Long Immenseness Poems

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

Come, you—the last one I acknowledge; return—
incurable pain searing this physical mesh.
As I burned in the spirit once, so now I burn
with you; meanwhile, you consume my...

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Liebes-Lied (“Love Song”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

How can I withhold my soul so that it doesn’t touch yours?
How can I lift mine gently to higher things, alone?
Oh, I would gladly find...

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I.

Beneath the coldest spray of greenish hue 
Solitude lies entombed in rolling waves 
And Death a word we try hard to construe
While staring into depths of azure graves 

Solitude lies entombed in rolling waves 
Speaking...

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Unrhymed tercets

The Withdrawing Room

Huddled together in this abstemious grey chamber
no windows or means of escape walls closing in
trapped where the un-sanctified transactions are made 


Daunting without exit the silent screams go unheard 
ashen skin with...

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Huddled together in this abstemious grey chamber
no windows or means of escape walls closing in
trapped where the un-sanctified transactions are made 


Daunting without exit the silent screams go unheard 
ashen skin with darting eyes never...

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Transparency, of a summer morn
when the blue from the window is so far, so pure 
you are filled with immenseness
and a certain feeling that something on the verge
of life shattering is just. about. to happen...

And...

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Volcanoes can engulf the land
in avalanching lava blaze
entombing picturesque Pompeiis,
for Nature has the upper hand.

Tsunamis raze an earthly strand
disrupting lives that cling to breath
in e’er untimely mortal death,
for Nature has the upper hand.

Despite the undertakings...

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From this indeterminate point in the universe
These eyes roll in search for the bounds common on earth,
Find nothing but fiasco in its immenseness
And believe that the Omnipotent gave it birth.
 
If I counteracted the state...

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I look for the words...
but there are none to be found.
And even as I write this, 
I know how that must sound.

Everything has been said before,
every sound has already sounded.
But even though this may be...
I...

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Immenseness of the contrast –
from blue eyes to red apples,
(we must stop apple picking!)
from smashed leg  to a stone wall –
squanders the soft toys of time.

A peach colored queen lies in state
from centuries
to be...

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Narrow halves of smooth cliff
split dry heavens,
and the asphalt’s abrupt termination
sends the casual river to slip contrast.

Fluttering cottonwood leaves speak to angels,
rising from majestic places of stone.
Pebbles plummet canyon crevices.
Evergreens break the borders of rock...

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