Long Idleness Poems

“Blue Angels, Black Sheep, Monitors and The House of Random Penguins” 

The womb
is scooped like 
an over ripe melon
Time is the incorrigible felon,
the forgotten lost garden explored 
overturned and raked, 
neatly messed, 
in more ways...

Read More

Written: April 18, 2024 For Unseeking Seeker Contest

Line of inquiry:

“We have been here a thousand times before
Memory erased, each time we begin anew
Of hands held tenderly, we’ve lost the score
Each embrace virgin like fresh morning...

Read More

"Voluptuous Bullets"



In the game of Love and War
voluptuous bullets
penetrate a mouth of warm words

Lacking defence lines 
boundaries come undone 
in the valleys of a body let loose

Depth charged oceans seduce
and submerge the sensual mind
civility replaced...

Read More

THIRUKKURAL: Translation of Canto XXXVIII with notes and commentary

Canto XXXVIII of the Thirukkural on the topic of FATE which I give here in translation (by stages) forms, in itself, a separate "book" in its own...

Read More

A
Alas! I`m in a
confused state,
As I wonder in
perpetual
restlessness
 B
Bind by different
thoughts that are
not mine,
I keep remembering
the good old days
 C
Caught in the middle
of fights that I
don`t know of;
I mellow down to
understand this
misery
 D
Desperately looking
for answers...

Read More

PETRARCH TRANSLATIONS

Sonnet XIV
by Petrarch
translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lust, gluttony and idleness conspire
to banish every virtue from mankind, 
replaced by evil in his treacherous mind, 
thus robbing man of his Promethean fire, 
till his nature, overcome...

Read More

Purposes as incomprehensible and wonderful as these purposes
Either you had no purpose or the purpose is beyond the end
The purpose of sitting is not to be satisfied or satiated

Because the timepiece not only serves a...

Read More

Men: A Wife of Noble Character
 Proverbs 12:4 

A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown.
   United as one, a vow husband and wife, declare to the town.

   And to...

Read More

This dread disease that has afflicted my home, 
This malady, this plague on my house;
This making convertible the former quaintness and provincialism thereof 
Into something wholly despicable and disgustingly homogeneous,
Yclept "cosmopolitanism," and "worldliness," and "globalization,"...

Read More

My daughter and I have started working out
at a local gym.We have done water aerobics
and ever the over achiever I decided to try
Zumba as well.It will be fun ,I convinced myself.
I love dancing and it...

Read More

CATULLUS TRANSLATIONS



Catullus LXXXV: 'Odi et Amo'
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
I hate. I love.
You ask, 'Why not refrain?'
I wish I could explain.
I can't, but feel the pain.

2.
I hate. I love.
Why? Heavens above!
I wish I could...

Read More

"Kris Kringle Kisses Kalliope"

A Dream: the 4th Christmas.





deck the halls 
with memories
poets whisper pasts
that are ne’er forgotten

where presents 
a life 
that’s neatly wrapped
and attempts at 

frostily forgotten 

tucked under
that big 
beautiful
green fir tree

where all the...

Read More

Written: April 10, 2024 For Edward Ebeh Contest

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”

— Rumi
              ...

Read More

I feel it to a small extent - a little tinge of it -
those times I hear about
friends going on vacations to fun exotic places;
friends of mine receiving special presents from their husbands;
women I have...

Read More

The task begins with awareness, and freedom without it is harmful. So let us not look back in fury or forward in panic, but rather around in awareness. By Poet



Let me tell you a story.

Can...

Read More

April 2 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on 1Kings 17-19

Key Verse –1Kings 17:16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD,...

Read More

This poem was written in 2019 and is now being dedicated to my sweet niece, Joleen Cogburn for lifting spiritual belief from her heart by encouragement as she truly reflects the light of the Lord...

Read More

January 19 Faith in God Bible Meditations Based on Exodus 4-6
 
Key Verse – Exodus 4:5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,...

Read More

June 21 Faith in God Bible Meditations Based on Psalms 40-45
 
Key Verse –  Psalms 40:5  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which...

Read More

He came from the Dust Bowl in a terrible time
When his family were stricken with broken, dirt covered dreams.
The patchwork wooden shack they slept and ate in had all but tumbled
To a fate no one...

Read More

January 19 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Exodus 5-7

Key Verse – Exodus 5:1 … Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me...

Read More

My love lies bleeding among the meadowbeauties, purple, 
entangled by hairy caltrop around her delicate feet and ankles. Climbing upward, 
its thistled fruit prick my fingers and palms; as I unsnarl the dodder from her...

Read More

July 26 Faith in God Bible Meditations Based on Ecclesiastes 9-12 
 
Key Verse –  Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for...

Read More

March 9 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Judges 10-12

Key Verse –Judges 10:16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the...

Read More

Stray not to evil’s dark enticement,
Instead heed what is good,
Against what’s wrong, in the end bereavement,
For those who failed to stood.

Stray not to debauchery’s wild call,
Tis a short road to death,
A body must not have,...

Read More