Long Flowerless Poems

Dusk-gliding swallow, 
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers! 
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

A bee emerging
from deep within the peony's hairy recesses
flies off, sated
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

That dying cricket,...

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Matsuo Basho New Haiku Translations

Air ballet:
twin butterflies, twice white,
meet, match & mate
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Denied transformation
into a butterfly,
autumn worsens for the worm
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Dusk-gliding...

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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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1. My sins may be an alarmist
hitting me hard with heavy fist
Your glory, I want to be near
my soul to you, I feel no pier
a flowerless life like lichen
you stop my spirit from itching
thank you...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU VI

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku.

Both victor and vanquished are dewdrops:
flashes of light
briefly illuminating the void.
—Ouchi Yoaka, loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael R....

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https://youtu.be/yIIGQB6EMAM
The human race may be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy. 
The brain is wider than the sky.
The sky takes on shades of orange during Sunrise and Sunset.The color that gives you hope, that...

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“Here lieth baby Rachel
Born 10th Sept 1894 Died 30th Oct 1896”

Marble stone that lays above the head,
white chippings that blanket the body,
flowerless vase that sits naked
crying out for a fragrant moment
if only to perfume its...

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PASSION OF AN ARTIST 

The landscapes I paint have fence one or two,
some with bent pegs, some with broken bars.
Fence between chipped pathway with sunset hue
and flowerless garden turned to auburn pasture.

I ask me why,...

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You are not ……….. in childhood days
……….. A girl to play doll,
You are ……………… of a moon night
…….. A traveler of a hard way.

You are not ……………. of far horizon
…………… A flying bird,
You are ………………………...

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I have nothing tangible to do,
that`s why I`m writing this,
which makes me jobless.

Even though I like to speak on 
behalf of many indigents and unknowns,
making me the voice of the voiceless.

I believe in struggle for...

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Your tree limbs have been good friends with time
Stretched over the watery deep
Surrounded by decay as snow fell in the winter-time
The earth seemed jaded slow brown in its creep
Up to your strong roots as if...

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She haunted me as a child,
Staring quietly from her watercolor world. 
Her strange presence called me. 
Powder-white skin and rouge cheeks,
Pencil-thin brow over 
Dark-rimmed eyes 
Shedding a single tear,
A pale rose between slender fingers,
Seeking its...

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He tried hard not to break away
But could not keep them together
After all, he would never again stay
So he left in search of life better

Like scattered leaves after a storm
Was the root of family foundation
Aching...

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A lovely rose grew to the garden's delight,
a poem of sunrise surrounded by night.
One day her friend Ivy asked "Why do you mourn?" 
Rose answered, "I've lost my beloved dear thorn. 

"We've been closer than...

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Baby hair with a woman's eyes
I can feel you watching in the night
Beautiful like fresh flower, 
Beautiful with rainbows in eyes, 
Beautiful with shyness and smile, 
beautiful woman! 

Beautiful are the star like eyes
Deeper than...

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Gardens cannot thrive in shade
an ill-fated penurious terrain
like love that's made, but made in vain
gardens cannot thrive in shade

As light hides behind the trees
shadows conceal the reverie
this ground, immortal beauty made
yet gardens cannot thrive in...

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If mothers didn't bear children,
we wouldn't hear their screams
while they're laughing aloud
and are having lots of fun;
love them and be always blessed,
sparkle enthusiasm and dreams!   

If lovely spring stopped blooming,
how sad we would...

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The rest of my life starts now...
A checkerboard battle of custody, 
evidence of fatherly love fell short
My fuddled walk now through leafless trees, 
weeps, traversing corners of an empty nest  
erasing  black patches...

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Spread high and wide against the noonday sun
The jacaranda tree displays its mauve foliage
All nature knows that August has finally come
Students on their way back again to college
On the ground beneath the generous tree
The old...

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Realized Dream

Sabbatical dreams after quarantine,
Sun hint suitcases in unkempt closet,
Copy of an E-ticket stretches trash,
Cellphone replenished, impotent ere long.

A bowl of flakes stifles in cooling milk,
Sunny nook preps up a stylish bud vase,
The label I...

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THE GRASS WIDOW

All this cowed earth in a blue jar, flowerless
Stands on the pine table.  Clay and wood
Have broken spirit’s voice, to endow
With uncalled for happiness your fleeting presence.

Truth is blunt in your eyes:...

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For puppets never see the strings
their lifetimes scenes played out on stage
reflected in the viewers eyes
their lives and deaths a curtain call.

No sunrise ever greets their day
for puppets never see the strings
of lifetimes lived upon...

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Unassuming beauty of emerald evergreen.
Verdure cool patches of sombre sunscreen.

Flowerless soft carpets of impasto  strokes.
The gorgeous mossy sponge .. vibrance evokes.

The gregarious green hosts.. fungi, frog, insect 
The bedecked forest floors.. symbiosis perfect.

Soft velvet...

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Is life worth living if it’s not for you?
Cold thus the summer, the fields flowerless
Such is the world without thy beauty view
Of eternal gloom my sorrow boundless

As thy presence convince this unsure heart
Life’s worth living...

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Through grace our sins are left behind,
Each day now we spread message in kind.

Through life willfully given up to death,
We each day partake in living breath.

Through Him we averted spiritual loss,
Now souls blossom unlike flowerless...

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