Long Dreamless Poems

Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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 TUAN TATA : Song of Uda - I
by T. Wignesan

(Patrick Noone, a British anthropologist, discovered the Ple-Temiar tribe living isolated in the jungle highlands in the State of Perak on the west coast of...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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It has been said
by Shakespearean wit
All the world's a stage.

And so it is, I actively and fluidly suppose,
One Great Transitioning Stage
of diverse seasons
and eons of becoming cooperatively larger
and, especially under climates of crisis,
competitively smaller, too...

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Endless sunflower field 
Rhythmically swaying in the wind
Like lazy ocean wave stretches 
To the distant line of horizon
Touching the edge of the sky
Melting into hot noon brilliance
Boiling all shades of yellow into
One burning brightness of...

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Their rending cries, when all is still, reecho in the moonlight;
They lie about in fitful slumber on the ground at noonlight,
Their virgin hair spread in the dust; for nothing really matters:
Who then will see their...

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I’ve lost my darksome heart in the rivers of dimensions long ago..oh so long ago...
I’ve lost my lonesome soul in the waves of oblivion
You’ve given me wretched woe, but I still love you deep down...

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I was once something of a pessimist, and that fact did not concern me,
As violet birds are content, to spend their nights in different trees.

Still I had a happy and quiet existence, or at least...

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Visual surroundings-
Some of it are monotonous -
Tiring are Some of it sometimes-
Maybe traditional scenes
Unknowingly builds the pinnacle -
Of the dreamless minaret.

Or-
Talk about rubbish
That rains incessantly
Disturbs the Subconscious.


Rather in the darkness of decade
Or-
It can be seen...

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The air is thick with the weight of things unchosen,
paths untrodden, doors closed but never quite sealed.
A shadow clings to every decision,
the ghost of every road not taken,
whispering — what if, what if, what if.
We...

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All my life I had loved music, and rapturous harmonies thrilled my soul,
As the sound of a wild driving beat, causes eager feet to take control.

As a longtime concert pianist, I'd been fortunate to follow...

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In feminist political analysis,
when not stuck
in all day systemic paralysis,

Every win/win
v win/lose 
v lose/lose energetic trend,
synergetic person,
integral narrative,

Each interdependent development
and apartheid decay,

All seasonal health
and unreasonably greedy
fractured wealth,

Exhales multi-paradigmatic power
non-autocratic,
more neuro-sensory automatic,
and inhales enlightening Ways
for cooperative...

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i heard a...what do they say...a spine chilling scream
...is that the saying?

a spine chilling scream
followed by

'he's dead, my G_d he's dead'

the phrase echoed 
inside the whole of me
like tennis balls bouncing between two parallel walls

i...

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mind that thinks
heart that feels
senses five

reflect

thoughts vary
emotions differ
senses too can ebb

yet

we are alive
in the waking state
but what of dreamless sleep

where are we then
we recall it not
yet awake from it nevertheless 

so

are we not the screen...

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I was an enthusiastic painter, striving to apply more verve and color,
Like sunshine dreams, of blue-gray days, that couldn't be any duller.

Painting had for long been my passion, but had turned into a career,
Like the...

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I had for long been impoverished, as is often the case with writers,
Though I worked most diligently, at times even pulling all-nighters.

Rosy dreams kept me going, although times were frequently rough,
As black night fuels its...

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Pain is everywhere
Springing from the crown 
Of the head and like jellyfish 
Expanding proboscis
Cover the whole body
Till the end of the toes
He collapses in epilepsy
And lays there on the cold floor
For the whole day
Till the...

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Pain is everywhere
Springing from the crown 
Of the head and like jellyfish 
Expanding proboscis
Cover the whole body
Till the end of the toes
He collapses in epilepsy
And lays there on the cold floor
For the whole day
Till the...

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I have heard of it,
I was in it,
I have imagined it,
But I am yet to experience it.

What is this dream?
Who is this dream for?
Is it a dream for the wealthy and the powerful?
The politicians and...

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A Dark Cloud  
                             
Why do...

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Lorca Translations I

Gacela of the Dark Death
by Federico Garcia Lorca
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I want to sleep the dreamless sleep of apples
far from the bustle of cemeteries.
I want to sleep the dream-filled sleep of...

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The present world is rubbish...

It isn't a world of 5 oceans, 7 continents and 10 scores of nations
NO, ITS NOT...
Its a world ...

..of a million cries, of a billion pains, of a trillion losses,

..of firing...

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