Long Acheron Poems

Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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Because the charity of my native place
Obliged me, the broken branches I the picked up
Them giving back him, who was to debase.

Then we finally reached where had to leap
From the second turn to third, and...

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1	A plume of dirt and grime envelops sky;
		The hellish slug of gas does creep along.
		It casts an orb three hundred stories high
		Over the Sun and ends his morning song.
		The birds and trees now stand a...

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Achilles, His Heart and Soul Were Mortal
Part One- (Years Before Troy)

Achilles* woke, his slain foes calling out his name
hearing merciless woes, his sharpen sword they blame
looking at the heavens he saw the moon glowing blood...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) 
Part One- Final revision

Darkly,  the tumid rushing waters flow
where any man most wisely fears to go.
Liquid blackness singing in epic pain
torture, misery and cries of the insane!
Echoes...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) Part One-Revised

Darkly,  the tumid rushing waters flow
where any man most wisely fears to go.
Liquid blackness singing in epic pain
torture, misery and cries of insane!
Echoes of  Eperius...

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  DEVIL GO HOME- -
Git thee behind me, Satan;
Lucifer, Demon, Beelzebub;
Whatever your name is now, get up, get out go…
Oh, oh, oh no-
Devil this place is not your home;
Go on go away this I...

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ANYTE OF TEGEA

Stranger, rest your weary legs beneath the elms;
hear how coolly the breeze murmurs through their branches;
then take a bracing draught from the mountain-fed fountain;
for this is welcome shade from the burning sun.
—Anyte translation...

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Sappho Translations XIII by Michael R. Burch

In these translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any way, shape...

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These are my modern English translations of ancient Greek epigrams by Anacreon from the Anacreontea. 

Here he lies in state tonight: great is his Monument!
Yet Ares cares not, neither does War relent.
—Anacreon, loose translation/interpretation by...

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The Tumid River of Acheron (the journey) Part 1

Dark the tumid, rushing waters flow
where man most wisely fears to go
Liquid blackness sings of epic pain
torture, misery and cries of insane
Echoes of evil Eperius in the...

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Morbid fascination (mine) as covid-19 pandemic...
foments rampant monopoly on bedlam

Wreaking ball (his stick) havoc (think ostensible
civil war scale not seen since Vietnam),
whereby microorganisms jamb
Homo sapiens immunity system
complements of gook
resembling green eggs and ham
necessitating Doctor Seuss

to...

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Sappho Translations VIII by Michael R. Burch


Sappho, fragment 68
translation by Michael R. Burch

That was then, this is now!
In those days my maidenhead was in full bloom,
then you …


Sappho, fragment 135
translation by Michael R. Burch

Golden Persuasion,...

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Ancient Greek and Roman Epigrams I

Wall, we're astonished that you haven't collapsed,
since you're holding up verses so prolapsed!
Ancient Roman graffiti, translation by Michael R. Burch

You begrudge men your virginity?
Why? To what purpose?
You will find no...

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Hades and Tormented Souls (the Dwelling)
   (presenting a fragment of the second part promised)

Where the dark wind blows, lies abound
deep into a ravenous, hellish pit.
Lost souls cry and moan deep under ground
under evil...

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It’s not just Jesus who rose into grace with scars from nails and the cross

Trees grow new branches from knots like wounded soul’s blemish’s scars

A rainforest’s undergrowth thrives in the mist of weeping from heaven

Ebony...

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Out of hell’s breath the Devil’s Coachman comes and turns
around the tale to woe twists as the world creeps backwards
underneath the clay slithering sacrificial savagery begins
 
Ghastly ghostly spectres watch on with soulless glee
under laid...

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Out of hell’s breath the Devil’s Coachman comes and turns
around the tale to woe twists as the world creeps backwards
underneath the clay slithering sacrificial savagery begins
 
Ghastly ghostly spectres watch on with soulless glee
under laid...

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Wicked memories haunt my dreams at night and stalk me during the daylight, denying me any measure of peace and tranquility. Please, take me to the river Lethe and rebirth me, so that I may...

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Charon—The Eternal Ferryman

The mythical ferryman extraordinaire of such keen gaze,
Who braves the Styx and Acheron in the deepest of haze.  

Charon is a most sordid God who relishes his work as the
“Ferryman of Hades,”...

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Persephone’s Finger
By Sy Roth


It wormed its way to the surface.
Pointy finger tested the air, 
Wriggled in a sensuous Fatima dance 
Etch-a-Sketching the crepuscular sky above,
Shaming the heavens for what lies below,
Marking its inky darkness
While the...

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I stand in the swamp by the riverbank 
clutching a coin I have stolen
as my heart still beats within my breast
It is only my spirit 
that has slipped away
to await the ferryman of Acheron
Charon who
skillfully...

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I sink, and drown in all my sorrows
Bring me to darkness where I can forget.
Grant me that privilege, let me burrow
My final resting place, my final bed.
Forget, life, every word I ever said.

"I swim in...

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(A lone voice whispers)

He who walks without the most holy of ways

Will never return
Until they have learned not by sin be swayed

As true as new trees are made

By lay played
In so many wet insidious ways

By...

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