Long Crematory Poems

Matsuo Basho New Haiku Translations

Air ballet:
twin butterflies, twice white,
meet, match & mate
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Denied transformation
into a butterfly,
autumn worsens for the worm
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Dusk-gliding...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU VI

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku.

Both victor and vanquished are dewdrops:
flashes of light
briefly illuminating the void.
—Ouchi Yoaka, loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael R....

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My daughter heard
a Decent Cool-lio smart phone stranger
(with an African sounding name)
give a four fifty one Fahrenheit warning
Some said: the fellow was loco insane
Others said, 
not taking heed was the crux to blame

Mr. O Mgeni
said...

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Sometimes,
sailing in ebony blades
of saturnine seas 
brings forth a forsaken froth
of scarred reveries, 
when musk-ochre 
tints of sunshine cease 
to slice through solemn 
scarlet skies and 
cruelly-coloured black-pearls 
shimmer as an obsidian beacon 
of forest-green...

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Unknown, unseen, the invisible demon has arrived to annihilate 
Anybody out in open becomes a pray of his wrath
Soon gasping for breath, gone forever
Such is his might that no one dares to go near dead...

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The temporary altar, Translation of Etiemble’s quintet: Le reposoir by T. Wignesan
							For us

As for me, I have renounced the noxious vault
where the other life child concealed a father 
whom he had sometimes betrayed his mother
who...

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This Poem about an instance of pain and plight of Sex workers.
Red Frozen Flower:

Multiple cars flashing the red lights,
Coating red lipsticks on street.

Decorated like a model,
Hair perfect as a wig,
Eyelids having shine of summer sand,
Eyelashes...

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The world is full of fools’ theory
Listening to them I feel weary.
Such egoistic heads tell not to worry
And at our back talk oscillatory
Bad about us, creating a crematory
Where they bury their own glory.
They have a...

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Thing About It for a While

St. James is determined to be demanding
Resulting in a mysterious misunderstanding;
At Midway and Two Eleven much wind blows;
Have heard there won't be the likes of Lowes.

Also, is some news about...

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Love Honor and Respect
For Crowe's Mortuary and Crematory
By Franklin Price
02/08/2022

My wife was lifted up by God
While we held her by the hand,
With her, our daughter and myself,
As she left for promised land.
She passed away in...

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It seems old age has filtered in
without so much as fanfare--
rapacious, unforgiving, feeding
on my body everywhere
like those precocious maggots
standing by in ignorance,
their bit of consciousness
still unapprised of my arrangement
with the crematory down the road.
Ah, ...

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Behind the barbed wire

Behind the barbed wire a cherry tree blooms:
bustling petals in the land of death.
Behind the barbed wire a gradient runs
between the scent of flowers
and the omnipresent stench
of burning flesh
wafting from the crematory...

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X. insects that are impossible to see with the naked eye
crawl through what is left

IX. knocked by accident off the mantelpiece &
spread all over the shag

VIII. burnt in a crematory, stuffed in an urn &...

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Two palm shape a bowl for wound. 

My mouth is a big hole of cry
Ruminates in the dark the sorrow  

My legs flint-stone-
The hammers of night sparked
The cry from my chest 
The sleepers of...

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Fickle Art and control Freaky
Don't play well together
Tolerance was not accepted
'Cause he wore pink shoes

Cross the street each day at the same intersection
Fickle Art and control freaky but the road was not
And never could be...

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It is the night, in deepest dark, that death foretells
the demon heart in which all lonely feeling dwells.

Yet, in plain sight, our eyes can’t see what life impels,
emotion’s plea, our deepest sorrow love dispels.

Blind are...

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Invasion of tears on a lonely street
I crash spheres of sadness that burst with a sigh
There's no one to tear me apart I can meet?
..a Lexus is lost and the driver is shy...

The freezing orchestra...

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A BIT OF WISDOM

Why censure the pig for muddy pleasures?
Think you of the dark, cool soil so impure.
That a nip on your saintly white robe shrinks
Empty pyretic hall of blushing ego magnified.

Why shoo the insects...

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I'll leave you
My Bones,
Under all but two
Upturned stones,
I gambled with one bullet
And five empty chambers,
Spun the silver roulette
And click went the hammer,
The thoughts in my head
Melted with the hot lead,
It's all in the red
All that...

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One day, my hair will turn gray,
And my skin will sag,
My legs will shiver when I walk;
And for the last time, I'll look back 
To the memories we made.

The way we shared our lives,
The way...

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