Long Gurgle Poems

The first soft snow: 
leaves of the awed jonquil 
bow low
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness! 
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

The cheerful-chirping cricket
contends gray...

Read More

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,...

Read More

My most popular poems on the Internet (II)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

Read More

These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

Read More

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow...

Read More

Jim Daley and Joe McCarthy had something in common. They died at 80 going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Walt O'Brien, their protege, found this out when he called the homes...

Read More

[My recent poem ‘The Dimly Lit House’ received a
Comment from Charles Messina that it could be a Tom and 
Jerry episode… what can I say? Something went ‘Ping!’]

       ...

Read More

Poet:  Ken Jordan
Poem: A Raven's Curse 
Edited by:  Sparkle Jordan
written:  February/2015


        On a late January, (winters night),  when once wake eyes now sleeping,  dogs now howling, and cats now screaming -

       ...

Read More

Candy floss, seaside rock, smoothies, and flags sporting
Union Jacks
Replace the old traditions of striped deckchairs 
And Kiss-Me-Quick hats.
Chipwicks for our salt and vinegar fries
And their pole-and-line freshly caught local Cod;
The Vintners Parrot: For thick sizzling...

Read More

In a smokey room, each time I awake, the dream again descends.  Deeper into the 
abyss I fall to a sea of melancholic funk.  Souls waft by on clouds of imagination, 
clinging to...

Read More

hip hip hurrah, herc shot hera
sick sad era, tri city terror
dirty land lover, lips hit terra
karma bent over,  messenger error
never say neva, davin say better
no pain no gain, accept the rainy weather
paint a pic...

Read More

In time when night turned to dawn, I could see, 
It all appeared like sheer fantasy. 
Light-hearted, I put on my office hat, 
And hurriedly in my horse carriage sat 
To drive away myself to...

Read More

In scarce a week the place began to weave 
A weird fascination upon me, 
Nigh hard to bear, harder still to believe, 
I felt as if a dragon from a sea 
Was slowly digesting me...

Read More

Like riding on waves wavering
not sure where it takes me
searching for a log just to hold on, 
but helpless, and alone in an abyss.

Slumber, how I wish a day's sleep
to keep everything aside, and rest,
in...

Read More

In Celtic lore, Lig Na Basate is a dragon that terrorizes Ireland.

Through the rough and rugged bramble
Lig Na Basate was boldly sought,
By a band of hardy hunters
who cared not of the danger t’was fraught.

The Lig...

Read More

Do you mind
If I share a dialogue?
My chalice of truth and reality
Is far too full to contain the depths of my soul
A chalice of roads trod, rivers crossed, and mountains climbed
Bearing a brew too overpowering...

Read More

LXII+ years old and he still carries a security blanket

Move over Linus
Van Pelt of Peanuts fame,
cuz yours truly
also psychologically lame
since prepubescence
mine noticeably long hair

delivered inner comfort,
yet found some classmates
calling me "hippy" by name
though other tormentors...

Read More

My path beyond the shores of time
from life to there are maritime ripples.
Harrowing blades of rain
hammered from storm-clouds shatter puddles
of glass to rolling streams of echoes,
Misery’s trail towards cleansing waters:

A bloody throat gasping for water...

Read More

Cathedrals in tea cups. Jingle jangle playtime then. Golden slippers on a carpet of custard. Slip slide. Drip. No droop. Flavoured water is never fake. Obviously. And count the jellied eels in a bath of...

Read More

The ones who would soak 
the mother who drowned 
her children in serpentine
seas never floated a child. 

When splashed amongst 
the horror-stricken, 
we too feign revulsion. 
Evoke higher powers and
baptismal pools: the fluidity
in the womb....

Read More

Fumbling through a sheen of yellow
the land and sky merge as one.
and earthly song goes silent.
The stage is set for death to breed,
tendered by phantoms, catching the unwary 
these purveyors of men’s souls 

The rats...

Read More

Fantasies float through the psyche
Replacing all thoughts of miscommunication
Infatuation and lustful Inspirations of a lesser form
Gurgle over closed eyes and slanted head
Leaning toward the floor
My pencil keeps tapping the side of the paper
Blank even though...

Read More

There was once a king who decided that for him - beauty was silence. 

 He issued a decree that all sound was banished henceforth and that his land would forever more be as silent...

Read More

Quite mild winter weather bourne this way
within environs of Perkiomen Valley
since latter months of 2021,
but also since me 
January 13th, 2022 birthday,
I predict minimal snowfall
for remainder of 2022 winter,
what with just couple weeks
until Spring Equinox.

Within...

Read More

They heard a murmur in your chest,
a whisper:
tiny fish lips bulging the surface.
A bubble, a    b   u   r   s   t,
a blurp of sound
innocent as...

Read More