Long Cusps Poems

This is my translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's second elegy from his Duino Elegies, which he began composing at Duino Castle in 1912. 

Second Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Every angel...

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Rear view mirror

Objects, objectively put, are  closer  
than they  appear. But it doesn’t say it all. 
With the fair signs that spewed  forth once turning to
a slew of  pre-twitter ...

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COLOURFUL LAMENT

I combed cool waters of your 
baby blue crystalline Jewel as you 
waded waterfall waves washing 
my stellar rainbow rays 
Arching it melted into the warm 
womb of transducing tangoing Earth

Her Violet Flame devoured...

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Can words truly capture the essence of the lady on the hill
Whose womb bore eight but yet-
Has mothered countless others?
Whose hands dug deep to till the soil; to stretch outwards to care, to share, to...

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Earth health-love resonance
is bird song
contrasted to dissonance
of non-ecologos
decaying cars
and non-theomythic truck technologies
of terror
and mismanaged motorcycles
flowing incessantly by.

Optimal resonance lives inside an eco-forested bird sanctuary
before and after a WestWind storming toward East
contrasted to challenged resonance
of living...

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When I am one in two 
I hesitate 
To let my thoughts withdraw,
For in the safety of that zone
I trust my friend who hears my voice alone.
She may not finish my unsaid words, 
Though sometimes...

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A rag-a-muffin 
girl glides uneasy 
across the ice, 

That Little sprite
child was not there
to play nice.

Frusterated there's 
no one there pulling
for her win,

Her competition 
as brutal as it's
always been.

Determined if 
anything she'll 
bring her trophy...

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The boudoir joins us in absorbing feeling

a Goddess right next to me under cover

breathless and inspiring we share the muse

of all muses as we preside over wedlock

hands tied around leather bound spines

filled with passion and...

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Memories of future events

	Recollections of measures ahead

		Reminiscence in fast forward

			Aspirations leaping back

        Projections of past reckoning

	        Icebergs frozen in conscience

		 ...

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A curve of sky
in a corner cusps a smooth,
thick dusting 

of carrot-mauve hues 
tonight. Drapes over heather
trees 

whose arms 
and hands bend with this drowsy sky
as it starts

to fall asleep-
the cyrean "silk" upon 
which this...

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And so I wake from the sleep of a thousand years
Clawing out from my eyes a desert of dried tears.
And so I scream with a voice that is harsh broken
Repeating the words of the last...

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~swiping paper machetes
                             mansions in trees~
 ...

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only things grown in the ground remain
but mismatched without the hand of man
see that they dodge beautiful
their languishing longitudinal vegetable bodies
never suffer fracture the stems with fruits
and their armor and weapons, bark and branches
trees
no, I...

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I stand on the precipice 
the edge of nowhere, nothing 
screaming 

Screaming into the void 
all that I am and, all that I will be 
or ever was 

I am at the edge of the...

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Ellipse, evolute, vertex and curve,
Humdrum circle or ricochet swerve
Astroids or cusps, arcs or sectors;
What have those got to do with vectors?
Curvature, cone, Cartesian plane…
Oval, deltoid… what’s in a name?
Geoid oscillation, pedal, radial, rose…
What on earth...

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Still holding onto

the remnant remains,

the promise of love unforgotten,

as they unfurl untold in her heart,

within her soul,

she holds it tightly as if sewn between her longing cusps,

the slowly un-aging embers of yester-years,

the pains left forlorn,...

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Delicate love, on the tips of ice cycles
Dripping down on the earth of spring
Delicate green sprouts on the edge of life
The beginning of something so true
Beyond the simple minds of men
There is a place we...

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She lies, tan gentle lines and curves so sharp
she pairs her heart horizontal to zero 
Her body falling from great cusps above
Then deriving great pleasure from the angle
Skirting the limits, fleecing the boundaries
She breaks the...

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In blanket shades of ash and grey, while the lights are out
she stands sensually to stir the night in a strip tease
with her hands readily caressing
arousing her inflamed cusps as her hips twist unready for...

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Again now at cusps of fresh beginnings,
Gathering supplies to travel this road,
Careful to measure what two arms will hold,
Gauging with patience the estimate flows,
Thoughtful precision utmost in the mind,
Come to the doorway laden with purchase,
Advancing...

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Nuptials wrung from ingratiated hand
Purloined hope dripping from each strand
Pristine fibers with leased value you did brand
Quilted folds of ivory now your treasured contraband
Bleached residual your selfish honor did demand
With sinewy clutches my graceful cusps...

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You in focus, world a blur
My eyes trapped in deep allure
Racing heart and soul endure
Caging love in self demure
You are a king as you appear
Hair cusps at your ears;
Hanging crowns.

As shooting stars drag my dreams
Over...

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Show me a burning arrow from your quiver of love

Avail me fire and kindness set joined earth ablaze

Grant me only this one wish for the hotbed of passion

In fletching’s path we feel think reason and...

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From the blank book can I
lift some questions for the lofty hopes
when I lost myself near the home ?

The fear was darting inside the white sores.
Keys were lost for the answers
and truth fell castrated.

The magic...

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                 Krokus gets sweatered in chiffon, 
            ...

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