Long Contends Poems

The first soft snow: 
leaves of the awed jonquil 
bow low
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness! 
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

The cheerful-chirping cricket
contends gray...

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Dusk-gliding swallow, 
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers! 
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

A bee emerging
from deep within the peony's hairy recesses
flies off, sated
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

That dying cricket,...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow...

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The Story
by Kamal Nasser
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I will tell you a story ...
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story...

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   ...while true feminists say that they are feminists because they care for the well-being of women, the modern feminist group, True/Active Feminism does exactly the opposite. They use the form of "dis-pair"...

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History contends that on that score
hing hot summer at 6:00 pm June sixteenth 
in the year 666 after the Devonian era, 
two lovers - a Mister Belmont Me 

and Missy Bryn Mawr Hu felt the...

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Xiou Xue
         ‘Little Snow’ her story. ( my son's family 'home helper)
Ma wars, with earth to conjure a meal,        ...

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Love like hope betides,
nature is her ere scene,
what if the world would host, tis,
things flowing monsters, if wise, otherwise,
oh!, I think that the earth,
has blue and green and red...,
a little calendar of this savannah.
 
As...

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Keats’ Nightingale

The romantic poets were too early to postulate total atheism,
And so freshened up the church by aligning god with nature,
And I believe they had a preference for nature over god or theism, 
Because they...

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An apparitions favourite word from punctuation-less sentences that continue on, on, on.
Cope without it you useless fools a flick suffices.
Semi-colon, colon, joining words thrust through the large intestines that have never shone.
After the stop get...

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Under the vault of shadow of unfulfilled love,
The sweet poison becomes the purpose of bitter days,
When the heart, caught in the tender dance of beginnings,
Gradually sinks into the labyrinth of forced intimacy.
A flight that seemed...

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“That dream only needs a speech to bring about the change the world has been waiting for, 
never be speechless no matter what; you have something to say...” 
 Felix Joseph.o



SPEECHLESS!
 
A feeling contends to...

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Gathered among lovely nymphs, whose grace shines brightly like eternal stars

Their vibrant essence lingers, embracing radiantly,
In the dream-laden air, does my love pursue only a fleeting vision?

My uncertainty, an ancient veil of darkness, now reaches...

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My life depends on utter defeat to this implacable foe.
Yet, my anguish contends to strike him a fatal blow.
He was born from my dream, to stand vigil for the light.
Now in confrontation, I am in...

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What drives the hermit to his cave?
The same thing that drives him out

Need

Though he is the most austere sort,
living on berries and other wild things

His dreams are human dreams

Not to build castles or collect treasure
but...

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Takes a gallon of coffee to wake him,
But it’s sweet when his axe hits the spot,
While the mist slips away from the mountain,
And the day hardens dusty and hot.
He contends with the bothersome thicket,
Stays alert...

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A cold berating 
light-erasing rope
survives
relentless
entropy
(another year ends
 another variant contends)

Desolate debris in 
empty
erroneous caves
swallow 
blank pages
    submerged in 
mind-warping seas
where flying memes
  wait for normalcy
where words freeze
    &...

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ALMS AND TITHES
 
Alms, spontaneous like a gentle breeze,
Tithes, a steady stream, a spiritual ease.
Both hold real value and kindle light,
In the acts of giving, souls take flight.

In worlds where compassion transcends,
These two acts of...

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New York City is like a cobblestone symphony,
where jackhammers and footsteps form the rhythmic timpani,
sirens and honking taxis, are the cymbals, that provide sudden bursts of energy,
traffic’s hum could be the violins and pigeon squawk...

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A few days it’s been 
since I rode the Orange tube 
out from Enoch, nothing new. 
Amusing myself with literature,
the glue that contends 
our oneness.

As I dissolved and fancied myself 
unique from all the goers...

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The etiquette of the night stands by the curtain with contentment

Picture of crawling crickets hectic body of voters colored

The darkness of imagination manipulates to dark our constitution to 
constituency zone

The constant condemnation is an umbrella...

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Blasphemy

"The Truth will out."
- So say the sages.
Yet lies proliferate-
Pages and pages;
Though the nude Emperor parades,
Sans clothes and sense,
His adoring subjects embrace his charades
Trading reality for reassurance;
This is not a new occurrence.

We've been down this...

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In a silent prayer…
	My heart pleads
For the grace, the stirring
	Of His presence
His charisma, His spirit
	Falling across my soul
Reflecting His precious love

In a silent prayer…
	My mind contends
With His cherished spirit
	Please bring peace
Joy, hope and wisdom
	Rain down...

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His power comes to height during the night 
For in darkness, he glows bright like Moon Knight 
Though fierce light took away his sense of sight 
His reflexes could sense beyond their might 

His legend...

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