Long Clank Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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Dancing In Horror With Fate In Blackest Abyss
Collaboration with Kurt Ravidas

I walk mountain storm, step out to cut deep its edge
forever tempting that fall from its narrow ledge,
in the midst of ravenous rage and great...

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Dancing In Horror With Fate In Blackest Abyss 
Collaboration with Robert J. Lindley 

I walk mountain storm, step out to cut deep its edge
forever tempting that fall from its narrow ledge,
in the midst of ravenous...

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EcoPolitics explicitly intends to be culturally normative
and evolve in capacity to become historically descriptive
of cultural-historic nondual mindbodies.

Politics is about the effectiveness of power in relationships.
Economics is about efficient resilience,
sustainable consilience,
of shared nutritional values,
including power of...

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(The memories are simple, living the feeling significant)

After conquering Beamsley Beacon due Southwest,
Rombald’s moor stood, while for centuries
within the valley the minute dwellings
of grey stone, brick and muck.
Main waterway, depending on era
town or sailor beck,...

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49 years past; a puppy was bought, picked up out of his pen on a pet shop floor;
he had honey brown eyes & an inquisitive way. He grew to be so loyal and true, how...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Ehad-e-Tifli (“The Age of Infancy”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The earth and the heavens remained unknown to me,
My mother's bosom was my only world.

Her embraces...

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ALLAMA IQBAL TRANSLATIONS INTO MODERN ENGLISH



Excerpt from Rumuz-e bikhudi (“The Mysteries of Selflessness”)
by Allama Iqbal aka Muhammad Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like a candle fending off the night,
I consumed myself, melting into tears.
I spent...

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I was quite the cunning magician, famed for my illusions and sleight of hand,
Like cool tricks that jade green nature plays, that often we don't understand.

Days were filled with wonder and enchantment, like purple, star...

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Past the grain fields clanks the old train,
and it goes beyond the fertile valley;
then it vanishes amid the swaying hills,
not too far from the massive castle
built by the Normans, and it's pelted by rain,
washing the...

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With feet rooted into the bones of the Earth,
the old man squatted on his heels and began his work.
He lifted his saw and placed it on top of a block of hardwood.
And then he began...

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THE DRAGLINE  for Pete Brett 

One hundred foot boom 
 7-½-yard bucket 
The tracks are like 
 Ones on the tracks of a tank
They go chunk clunk and clank  

Arm of the boom...

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Excerpts from "The Tulip of Sinai"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden,...

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As Neal Young's Harvest Moon plays on the computer in the background, as Sam our dog can
be found scratching her ear as her tail and butt bang on the rumbling laundry machine and
humming dryer. Clacking...

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Excerpts from "Cordoba"
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch



Withered Roses
by Allama Iqbal
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What shall I call you,
but the nightingale's desire?

The morning breeze was your nativity,
an afternoon garden, your sepulchre.

My tears...

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The steps come easy
Almost hurried as I tread
The uneven trail before me
The sun is low in the sky
Distracted by the long
Angled shadows
Before me
Brought back to you
By the rushing sound
Of your breathing
Like a stony brook
I reach...

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The Clanking Chain of Wild Geese


I was watching the September sky every day,
With a hope to once again get a glance,
Of the clanking chains of those lovely wild geese,
That suddenly appears with their music melodies,
But...

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No dad should leave his family for a mistress
and break the sacred marital vows and transgress;
who is selfish and has no love or pity
shall find none when they are sought,
when he finds himself distraught!

I worked...

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Softly uttered, beneath cold biting mist, 
footfalls muffled through stifling drifts, empty sidwalks embrace noone,
Frost heavily pluming, clinging on each sigh
In night's brazen stillness, beneath eerie lamp glow waning,
When dawn's long in coming, and all...

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Dropped anchor off the Fever Coast 
‘board a rake-masted schooner
Spooked by Ahab’s ghost. 
Lamps glowered through the yawning blanks
Casting bone-twisted shadows 
Over teakwood planks.
Salt biscuits and Jamaican rum; 
Heard the deep-throated rattle
Of the talking drum.

Count...

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I’m Onomato-pea-a
The window is my home.
I love the sounds of cooking
At day, at dusk, and dawn.

Mom clomps into the room
And clicks on every light
The curtain whooshes open,
I wake up, “No more night!”

Drawers squeak, cabinets creak
Bread...

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Mirror, Mirror 
I look at the clear glass in front of me framed with decorative carvings 
Back at me stares a pair of somber eyes 
With those eyes I see the fiery abyss of my...

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Righteous smart left hand

Short lived amnesia 
(there's no app for that) found
his highness (ha... ha... ha... hm)
drawing a (figurative) blank
today January 54th, 2021,

when the misses asked yours truly
to access Verizon voicemail,
me noggin made a clank,
no...

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Tech-No-Logic

Of keyboard and swipe
a screens deliberation circuit electronic
in metal skin and paper thin
push button hums the chord of plastic
tech-no-logical inventum
such marvels to grind the wheel
impartial utensils the battery static
a signal from pre-molded concrete
sends the flip...

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Clink clank clink clank clink clank
slow steady pace, metal hitting pavement
pausing when you pause
following you home, the man is bones

and a tie, top hat, tails, not tap shoes
more like chains, the sound a horseshoe makes
when...

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