Long Contentedly Poems

Poems about Dogs

This Dog
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Each morning this dog,
who has become quite attached to me,
sits silently at my feet
until, gently caressing his head,
I acknowledge his company.

This simple recognition gives my...

Read More

Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp...

Read More

Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

Read More

A born lioness my untamed heart? ha! 
a mouse, this pulsing token ruled by unruly wants
at times given, traded or stolen - sometimes
thrown down on a dare to be won or lost 
till it became...

Read More

I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

Read More

It's weird
and sometimes wild
living with a non-LeftBrain verbal dominant
aspiring child,
now young adult

I find myself waiting for him
to nonverbally connect
and correct me
about my patriarchal domineering
economic and political ableist sins
of felt omission from commercial value
and, perhaps worse,
my...

Read More

Love murmurs in my ear that to be hunted
is infinitely more enviable than to be the hunter.
                  ...

Read More

I would add,
to all Revolutionary Peace Warriors,
a note regarding teleological raison d'etre
evolves "freedom to choose"

Although not necessarily sufficient 
without further distinguishing 
positive recycling of evolution
v. singular purpose of devolution, 
zero-sum decay, 
flat-line death.

Earth's regenerative evolution
slow-grows...

Read More

'Twas the night before Christmas and it was heavily snowing
The windows in the house rattled with the wind that was blowing
Santa looked out through the window and it filled him with dread
He was in two...

Read More

Their mere weapon was their forbidden courage, hands barren with  no armaments, no ammunitions, marching towards the proud valley of death, dedication born from their sempiternal dreams of a free land. 

Their bare weapon...

Read More

A little fairy princess one day sits resting on a most beautiful sunflower,
And magically she begins stretching her wings for anticipatory flight
While capturing a vision assortment of most bright flying colors, 
Of one gentle and...

Read More

Do not vainly look in those remote
Places,
That, once, were acquainted with a 
Small part of me;                   ...

Read More

Always a Dream
 
A little fairy princess one day sits resting on a most beautiful sunflower,
And magically she begins stretching her wings for anticipatory flight
While capturing a vision assortment of most bright flying colors, 
Of...

Read More

I know you are there
On the other side
Waiting anxiously for me
There at Dreamland’s Gate
So I close my eyes tight
To hurry myself to you
Hoping sleep comes quickly
To carry me to your arms
Which are reaching through the...

Read More

It was unseasonably
warm for Winter
sun shone bright
cool breeze blowing
but not even cold
and I was
just walking
along, not knowing
the world, as we knew it
was about to come apart
Then that piercing scream
ripped through my heart
heart pounding and
pumping, feet
pounding,...

Read More

I resided in a beautiful old home, on the sunny side of the street;
And I had friendly neighbors, offering hellos whenever we'd meet.

Often when I was off from work, I puttered in my house or...

Read More

Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously'? - Leonard Ravenhill (June 18,...

Read More

Summer 1967
                           None of us ready for heaven
 ...

Read More

As the man on the roof, took two steps towards the edge, he was unexpectedly stopped by the sound of a bright and familiar voice, down below.
     "I thought you were...

Read More

As we become Avatars of healthier climates
we absorb nutritional empowerment 
preferring more therapeutic cultures.

What is the difference between cultural awareness
and integrative communication,
successfully regenerative-potentiated communication,
healthy dynamic vitally redundant communication,
nutritiously benign reiterating viral communication,
further enculturing communication?

Perhaps LeftBrain's...

Read More

Love
ain't hate

Divine discourse
denies degenerative debate,
Church
ain't State

Conserving compassions 
content obligations
contentiously Liberating.

I love thinking 
about win/win compassion
disturbed by hated win/lose
feeling obligation.

We/Me wants to conserve
resilient passion/pleasure
peak experiences
yet
Me/We needs to liberate
a more resonant Me
safe from They's
traumatic mind oppression,
body suppression,
negative...

Read More

He was coming.
He was coming fast.
He was coming to pay us a visit.
A brooding, lethal monster 30 miles out.
He was coming straight at us
and nothing or no one could stop him

Our house was on the...

Read More

Fukuda Chiyo-ni Haiku

Fukuda Chiyo-ni was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period, also known as Kaga no Chiyo.

Having seen the moon
I can bid this planet
farewell.
—Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The moon settled
in...

Read More

I know you are there
On the other side
Waiting anxiously for me
There at Dreamland’s Gate
So I close my eyes tight
To hurry myself to you
Hoping sleep comes quickly
To carry me to your arms
Which are reaching through the...

Read More

Grandmother pointed out warning signs on the apples.
Her strong voice resonated as she referenced bruises and marks.
Her wrinkled hands brushed over minute holes and obvious incisions.
She clutched the apples in her weather-worn palms
without uttering a...

Read More