Long Hesperus Poems

Sappho Translations XIII by Michael R. Burch

In these translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any way, shape...

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"Titan and the Night Tears of Eos" 

Another world calls
dreams in 
the in-between 

place before all

where the night tears 
of Eos never fall
unified consort

Astraeus caresses
dawn with 
twilight gifts

Eosphorous 
dawn bringer
waits upon Hesperus 

Titan borne
distinct divinities
two...

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Sappho Translations V by Michael R. Burch


Sappho, fragment 23
translation by Michael R. Burch

I long helplessly for love.
Gazing into your eyes not even Hermione compares.
Who is your equal?
I compare you only to goldenhaired Helen among mortal...

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Sappho Translations IV by Michael R. Burch

Sappho, fragment 133
translation by Michael R. Burch

Blushing bride, brimful of rose-petaled love,
brightest jewel of the Goddess of Paphos,
come to the bridal bed,
tenderly entice your bridegroom.
May Hesperus lead you starry-eyed
to...

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Written for the contest “SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW.” My original poem was written in 2017 as an epithalamium. The edit for John Lawless’  contest has become a rhyme.

SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW

   ...

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Whispering wings ~ feathers afloat,

   Molting and marvelous, magnanimous

      Wonders, alighting in familiar places.

      ~

Each feather remembers the warmth,

   The pear-shaped...

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I remember reading a short story by Hitchcock. Three friends walk and converse as they make their trek home from work. Huddled in mind,
independently fearless, the cold air or hot night baring their souls.

crows on...

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( In honor of my historical neighbor, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose family's summer home is about a mile from where I live )


            ...

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Bedeviled by the world so brutal
He still bring – off with a grin
Baseless towards one among the nation
Still the only one to conform every time of year - 
Once in a blue moon
One will surely...

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HESPERUS' NIGHTMARE

  "For thirty-three years I have served in the Legislature.  Every now and then, you simply give the citizens what they want."  -  Representative Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, Mississippi State Legislature...

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By train, plane, by wings,
I hear the angels sing.

Their featherbell sleeves,
golden flutterbies weave

in mind-blowing confection.
I remember the affection

for long distance kin and kith —
missing links that make me writhe,

and Niagara Falls - its plunging
neckline, of...

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The brilliant night is rich with hopeful stars
And I, alone, can see them, feel their joy
As I stand on the balcony and Mars
Recedes and Venus forges an alloy
Of Mercury and Saturn, both asleep.
Bright Hesperus! ...

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Magenta thatched magic
Lantern ravine
sugar plum shadows
haunting the stream
  perplexing the galaxy
a siege of illusions
a serpentine rhapsody
leads to conclusions
  Follow the lodestar
Hesperus rising
delirious love
is always surprising
weave me a diadem
wild orchids weeping
Norwegian whiskey
and Grieg
while I'm...

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