Long Conceals Poems

Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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Near Sainthood
by Mirza Ghalib
translation by Kanu V. Prajapati and Michael R. Burch

On the subject of mystic philosophy, Ghalib,
your words might have seemed deeply profound
and we might have pronounced you a saint...
if only we hadn't found
you...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IV
I wrote this around age 17.



Bible Libel
by Michael R. Burch

If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.

I read the Bible from cover to cover at age eleven, ten chapters per day, at the suggestion...

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Translation of Mahakavi Bharathiyar’s poem: “Asai Mugam” or “Beloved Face”
                         ...

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There are times in life when we deal with strife
    And are helpless to the powers that be.
Where we are sequestered by doubt... and still tossed about
    By others...

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#w/thisrebellioninside~

Seems you’re abiding by his side, side, side, my love
I tried to save you from giving in, but I had to save me 
Appears I’ve been crucified, now I hide like a wingless dove
I’ve fought...

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Melodies, breathless as foggiest daybreak
healing all my heart’s restlessness 
releasing the song, pure as the gentlest stream
washing away the distance
between happiness and pain,
correcting the silence so beautiful reigns
cleansing the darkness with the hope
from a glistening...

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In realms where thought and tempests meet
where shifting sands outpace the feet
a creature stirs with cunning guise
Circumlocution cloaked in darkened skies
its words like desert viper’s sting
they strike the heart then coil and cling.

Through jungles thick...

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Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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There is a sadness in her smile, 
a sorrow that conceals itself within 
the curl of the corner of her lips.
It's like watching someone discover 
the
small good in a series of bad 
memories.
There, she sits,...

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I know    
I tell you this instant
I am under surveillance  
my life is being recorded indefinite
every movement
private or ordinary
including this moment
every event
big or insignificant
without my consent
there is no instant
when i am...

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To boil with all the energy of Hell
may set aflame untethered wherewithal,
for once expended nothing can foretell
the limits of demise that may befall.
A single match may flicker to a flame
or simply set the whole of...

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With lone intent, all freedom it will wrest
if obstinance you let these wolves deny.
As tonnage sinks beneath the torrid crest
your struggles for survival magnify.
Each flailing ship that ferries surety
is fodder for the fathoms of abyss.
Their...

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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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There is the presence of grace, the presence of faith, the presence of God,
In the flowers, the rain, the beauty, the pain, all over the night…
Where light doesn’t fade, because His love made a way...

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As the peacock-sage 
waves of whimsical peace
faded in silence's 
pale watercolors, 
I masked my 
eerie eyelashes, 
with drifting 
angel-mist smog. 
For, I sensed the 
wistful wailings of 
ambrosial lilies, 
encased in my 
heart's crystal casket,...

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First off, there's no place like that 256! 
We are a base of divergent cultures 
with a space enough for each to partake and taste of the mix. 
Mehn there's no place like the 256...

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Your ropes are a fuzzy memory
It resonated deeply in my heart
with eyes as calm as the moon
Shepherd of the endless mix
White and glistening wilderness
Vast clouds kneel before your desuetude.
A thin smile that conceals deceit
A halcyon...

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ILLUSION:
Yeah... 
This is ANDERSON WALKINGSHOES.... 
Let's go... 
VERSE 1:
He's really fighting to be self-motivated,
As he's locked up in a room of self-debasement.
Spectators are premising on merely observed facet,
By drawing down curtains based on perspective analysis,
With...

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Neti Neti, I am not the Body
Neti Neti, I am not the Mind
If I am not the Body and Mind
Who am I? This must be defined
Tat Twam Asi, I am the Divine Soul, I find

If...

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The mirror reflects a lifetime etched upon my skin; a canvas of stories whispered through maturity. I stand before it, middle-aged and exposed, my nakedness laid bare. My image holds no judgment, only truth—an unyielding...

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These are modern English translations of poems by the German poets Hannah Arendt, Ingeborg Bachmann, Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim and Heinrich Heine.



Heinrich Heine

The Seas Have Their Pearls
by Heinrich Heine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The seas have...

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The people surrounding me keep asking “why are you going back and forth uneasily on the empty stage shedding crocodile tears, and telling the stories of negative effects on others, though you are not of...

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Eyes are the windows of a soul and they say ‘Love is blind’
But how do you describe colour to a sightless person?

Such depths to your violet eyes
The windows of your Soul
A flickering source of emotions
Speaking...

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A Life in a Day

Alarms pull me from my sleeping
The demand of their incessant routine undermining
The peaceful thoughtless dreaming
Where for a time I had forgotten
Everything

And like a vulture perched upon my pillow
Squawks all the separate...

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