Long Haloed Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

Read More

I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

Read More

"The Monochrome Echo Chamber"




How many Roads
to "IT"
Black 
as Black & White? 
or Unicorns and Rainbows?

Unitarian 1 and only 1 
Trinitarian 3 exist in 1 
An answer 
arrives 
unheralded 

Reversed in Time
Something 
has lit the fuse
Something...

Read More

"Shrouded" 

found in the humanity
not in the divinity
many pilates 
wash their hands
of this

long enough
for the clouds 
to descend 
then rise 
fly away 

criminal as charged
electric in the body
the mind already risen
the observer now crucified
takes notes

passionately...

Read More

for René Passeron*

             You may not grow old too soon
          if
Things you have known...

Read More

Sappho, fragment 155
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

A short transparent frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

NOTE: This is a translation/interpretation of an epigram by the legendary Sappho of Lesbos. Pollux wrote: "Sappho...

Read More

God meant well
But, when he created heaven, he also created hell.
When he created Jesus, his brother, The Devil fell.
Like a jilted fly in the sacred ointment
Every day since has been his long day of atonement.
...

Read More

Contact 

Standing in a field, camera in my hand,
Scanning misty pines, haloed hill so grand.
Many miles I've traversed, now lost all sense of time,
Morning dew underfoot, dappled light is sublime.
The green plants of this earth,...

Read More

It is a peculiarity of Love’s mossy light
that once, hapless rocks drowning in their days
would be overthrown by Love’s destructive plight
and smooth-whiskered words its song to soothe
in the belly of the whale its secrets brew.

In...

Read More

Peaceful slumber engulfs my existence
my soul awakens in a tranquil silence
it floats away with waves leaving my body
a spirit astray guided by pristine breeze
that blankets my photons in a lit entropy
a silhouette I become in...

Read More

Last night I watched in silence
At the end of the road in forest deep
I hid amongst the trees watching in awe
As gypsies dance while others sleep
Under the violet hue of evening sky
Haloed by evening's golden...

Read More

Oluwapemi... your name is soft to the ears... your name speaks peace...
Your name is the soothing ointment of the troubled mind
It sounds like the luculent laughter that comes with the dawn when the turbulent Night...

Read More

    A frozen chunk..
          his numb heart thumping against
        the malady of raging menace
  ...

Read More

Abhorrent those phizog few,
At times they flood his mind.
He did not even know why them his mind drew,
He has got to get down, reasons to find.
 
His mindly nib, she oozes memories,
Of old and new…...

Read More

An orphaned paradise where wounded feet
Must hymn the breath which gave it life and light
Despairs for harmonies which subtly meet
In whirlpools where bright genii wake to fight. 

Asleep along the foaming shore there lie
Two citadels...

Read More

The King's Wife - Te Arri Vahine

Gauguin’s painting of “The King’s Wife,”
immortalized a goddess of Tahiti, Pacific paradise.
Mesmerizing mahogany muse memorializing his canvas,
she’s a tropical Venus on a bed of forest green grass.
Nature’s umbrella, a...

Read More

You tempt me
As I sense your presence by my side
The whisper of your flowing silken dress
A whiff of fragrant jasmine scent.

You tempt me
With each flicker of your doe-brown eyes
Shadowed in lilac hues and full dark...

Read More

Clink clank clink clank clink clank
slow steady pace, metal hitting pavement
pausing when you pause
following you home, the man is bones

and a tie, top hat, tails, not tap shoes
more like chains, the sound a horseshoe makes
when...

Read More

You tempt me
As I sense your presence by my side
The whisper of your flowing silken dress
A whiff of fragrant jasmine scent.
 
You tempt me
With each flicker of your doe-brown eyes
Shadowed in lilac hues and full...

Read More

You tempt me
As I sense your presence by my side
The whisper of your flowing silken dress
A whiff of fragrant jasmine scent.
 
You tempt me
With each flicker of your doe-brown eyes
Shadowed in lilac hues and full...

Read More

We were one people, neighbours and kin
Before independence and the politician’s whim
In August’47, the brotherhood ended
The country was partitioned and we were independent

Democracy worked in India, floundered in neighbouring Pakistan
Victim to army rule and the...

Read More

Many an angel does wear white,
Though the flawless, blinding, perfect cloth
Is seldom a part of the celestial uniform.

True angelic attire is as often as not
A bloodflecked smock
Inhabited by a cranky, caring cynic
Bent on saving you...

Read More

Three lying deacons 
swim in a handbag -
and a lone, celibate pastor 
paces longingly bemused.
Michael, the Arc Angel, 
poses silently,
in dusty Gabbana drag,
cursing the lipstick-painted laymen
writhing in rancid attar -
naked 
and intentionally 
unused.

Four wide-eyed boys...

Read More

"Though passing through sad and sombre times, let us be gladdened by the joy and peace Xmas brings"- by Poet

She felt the kicks, this time more intense
A mother’s primal instinct told her thus;
‘Can travel no...

Read More

                           
       ...

Read More