Long Cisterns Poems

LAO TZU ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS I

Be Like Water
by Lao Tzu, translation by Michael R. Burch

The highest virtue resembles water
because water unselfishly benefits all life,
then settles, without contention or needless strife,
in lowly cisterns.

Weep for the Dead
by Lao...

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It was a long journey and Martha’ flood gates had been closed for far too long

Altona Station and the 1.01 expected from Hannover was nowhere near in time

In her mind the intricate roof of the...

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A dance of elegance they leap
in grace of movements sweep
moonlights skipping on the waves
upon the circuits the currents paves

A Spanish Dancer twirls her skirt
whose painted like a rainbows shirt
Your works oh Jah blanket the Sea
where...

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I am slid into the core of the big white tube.
It will reveal all my moving parts
all the flagging and wheezing organics
that reside in the same apartment block,
share the same airducts and plumbing,
but otherwise hang...

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logical greedy
uncles unshaven, rocks and
arks terrified philanthropic cherubim blessing
logical operators, terrified detainees stones and
arks attacked
through the blessing
of cherubim
embarrassed greedy uncles
unshaven, basins and stones, cherubim terrified
bothered
embarrassed with
blessing, agglutinate greedy
uncles' rocks thorough meaning
of rock reservoirs hassling cherubim
terrified...

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Your words hurt.
Heavens doors are shut.
The sorrows that assail me are like glut.
My wrists, I wish to cut.

Hopeless.
Empty lies my cisterns of joy.
In fuitilty I keep reaching out.
Hoping anyone will notice.

Look beyond my smiley face...

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He carried the old man into the woods, and watched the body 
slowly decay. In the end, after the sun had prepared the corpse
it seemed that the moon had consumed it. The trees did not...

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There is a sublime pool of intersecting streams. 

I wade that wet like watermelon's green. 

Citrulline el citrine my cisterns be clean like the water's Maxwell.

The soul is luminous and gloomed by the taste of...

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Consciousness Correction – 11-20-23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Consciousness Correction

Envy sneaks in unseen
A thief robbing light from my house of gratitude,
Sowing simmering anger, extinguishing thankfulness,
In blind yellowed views
Gratitude held captive,
Strangled,
Pennies of “I wish” tossed into stone cisterns
Where winter thrashes cyclconic...

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The Ruba’iyat of Créteil Lake – Part Four

Lovers stroll down her nubile spine blithely to pubic isle
Where under linden boughs and mulberry spread connive smile
Old and young keep parading swathed in bundles of fur wear
While...

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The Fountain of Living Waters flows, 
Ready to quench our thirst, 
Why do ye hew out broken cisterns? 
Broken cisterns that burst;

Drink from the Fount and be satisfied, 
It will become a well, 
Water springing...

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I see a savior everywhere, I see
a prophet everyday, shining purple through the faces of
Teachers, Stockmen, Welders, Prostitutes.

Those halogens shine, pilot lights burning bright in 
Cyan, Magenta, Hunter green and Mauve, stained-glass
saints made free from...

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“The Fountain of Living Waters flows, 
Ready to quench our thirst, 
Why do ye hew out broken cisterns? 
Broken cisterns that burst; 

Drink from the Fount and be satisfied, 
It will become a well, 
Water...

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I can’t just ignore how tight it hugs me
How it caresses through my soul
How it exposes pretence of innocence overhaul
A touch of it sending goose bumps all over me
I can’t hide anymore, from beautified macabre
Coz...

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To Divine Wisdom And Guidance In Poetic Rendering                       

Despite today’s debilitating oppressive flows,
We...

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Across the night the silence of travelling lights,
the shimmering molt of the stars, 
the moon sweeping snow
over the black drenched cars, and all unwinding
into cisterns of darkness.

The chill windowpane
captures them all as they creep from...

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Across the night the silence of travelling lights,
the shimmering molt of the stars, 
the moon sweeping snow
over the black drenched cars, and all unwinding
into cisterns of darkness.

The chill windowpane
captures them all as they creep from...

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So much to solicit, but with substance excluded,
she mimics intimacy, but leaves one secluded.
Flatteries slip off her tongue like honey's sultry sweetness.
"Come to this incensed bed for pleasure's soft caress."
Like a crafty serpent's spiel, her...

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Detroit gave me birth
like the snapping of 
sheet metal, and her streets
still bleed.

But Missouri taught me
			to see.

The Germans came
Grooming the valleys
	     with white frame houses
gripping the hills 
	   ...

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We could clean the face of the world with love,
We could go to the ant for more wisdom,
Let's choose the life that is most useful,
And habit will make it most agreable.
As births of living creatures...

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After the aftermath 
of the cisterns quieting,
a moth flutters free 
then drops into the nest 
of sounds that crickets weave.

all of our away-words 
wait the gathering of ground.
between our usual state 
of lost and found.

we...

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The Fountain of Living Waters flows, 
Ready to quench our thirst, 
Why do ye hew out broken cisterns? 
Broken cisterns that burst;

Drink from the Fount and be satisfied, 
It will become a well, 
Water springing...

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Along Iran's alluvial fan, 
spanned a virgin, untested 
train
A scourging blight the tender, 
fecund suckers did restrain
A heartier tulip bloomed on 
Tunisia's arid plain
A docile wave the royal 
Jasmine blight to stain  
Transplanted in Egypt;...

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For every beginning
Why must there be an end
Shadows creased where whispers cease
Memories bristling past me
like a Mediterranean love affair
Jasmine wisps of your unbridled hair
Brushing my face in waves of azure
Eyes locked so hearts could endure

The...

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Beyond the cabin walls
a shimmering molt of starlight
brushes brilliance
over my black drenched car.

Snowflakes fall
disappear
then appear to float up
on weightless whisps
breathed out
from inky cisterns.

A chill window reflects,
it takes my picture
through a fisheye lens.

Behind me,
a log fire...

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