Long Auguste Poems

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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1.    John Desmond Patrick Keegan
2.    Alfred, Lord Tennyson 
3.    Sally Aline Mae Beller
4.    Charles Edward A. Berry
5.    Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce...

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when on a lark, this primate shut his eyes
   until sight formed slits doubling up as a wink
this earthling stared hard and scrunched brow
   unintentionally mimicking,

   the familiar Auguste...

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LANDSCAPE
 
Noon time, the star in the sky burning at zenith
The deep azure, was radiant with fiery heat
 
Laid on the skyline, its dome calm and serene
The yonder river, slowly ran on the grey scene
...

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It was the late 18th century and Abegail was twenty-one years old,
     She was about to be married soon to an older man of thirty-four;
Her family was considered middle-class yet they...

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Festive party
Celebrate something;
Warm humanity

~~~~~~~~~


One by one
People walk pass;
Lonely man waits

~~~~~~~~~


Dog walking fast
Master in tow;
Barks fine command

~~~~~~~~~


Two sparrows
Practice on wood bench;
Gospel of birdsong

~~~~~~~~~


Sea of faces
Hurry takes a break;
Crowded lift hijacks

~~~~~~~~~


Old shop houses
New paintwork shines;
Ancient looks new

~~~~~~~~~


River...

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(a love poem for my son)

Dreams spill out of sleep
sift across the hardwood floor
covers the window 
in colors of May

slamming me back towards childhood
or perhaps just to the ashtray.
One forged with labor
in elementary school ceramics;

patient...

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What America Is About

Liberty Enlightening the World
(La Liberté éclairant le monde)
Overlooking New York Harbor.
A gift from France cast in copper:
To commemorate French and American alliance.
In shared ideals of freedom and democracy
For which many sacrificed bravely.

Upon...

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Sicut Miles Christi I stand tall 
Sicut Miles Christi I give my all 
To a Man who deprived the devil of his will 
To a Man who tumbled Jericho's hill  

 I'm a soldier in...

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Slaughter amongst the slag heaps
Bodies bowed over barb wire
Screeching, screaming
artillery arching above
soon to descend
amputating limbs
shattering skulls
blood and brains
splattering stains on
comrades too close
mixing with the mud

Grappling with grenades
Supplies short
London, Lancashire
and Lancaster lads
battling like beasts within
that Hohenzollern...

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Oh, Clown at the abyss;
We’re not laughing at you;
Not funny tis true, you're falling
This we do insist;
a comic entertainer one in a circus, you're falling
wearing a traditional costume and exaggerated makeup.
Lo! Grecian fall unsophisticated rustic;
Falling...
Zanni...

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locked in cages for study and further experiments                           ...

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Auguste Blanqui was correct to assert
"Revolutionaries aren't born, they are made"
They're being made everyday, but Sunday,
At the hands of a corrupt State, 
One they've tirelessly helped to create 
- If we are to become its...

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Words, words, words.

I want to be a poet so bad. But the leters can't make the right chords. To make the melody evenly sad. To flurish it with a spark, big words, ornaments, or some...

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(Fact not fiction. True research).

Birth place creation from France
The one and only Queen of freedom 
Along side of Queen of England.
Sculptured design by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
The statue of liberty was and built by Gustave Eiffel.
Arrived...

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KISS OF RODIN

My body rages with your close proximity
You heed the heady breathing of my heart
A lover’s touch, rose petals of magnanimity
The Kiss of Rodin’s rapturous sculpted art

You heed the heady breathing of my heart
Becoming...

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Sculpture  ~  The Thinker  ~  Auguste Rodin

What's life for?
"To be or
not to be",
sums up me:
questioning
everything.
Should I go
or say no?
Do I fight
or take flight?
Close my eyes
or apprise
all that's swirled
in the world?
Go outside,
take...

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With
a tear
and a sigh
of what might have
been-
the 
so sad
memories,
of a lady in
green


An Ekphrasis -A woman in a Green Jacket by Auguste Macke

See link on my blog 'NO HOLDING BACK

PERSONAL NOTE:
For me this figurative work has...

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soon enough I discovered
her neighbor calls him Caspar or Caspor
but it wasn't long
before I named him Auguste

he has claimed my love's apartment—
even hypnotized her to have ready
water and treats on one corner

but what impressed us...

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I had never seen such a regal crown
It was sparkling full of jewels
Looked like it was freshly polished
It belonged to the Grand Duchess grandpa said
Auguste Victoria, German’s finest queenly monarch
I could tell that he had...

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“The lives of stone         How rich they must be”
                  ...

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