Long Death of a friend Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

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Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

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Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

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Two new crutches and two double shots of Bushmills Irish Whiskey enabled Joe Faherty to move from the back seat of Moira Murphy's 1976 Buick into Eagan's Funeral Home for Tim McGillicuddy's wake. At 87,...

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My teacher died.
   
   His lungs failed him.

He taught me that the lungs
harbor grief.

   His lungs are gone.
My grief has only just arrived.


   He used his lungs...

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Haven’t you had enough blood from the beginning of time?
Haven’t you taken enough lives before they should have died?
All around I can hear their cry 
They want to escape from the under world
You spill blood...

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The Soul Errand
To Sir Walter Raleigh Tomb.

Since my soul shall though go
Upon a thankless arrent too
I fear not to touch the best so
The truth shall be my warrant through 
I went since I need must...

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After I came home from work one day, and sitting down for tea
I looked out the window, and was surprised to see
A person sitting out there, as if waiting for a bus
The last one for...

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THE CHIMNEY
The once fine air, refreshens with dust
Between the village horizon and crest
Since the sailing of a death chemical chimney.

Young green plants seedlings growing on slope
Are left to sip these  carcinogenic dusts, sapling
And entwined...

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Spoilers ahead....... 
Spoilers ahead .......

Thanos may be the villain but have you ever wondered why?. Nobody out of the blue starts to hate every entire race. He was the Victim of the theory of human...

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today i will wander to the brothel
those divine friends of Jesus
where i will intercourse
with the ladies in my growing Spanish
write some lines to ponder
while they wash clothes and bathe
i the balneologist with the brandy
we watch...

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Remember the day before you died? Your heart reeked of mania. The way you lied about your whereabouts broke my world into a mangling mess. Who cleaned up my mess? It used to be you....

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the bombs 
the guns 
the blood shed
no humanity done
all is lost
under the strick and pain
of all the bombs 
every day 
WW1 WW2 
the Cold War 
nothing is new
death for nothing
revolution you say 
killing hundred of...

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PTSD

Like rabbit in the headlight caught
I want to move, i know I ought
But quicksand stuck, I’m petrified 
My body still, arms laid by side
Stretched out on mattress, naked, soaked
From sweat in which my body’s cloaked
My eyes...

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Part I:  My mother’s Voice. 
  
“There’s something not quite right.” 
My mother’s doctor said.
The murmur in your heart.
I think we’ll  make a start, 
to take a look, and book a bed...

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It feels as though I have sing all the songs
It feels as though I have  correct all my wrongs
It feels as though I have read all the books
It feels as though I have something...

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"A Tribute to Heather "
It all started 38 years ago
December 11 
An angel was sent from heaven 
From the time she came out the womb
She was special , she was unique
she was a queen
she lit...

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Ohh I could have sat with my heart 
--elevated with dribbled echoes-- 
ahhhhhh until it yet exhaled the tarnished seams 
capturing only the quiet current lapping
and soaking dirty steel embankment	
along the river’s edge beneath the...

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So major: 
Not minor
When things were cool 
Between us my dude an I 
we had an understanding.
I mean he knew, I was down for most 
everything that was righteous.
We had our own bond.
He knew certain...

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 Taken from the Novel, ''The Thirteenth Year''  By S.T Nchindo

Dear mother
I seek no special day
I need no remainder
I set no alarm
To bring you to thoughts
Each day, I know you are gone
My heart soars...

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 Taken from the Novel, ''The Thirteenth Year''  By S.T Nchindo

Dear mother
I seek no special day
I need no remainder
I set no alarm
To bring you to thoughts
Each day, I know you are gone
My heart soars...

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I felt it – stirring, spontaneous repulsion,
the darkness
Recovering from the steel black holes
Eyes intent on raping the soul
Ravishing the vulnerable,
Violating the hope, the wonder.

He was younger than me, 
with teeth black from decay – black
Like...

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I never got why you always
Ate the red pink color out 
The Sherbet ice cream

It was like excavation
How you removed all the cherry
Without even affecting the other colors

Leaving the orange and the vanilla
Neatly for others
Who...

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Is this the price we pay for our right to have guns 
the blood of innocent souls lost to oblivion: a gentle violence

Forever a mental brute, a slow gentle violence 
of unforgivable action, wither insane...

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