Death Flower Poems

Matsuo Basho: English translations of haiku about birds, flowers, candles, life, death.

Naptime!
But my drowsiness is nixed
by busybody warblers.
—Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Carolers:
the sparrows...

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Crumpled flower by the roadside,
sadly wilted, withered, and dried -
for asking, I beg your pardon:
whilst never cared for in a garden,
were you pretty before you...

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They will not honor your fragrant breath
They’ll use it as ode, or veil, or death.
Not love, but lack—will wear your name,
Your petals will ache beneath...

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Before soil met seed or the sun claimed the skies,
There bloomed Nefarys, veiled from mortal eyes
Here, blossoms rose from memory’s breath,
Unbound by season, untouched by...

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There's a place without walls.
For those who swear that they are floors.
and oh how they die like a flowers bloom
they lie so still in forgotten...

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Flying over the front lines
with the French Escadrille Lafayette
a brown and barren belt below
a strip of murdered nature and yet
during the warm months of spring...

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Awakened and degenerated, I feel I am clashing somewhere 
The clouds appear and then depart, just another face amongst billions  
Millions of colors of...

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You walked the earth with soil-stained hands,
A woman sowing life with tender plans,
Did you know your touch could wake in me
A heartbeat trapped in root...

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Death came today... 
taking my sweet Jess from me; 
to an even better place, I pray, 
than this life we shared so passionately. 

If only...

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Callimachus English translations

For Gail White

To the Cup-Bearer
by Callimachus
translation by Michael R. Burch

Decant the wine then toast "To Diokles!" Nor does the beautiful boy Achelous touch...

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They all wanted to be 
     “Real men”

So off into the cruel seas they go
 In a big scrap of metal..

Might...

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Opa John

The caboose sits red—its iron spine cradles the earth like Atlas
rails stretching into nowhere. The stream murmurs softly
its voice threading through Ellie’s laughter like...

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I am naked.
_bare_
my hands
(_)Whose trace are these wounds?
I am naked.
[naked]
prominent blue grooves,
- Green,
- Blue,
- Red!
Red whispers(./:)
on your skin
crawls
_my skin_
Is pale(.)
your skin(,/.)
Stretches
_sketch_
[sleepy]
- are you dead
- are...

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And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers
that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow,
he will certainly care for you.
—Luke 12:28

saw my first...

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the Metamorphoses blamed it
for the death of lovers
who met under its branches for suicide
the Old Testament believes
blood from its fruit 
triggered war elephants 
to do...

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