Long Hillside Poems

Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

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As a young boy
Sitting in a pew
The winter darkness pressing down
Candlelight waves from hidden drafts
Shadows danced on the walls

I heard the words destined to me
“Be still . . . know that I am God”
So I...

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A long, long time ago on a cold winter's night

A long, long time ago on a cold winter’s night
Two hearts were broken the crest of the eve
This is the story of how it all happened
How...

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The Williwonk rose from its hibernating sleep
And jumped up in joy with a sinuous leap.
Time for some mischief, he mischievously said,
I'll shake up Manvile and fill them with dread.

For such a vile creature was the...

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My  name is Mattie Ross and I hail from Yell County
In the state of Arkansas living, on a ranch with family
At the age of fourteen I suffered personal tragedy
When my father Frank Ross was...

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1
We've been riding now, for days
On this dry and dusty plain
Headed to a land, that's never tasted rain
The posse has been thinning out
As men head back to town
So, that just leaves you and me
To track...

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The Sinai Rose finch, oblivious to the commotion in the nearby city, busily gathered dry grass and floral fodder to repair her nest, disturbed by a human behemoth, snatching the thorny brambles which hid the...

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I am not sure whether I am missing you or that you are missing life~

                    ...

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I am lying in a field everything surrounding me so serene, the sky is the most beautiful shade of blue and the grass a beautiful luscious green
There is nothing forgotten or decayed in this place,...

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I was an active, vibrant, happy person, and I was captivated by the moon,
In the way that summer lovers, are ofttimes charmed by romantic  tunes.

Since early childhood, I had been enamored, of that limpid,...

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All In The Name Of "Progress"

The wrecking ball long since
demolished boyhood house zen
located at 324 Level Road,
a once nonagricultural,
pastoral, rural residence,
which soulful yen
I called home while
veritably sequestered, quarantined, positioned...
sprawled atop spaciously shingled roof
countless years (B)efore...

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Sunrise

		               What a splendour to watch the sun
             ...

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PAST TIME NIGHTMARE

Based on events I experienced.

A child of four suffers recurring dreams,
disturbing parents and siblings with screams.
When she awoke, always sore in one knee;
next to a birthmark, it throbbed painfully.

Night after night she feared...

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     We boarded the Carnival Cruise in Miami with excitement,
our destination was Montego Bay-   with a promise of great fun;
         ...

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Memory of Lost Innocence 

We were just kids running down the hillside, with youthful spontaneity marking the passage of time. No beaten path, we just flowed where our little hearts took us, wedging our way...

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There Beyond The Purple Veil, I Hear Her Calling

As sorrowing winds blow, darkness begins falling
There beyond the purple veil, I hear her calling
For the smell of the hillside, the flowers gifting
Nature's streaming beauty, life that’s...

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The morn's alive with skylarks singing

o'er the greening meadow and the pliant pasture,

the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.

A sudden shower would see me running

fancy free between the rain drops,

I cried 'Excelsior!' and...

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  On white lines on valiant wheels
I head north leaving behind the City of Sails
       with its humourless streets,
    its casino steel and glass Sky...

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CHAPTER 8 Two Paths
 
North they travelled through the jungle 
Aiming to escape from forest
Seeking an itinerary 
Near the coast in open country 
 
So they climbed a wooded hilltop;
Han attained the top-most branches
Of a mighty towering ironwood
To survey the...

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Odyssey from Africa, Chapter 12 (d) The fireflower (cont.)

Dominated by one hilltop 
Round in form, it’s summit hidden
In the whiteness of a cloud base
There they saw their destination 

Now they climbed by steepening gradient
Through a...

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