Long Dwindles 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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Over harvested fields —

I walk beneath the fading afterglow
of a forgotten lantern   a path worn
by wanderers older than the scroll of Zeno
its damp salve seeping through my coat
into my bones

Fog an Erebian curtain...

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{"To the ones who want to love me first, I don’t deserve you, and you don’t deserve me. It is vivid, enduring to every human, alluring at any foul play you want to scream what...

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For every step I take toward the sun,
the spark that lit the fire inside me dwindles.
History slated on unforgiving stone erodes;
A weakly chiseled dream.
But I will remember it all,
and tongues shall breed these words
and hold...

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"Silenced tears, muffled screams, A storm penetrating in your chest that seizes your soul, 
Is god watching the world burn? The bricks that create a barricade were the ones confiscated within me, and with mentioning...

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Into the woods we ventured, where darkness began to encircle us,
Their ancient murmurs mingling with the forest’s ominous chorus.
A chilling breeze, as if the very breath of the woods sighed,
Veiled in tempestuous clouds, the stars...

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* CONTENT WARNING: This poem is about physical abuse. *

     ~

eyes, down ...

at my yellow polo,
red spatters
so evenly placed that
they look unnatural -
as if printed,
but unfinished ... incomplete …
yeah ...
blood, but...

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There is a feeling, yet not a feeling
it’s more of a sense, sensitivity
to the touch, the joy, the love that flows
from the One who knows me
as I’ve never been known by anyone

He knows my heart,...

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In the heart of the country, a veil of mystery and melancholy floats,
And threading along the leaf of life, these methods seem a sinister symphony.
Open borders, and immigration comes like an underground current,
On the paths...

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Written: April 27, 2024

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Seraphic, sibilant wisdom,
    a grace-gorged vista,
...

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I’ve always been your little girl,
Even now that I’m an adult.
Yes, I know I’ll always be your baby,
And I grew up way too fast.
But there’s something I can’t stop from happening dad,
And in some ways...

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The House on Lake Maggiore

The house on Lake Maggiore was reality, a physical truth, 
my imagination became the artist.

The day has become  a deckchair, gently folding itself up
as my walk leads me into a...

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2011, the modern year, coming closed
         in 2012, and passive fat assed American apathy
strangles feeling from the esophagus, **** it.

    I choke, cough out...

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Watermarks of the time and tide! (Second part to abide by the word count limit)

------

My reason for living took a new meaning ever since I became a parent!

Loving, sacrificing, and caring are the best ways...

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Dear ......,

Its over, it's finished, I mean it - we're through!
I thought it was me but now know it was you.
I'm done with your lies, your greed, my fixation
insatiable urge that precedes degradation.

It's cost me...

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KITH

I have told you who l am numerous times. But you just took me for a regular creature, all of you have failed the test of recognition; I am not all human, yet it is...

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Self reliancy stimulates political independence,
pragmatic critical thinking spurs revocation of spurious Partisan information,
vigilanteism guards against the Juntas,
systematic interdiction of peoples' ability to to procure food, self educate, 
self medicate, and to self defense is a...

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   An anti-resolvent-fume-
of-infest-chokes-out-integral-yield of humanity. 
Thick as molasses, blackstrap morass of emnity.

Blight is apathy, and apathy is blight. 
A Void, a claim farming the abyss. 
Marketing it's lie, on sale. 
Though it has...

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Many eyes of different color
see images and give them meaning;
reality is the clearest perception,
which brings on its sweetness,
and often an unacceptable bitterness:
I have given these reflective eyes
a choice and a challenge:  to either
accept or...

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I sit tonight
And...stare
Out my window
At
The passersby
In their cars
Under the stars
Close to far
Going
  About
    Their
      Way
      Though
    Day
 ...

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Lingering light dwindles among the horizon,
Twilight fades with a farewell from the sun.                      ...

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Eradicated, exquisite, hypocritical, and divine
Given your own heart --- but not given your own mind

Slaving through this lifetime to just rush to the next
Disqualified, degraded, and generation-hexed

Unintelligent, psycho, and deranged
When you open your eyes ---...

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The Coin

Narrow, twisted and dusty be the road.
Three aged and wise stood,
They argued terribly one with the other.
No light shined in the void.
Shadows be cast no longer.

The face in all its beauty,
Beauty is the true.
The...

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Sometimes you may feel like you're stuck on the benches of life 
Not knowing if you'll ever get in the game causing you anquish and strife 
Dismissed and unused never getting a chance to play...

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On my straw-like comfort,
With smudges just beneath the lids.
Dawn engulfing, still going forth
While the wind’s strength dwindles in its bid.
My ears muffled up to its opening
As musical sensations tingle it.
Same it did from a kit,...

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