Long Cherokee Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers I

I translated the first six Native American poems for my father when he chose to enter hospice and end his life by not taking dialysis …


Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation/interpretation...

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Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

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Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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Some may say grand dragon others grand wizard either or it began in 60s everything was a bit chaotic the death of John f Kennedy Bobby Kennedy pope John XXlll my birth and Martin Luther...

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- - Chapter 2: Adult Responsibility (With Some Breaks) - -     

By ten years old, no weekends off, 
Or Saturday cartoons, 
Although I did have cash to spend, 
I felt my...

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MY Collaboration with Ricky Nelson in the Last Days of 1980

The eventful news of that day about what was found on board that crashed plane, won't replace that particular memory of Mr. Rick Nelson's hearty...

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Spark to light the fire. It’s my life mission to gain the knowledge of what makes people laugh and intrigued by my experiences in my never ending and changing life. I want people to know...

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Iolanda I am named after Yolanda 
Princess Savoy Italian princess
my patron saint the only saint 
of two countries Poland and Hungary 
When italian princesses were being 
banned from Italian soil my brown my 
great grandfather...

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Tribute to the Wolf

I am of your nation (Cherokee)
I have travelled far to find my family
 (They are scattered across America)
Boundaries are now gone
I know you as you know me

My Mother taught me so
I know...

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“They took the whole Cherokee nation
Put us on this reservation
Took away our ways of life
The tomahawk and the bow and knife”
        From “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere and...

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These are prayer poems by Michael R. Burch, along with a few hymns. There are also poems on the subject of God and religion—Christianity in particular. 



I Pray Tonight
by Michael R. Burch

I pray tonight
the starry...

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dark matter(s)
by Michael R. Burch

the matter is dark, despairful, alarming:
ur Creator is hardly prince charming!

yes, ur “Great I Am”
created blake’s lamb

but He also created the tyger
and what about trump and rod steiger? 


The Echoless Green
by...

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Around the corner 
Of the unpaved driveway
Was a claustrophobic shack

The front door 
Was once a cherry red
Like his father's 1968 Cadillac

My car door 
echoed 
As my heels stumbled across the driveway

Caught my balance on the...

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Dream Song of the Thunders
Chippewa saying
translation by Michael R. Burch

Sometimes I bemoan my “plight”
when all the while
the wind bears me across the immense sky.


What is life?
The flash of a firefly.
The breath of the winter buffalo.
The...

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Crazy Horse's Naming Vision
by Michael R. Burch

Earthbound,
and yet I now fly
through these clouds that are aimlessly drifting...
so high
that no sound
echoing by
below where the mountains are lifting
the sky
can be heard.

Like a bird,
but not meek,
like a hawk...

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Early Days

An epic story told of men on earth,
My father’s life, and also mine
Wind planted weeds, we had a humble birth,
Not sprung from rose or grape on vine.

Our whole existence born of charity,
A “gift” of...

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Vying for Dominance

… 16 is hard enough for anyone navigating adolescence… my 16 wasn't “typical.” 

…16, I simultaneously experienced a trifecta of physical, emotional, and mental illnesses, fueled by an onslaught of catastrophe and epic...

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Origins Of Over Nurturing 

My need to protect others began during my turbulent adolescence. It started out as the need to protect others from me. This morphed into over nurturing everyone around me. 

Sometimes I...

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I am like
Cleopatra
embraced by serpents many
fear
always trying something new
and dramatic with my
hair
I am like
Eva Patrón
growing up with a painful family
getting lost in movies
thinking of my own
hypnotizing when I speak
First lady of Argentina
meeting you, after death
would...

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When Pigs Fly
by Michael R. Burch

On the Trail of Tears,
my Cherokee brothers,
why hang your heads?
Why shame your mothers?
Laugh wildly instead!
We will soon be dead.

When we lie in our graves,
let the white-eyes take
the woodlands we loved
for...

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In the 1600's, Europeans lived on the eastern shore
Their numbers grew, they wanted more.
Iroquios, Sauk, Ottawa, and Mohawk were tribes they met
Too many and more, paid our forefathers' debt.
Men moved west thru the Cumberland gap
Daniel...

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© 2011 (by Jim Sularz)
(The true story of Frank Eaton – AKA “Pistol Pete”)

At the headwaters of the Red Woods Branch,
near a gentle slope on a dusty trail.
On an iron gate, at the Twin Mounds...

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