, 2019 Chattogram...Read More

Ted Cogger is our local butcher and he’s been here seven years;
full forward for the footy team and drinks a nightly seven beers.
He played one season for the cricket club, but he was just a slugger,
and Ted’s become a mate...Read More

A town knows well its children, so busy midst the spin
     To grant them lively comfort, with its never-ending din

A jungle of cement and steel that never stops to gasp
     Pulsing with...Read More

“Grandpa when are you ‘gunna’ turn into a frog?”
Me grandson said as I brushed him away;
‘Turn into a frog! That flamin’ kid’s on the grog!’  
“Go on! You get outside and play!”

Then I went to the fridge and brought...Read More

An ostrich can outrun a racehorse,
And their eyes are bigger than their brains
The only birds that have but two toes
Some may even have saddles and reins!

On the old Batman TV series
They added Aunt Harriet, for they
Feared, two bachelors and a...Read More

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
? Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
? Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow low
? Matsuo Basho,...Read More

If you should ever find your way down here,
The folk of Stop-A-While will welcome you,
With friendly smiles and well-intentioned words,
Provided you will be prepared to stay
Long enough for us to hear your tale.
No need to fret and worry about the...Read More

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.
Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.
Cricket now is definitely a professional team sport. 
The World Cup is a very important way...Read More

Suddenly, the nights grow colder
 harvest moon shadows cast haunting images 
 across my steps and shoulders
 with fearful imagined figures  limitless
 and the midnight walks once taken
 seek shelter after being stirred and shaken.

Leaves fall floating and softly...Read More

This river has fallen since the beginning of time
Giving life to the Fern, the Laurel and the Pine
The rocks and the rapids share a fast dance
Over Rainbow Trout twirled in Spring's romance
The river bellows it's mighty roar
Calling high above where...Read More

my garden is ravaged weary . . . 
     withered roses in a blue vase
murmur of drowsy sun-drenched days
          oh, adieu  ~ picnics in the green
ta-ta,...Read More

‘Oh I say isn’t this spiffing or what?’
says Jeremy taking the horse for a trot.
It will be pheasant for dinner which the butler will sort
followed by Havana cigars and a nice drop of port
in the billiard room where the gentlemen...Read More

‘Great Scott, shucks and darn, I’ve gone and lost a shoe’
cursed the elephant followed by ‘this simply will not do!’
‘The blasted thing is far too loose, I should have had it mended!
So, whoever has found my shoe must now be...Read More

Donald Trump, Lemony Snicket ghost Spiro
Agnew, plus knowledgeable Jiminy Cricket,
all reliable, trustworthy sources, who
would never misinform gullible traveler
I know time to lather up 
with poetic shampoo

so don't you dare ballyhoo
moost likely known
to garden variety wahoo
(When You Wish Upon a Star...Read More

full moon in rise
cricket song

porcelain orb 
sitting in sky
firefly dance

...Read More

"You were the gentlest one amongst all,”
My mother used to tell me often.
Late at nights, 
I was mumbling these words 
To remember it often, 
To say in front of a mirror.

In my dream I saw a figure, 
Hazy and obscure
All...Read More

The crickets' constant critching call
Is covered when the raindrops fall.
A sudden downpour, Nature-made,
Did cause their noise to quickly fade.

Much earlier, the grands complained 
They couldn't sleep unless it waned.
(The "it" they meant was cricket chatter,
Not the raindrops' pitter patter.)

Though soon...Read More

pink catkins
of eastern cottonwood-
happy offspring

tree flowering
in the sun-
beaver waits patiently

moon shines
upon her coral blossoms-
cricket chirps



...Read More

baritone bullfrogs
harmonize with crickets-
firefly tenors 
flickering-
nothing’s as harmonic
as nights music

...Read More