Long Exaltation Poems

Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

Read More

Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

Read More

Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

Read More

The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

Read More

The Exaltation of Inanna: Opening Lines and Excerpts 
by Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon I of Akkad and high priestess of Inanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lady of all divine powers!
Lady of the resplendent light!
Righteous Lady...

Read More

Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

Read More

This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

Read More

I (a youthsome, wholesome, jokesome, handsome,...
gamesome, chucklesome, bothersome,
and awesome modest fellow)...
does not deliberately court immortalization,
and wonders what criteria confer elevation,
exaltation, glorification, hero worship,
idolization, veneration, or worship.

I go about a daily humdrum routine
me, a twenty first...

Read More

In the morning, he was tetchy, but gentle,
Sitting beside me till my eyelids opened
I sat up, yawning, and rubbed my eyes
His hand brushed a dry tear off my face

“You are alive and well, I see,...

Read More

You’re my star – I set fire to our firey rose 
Bouquet of stars – I hand to you – 
We’re opposites, like poetry and prose
You came out of the blue, I’m left without a...

Read More

stared at the two passionate lines for the longest time,
       what I wrote ..I created ... as if in a trance, as if in a surreal dream ..
 ...

Read More

Every January first of the new year...

finds me (a doggone muttering Homo sapien)
to give pause for reminiscences
and to take stock (sh lock and barrel)
about mein kampf in general
and previous three hundred
and sixty five days in...

Read More

You have fixed   all movements   within time 
every trails destination    have you outlined
no creature     can operate        ...

Read More

(1.)

Olympic Desires Born, Gods A'playing


Poseidon arose, trident a'gleaming.
Mermaids danced, fallen hair a'streaming.

Olympic desires born, Gods a'playing
Mighty Zeus often on earth a'staying
There below mortals stopped a'praying
Hades play, man's evil a'repaying!

Poseidon arose, trident a'gleaming.
Mermaids danced, fallen hair...

Read More

Shayna Punim - You came a long way baby!

Though negligible communication
now transpires between us
twenty seven years ago
come February fourth,
two thousand and twenty five,
our lives (affecting yours truly
and that of mother, plus Eden
a caring older sister)
irrevocably...

Read More

'Fragments and crumbs of life, all little pieces'

           John Ruskin   1853  




      FRAGMENTS OF LIFE

  ...

Read More

stared at the two passionate lines for the longest time,
what I wrote ..I created ... as if in a trance, as if in a surreal dream ..
is this poignant piece a poem?

tears fell...one after another ... every...

Read More

OUR LOVE
                                 ...

Read More

How can you stand                         the imitation to Life
the plastic products ...

Read More

Poetry, the supreme form of knowledge and expression, is the window to infinity,
Through which the soul traverses hidden, unseen, and deep realms,
Religion, science, philosophy, mathematics, art, all are but shadows of divine magic,
In delicate verses,...

Read More

Private Residence

Sign at the gate – no solicitors –
Beyond the rosewood door sanctuary in seclusion
Untouched by hands racing round
A face framed by chimes and alarms –
Measures of mincing minutes
Exiled with suitcases packed
To astral planes of...

Read More

These are poems about storms, poems about squalls, poems about tempests...



Dark-bosomed clouds
pregnant with heavy thunder ...
the water breaks
—Michael R. Burch



Squall
by Michael R. Burch

There, in that sunny arbor,
in the aureate light
filtering through the waxy leaves
of a...

Read More

These are poems about storms, poems about squalls, poems about tempests...



Squall
by Michael R. Burch

There, in that sunny arbor,
in the aureate light
filtering through the waxy leaves
of a stunted banana tree,

I felt the sudden monsoon of your...

Read More

After beguiling charisma,
damnable excoriations fixedly,
gamely, horribly, insult jesting,
kibitzing, loosely mindless nattering,

outlandish pablum, quintessentially
representing senseless trumpeting,
unswervingly vapid wordy
X-DOUBLE-MINUS
yawping zest.

If ye did not already guess from thee 
above blimey claptrap, Das English flap
doodle glib human incorporates jokingly,
kookily,...

Read More

She’s a painting, conceived in tinted strokes
Smooth as the feather’s tips, drifting through canvas,
The alchemist’s wand waltzes in curls, 
Enraptured in pacific zephyr, her entire universe unfurls
An abstruse domain of love, artist’s exaltation of philosophical...

Read More