Long Annihilate Poems

The angles are in the storm
Just before  the break of dawn
Sending a message to everyone
Telling them to remain calm
The angels are singing out loud
They want to break the treacherous cloud
 and relinquish that awful...

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Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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Silence reigns supreme in my reich

No don (except me)
doth trumpet within the aborted
barren reach of freedoms within expansive realm,
I annexed courtesy manifest destiny,
which peoples now inhabiting said jurisdiction
circumscribed by following coordinates -
Latitude: 40° 16' 22.20"...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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uncomfortableness, and hesitation arose that you might reassess a possibility for friendship or.... whatever with me.

A disappointment set in place in the event that based on some facet of my being (inexplicable flaws within this...

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Twice told toilet tale – a cheeky execrable gross fable

which poetic product best be affixed 
with hashtag STINKY label.

As a young whippersnapper
and one precocious lad to boot,
I discovered common combustible materials
found in the bathroom.

At opportune...

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I see this ulcer
Mind boggling in perception
Body arresting in phenomena
Of diverse shapes and designs
Magnificently wrought together
In one whiff of putrid scent
It is of an exotic nature
Magnanimously growing out of context
Thus ticking with apocalyptic dimensions ...

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Waiting waitng...... 
For the all-mighty godot 
godot godot.....I ask myself 
Where are you? 

I have searched the 
tempestuous seas 
I have toiled the arid desert 
All to no avail 
I have defiled timidity into the...

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Healthy organic systems
remain resonantly peaceful,
resiliently stable,
exhilaratingly good humored
as they remain easily
naturally
spiritually cooperative,

Nonpartisan played with win/win consensus
among robustly multicultural
compassionate
communicators;
whole open system comedians,
wizards and witches of multisensory experience.

Healthy 
organic 
win/win empowerment systems
are the opposite
of lose/lose absence of...

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THE MAN WHO KILLED THE WORLD


It was there, then it was gone. A swirling mass of white and topaz rotating in an inky expanse    gone. Vanished, right before my eyes. 
My home
my...

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Preface preceding promiscuous philandering peccadillos
undermining energy and time not spent with missus
and mother of our precious progeny,
whereby, yours truly sought, (somewhat assertively, modestly,
and zestfully) to elicit – illicit prurient heterosexual predilections
before dark shadow of guilt...

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Trump trumpets decree to target then deport...

visa a vis militaristic plan 
a boot 15-20 million people -
undocumented hard working Americans 
(maybe some living here legally) forcibly, 
and violently shipped out,
when victoriously, surreptitiously,
and purportedly illegally entering...

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We were a generation free of super-technology.
Yes, we had our records and tv
and the airlines for speedy travel. And yes, 
there had been wars throughout history,
but we had never lived ourselves through wars’ horrors.
WWI, WWII,...

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Humanity is destined to dissolve
when fear consumes the minds of timid kings.
Such pandering lets lunacy evolve
and impotence is forced to face its sting.
An evil wind, with blustering conceit,
embarks to stage aggressions at your gate,
‘tis but...

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A heedless world implodes beneath the weight
and all the West lies smoldering in flames.
And nay a soul finds shelter from the hate
as dire evil seeks intended aims.
The despot waves of fire and iron roll
upon whomever...

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Sans sixth (psychic) sense...
poise zen dystopian rant

This prognosticator doth predict
potential based at current rate
sinister debacle that will
instantaneously annihilate,
United States storied republic, 
which alarming horror 
points to instantaneous annihilation
of America the beautiful;
(ohm my dog) turbulent
endemic chaotic...

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Filthy and foul I found you, 
garnished in grime, 
drenched in dust,
polluted in your own putrid blood,
orphaned, alone, helpless.
Pity overtook me to love, 
to cleanse you of your stench, 
to let you live.

As you came...

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Hiroshima – seventy seven years since August 6th, 1945

Given the nuclear weaponry arsenal today
August 6th, 2022, our collective ability
to lay waste major metropolitan areas
would make unleashing atomic warfare
synonymous with the ways and means
to annihilate, decimate,...

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Achingly, I watch as you frequently fall
For the idyllic notion of unconditional love
The dream, the desire, the fantasy
Drawn, inexplicably, to the potent flame
Of one who ignites the spark
You learn from her, confide in her
Losing yourself
As...

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Hiroshima Poems I

Let Us Be Midwives!
by Hiroshima survivor Sadako Kurihara
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Midnight...
the basement of a shattered building...
atomic bomb survivors sniveling in the darkness...
not a single candle between them...
the odor of blood...
the stench...

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“Was gesagt werden muss” (“What must be said”)
by Gunter Grass
translation by Michael R. Burch

Why have I remained silent, so long,
failing to mention something openly practiced
in war games which now threaten to leave us
merely meaningless footnotes?

Someone’s...

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Q:  Did I both contact my foot doctor and United Healthcare about the $150.25
      successfully yesterday?

A:  Yes, and I won't be receiving any more statements from them but...

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Fitness guru (grew)
     to an abrupt screeching halt,
     i.e. did dramatically abate,
whence significant block of time,
     I formerly did allocate
(within recent past)
 ...

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