Long Garbed 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...

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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...

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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...

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I don't know what came over me that day - an instant of weakness after years of resistance, I suppose.

My beaming spouse leads me, a dog on a short leash, into the forbidden citadel, the...

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The shepherd stood on the field, frail,
He knew not what to do when and why,
As the wrathful sun did steep down,
The confused chap followed his humble sheep.
Then one man neared and asked his name,
He gasped...

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I was a busy and active person, who loved to savor life.
I was also amiable and friendly, avoiding excess strife.

Like the glad golden sun, ever beaming blissful radiance,
Indeed drawing all others, with its cheerful brilliance.

My...

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I was a public relations specialist, ever promoting positivity to people,
As positivity is promoted afar, by the sight of the towering cathedral.

My work was very interesting, there weren't ever two days the same,
As an exotic...

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                               Etched in Stone

In the...

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I was a productive, proficient painter, long captivated by the manifold colors,
An infinite parade of hues and intensities, like tales of a thousand summers.

I worked daily at this irresistible passion, which made long, golden hours...

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Mary was ten and she adored flowers, and she had three pretty sisters;
But, she never could make a garden grow; like stars, losing jade glitter.

Sisters Sarah, Martha and Alice spoiled Mary, for she was the...

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Sauna Or Getting Cooked

Going viral, a video clip of a hairy burly Caucasian man in a white towel...
Approaches a steamed up glass door of a presumably hot sauna cubicle....
Opened the door, stepped in and flicked...

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Only on his palm were cowries
And thread-cloaked bullhorn found.
Only on his neck we found 
The  coral beads of truth and courage.
Only on  his hands lies the
Pearl of selflessness and 
Emblem of  Pedantry.
Only...

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“What…happened…to…me? What…ab…ab…”
Despite my new found breath, my speech was weak 
and lacking.

“Hush little one.” A soft spoken voice was heard 
though she did not move her mouth to say the
words.

“You are safe now. Ashtira is...

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"Lord if it is you will, I will do as you ask of me.  But I wonder why you ask me, the weaker gender of your servants?" Deborah said to the Lord her God....

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Barely weeks of seven of the orgy
Space crash of 117 people in a Bellview
Tragedy came knocking
This time harder with anger to
Ginger blood off its hunger

Unto the street of heaven came the commotion
On the Flyers descendant...

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Lord Vishnu once blasé of the same old scene, 
Far too tame with His heavenly ease, 
Felt for a change from ‘oh been there and seen’, 
For one that exhilarates with fragrant breeze. 

Arbudanchal My...

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I was not thirty yet, and it was fall.
My wife and I were touring in Japan
While on our summer break from teaching school.
Our luck, our parents lived to grow us tall,
And modeled health and art...

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Timendi causa est nescire (Ignorance is the cause of fear).
– Seneca


About two thousand years ago,
when Quintilianus said it
(at least, that’s who gets the credit),
his paradigm was apropos:
the words “Vestis Virum Reddit.”

Garbed in leather, silks, and...

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With utter dismay
I sank my red eyeballs 
Inside a dust filled pillow
I wept for her profusely 
I wept for my love 
For my love is still sick
Fourty five moons after

It was  fourty five moons
Still,,...

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Tormentous is the titan’s tear
So tranquil he thus aspires
To catch a fleeting grasp or care
When the morbid moon expires

Pale beneath the endless moon
Within a coffin quietly
A ghost aghast quiescent lays
Nocturnal in his holy state of...

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By his hand was grown a forest
trees aligned as fence posts
trunks accentuated lavender and blue, 
but not as a spruce
and purple strokes, not disguised as prose
in a woodland cut short in proportion
somewhat a distortion of...

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The following scenario occurred via the guest sharing with me 
when I was managing the front desk at a hotel in San Francisco, 
fronting Union Square. I found his morals promising and conform 
to a...

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I can see your eyes are trained somewhere beyond my face,
though I can't bring myself to find their target. 
They passed over me once, for a day, or a week, 
and I was garbed in...

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When words no longer work

wonder

wish

want

When words won’t come

compensate

contrive

When my voice breaks

snaps

sunders

strains

When I want to talk

touch

tenderly

towards

But you are not able

about

abandoned

absent

You are no longer

listening

live

longing

When I need to find a meaning

In the shape

form

structure

But I ‘m stranded

Stuck

Sucked under

Swallowed

Then I...

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This Poem about an instance of pain and plight of Sex workers.
Red Frozen Flower:

Multiple cars flashing the red lights,
Coating red lipsticks on street.

Decorated like a model,
Hair perfect as a wig,
Eyelids having shine of summer sand,
Eyelashes...

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