Long Ishtar Poems

GILGAMESH . . .  

Story has it you used your power to run amuck
Putting fear into the people, and brides in Unuk

So the people of Unuk pray to the sky God Anu
To sort out...

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“ANTE BELLUM”


BEIGEBest served where it can’t be seen
On Stirling Silver platters
With redruM narcotics
Delivered by sharp Blood-Red
Well-mannered talons
Strutting in sleek wet rolling tight-skirted
Long French Silk Stockinged legs all the way down to 
Lethal Six Inch stilettos...

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The Exaltation of Inanna: Opening Lines and Excerpts 
by Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon I of Akkad and high priestess of Inanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lady of all divine powers!
Lady of the resplendent light!
Righteous Lady...

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Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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The Love Song Of Shu-Sin
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Darling of my heart, my belovéd, 
your enticements are sweet, sweeter than honey. 
Darling of my heart, my belovéd, 
your enticements are sweet, sweeter than honey....

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Dear God, on this Reformation Day,
I pray for a reformation in America.
The founders of our nation,
acknowledged you as Creator, God,
and trusted you to preserve and,
prosper the nation they established.

Though imperfect, they did their best,
To establish...

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He Lived: Excerpts from “Gilgamesh”
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I.
He who visited hell, his country’s foundation,
Was well-versed in mysteries’ unseemly dark places.
He deeply explored many underworld realms
Where he learned of the Deluge and why Death...

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Bottle of tears is my first version of this poetic legacy series
Skeleton of tears is which the venerated versatility carries.
This might be called as a sequel of alacrity or prolongation
But best before this is a...

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In Sumer land, you first appeared.
A potent god, both loved and feared.
Queen of Heaven, joined to its lights.
Moon your father, Sun your brother.

Venus was your symbolic star.
You were too, a goddess of war.
Fierce, fiery, passionate,...

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To: The Mayor

From: An anonymous concerned citizen

    It appears that our nation has reached a threshold  of acknowledgment.  The time is now 
here when we must acknowledge who and what...

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She crawled thru dry barren
Desolate landscapes
Only to find the only doorway
To a mangled soul
Intense were her intensions
To peak into the abyss
Of my darkest hours
Of sleepless nights
She come bearing
Torch and visions
The burden to Love
Empowering me
Solely.

If left...

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now the sun made love to the moon
in a transgender afternoon 
will be like you, will be like me 
blame fimininty, blame under Y trinity 
for the crescent got pregnant by a star 
how Islamic...

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the blue print glows back at my sight
it's getting clearer and clearer  
and it isn't in my rear view mirror 
like eddie said 
it's straight ahead 
the thirteen are  anxious about revolution 
they...

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EASTER SUNDAY  
                            Spring goddess Eostre--Astarte--Ishtar
 ...

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20 years ago, I attempted this "sonnet" (c) Deo

Ebullient, animated anticipation
That delicious delay as I await the words
Precious and precise cascades of persuasion
In reference, refrain, in resonance of records
I have waited weeks, fattening into a...

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She is
                                 ...

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Venus

I Walk without realizing what is happening around me
And yet, I feel your presence
I look at the orange sky and find you 
As if watching me, you follow me everywhere

I feel like a ghost floating...

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From the depth
of your
anguish, you
wished
me into existence. Like
Athena, I
came
to the world
fully
grown and armed, so to
disguise
you in a cloudy
mist and allow
nobody
to hinder your
progress.

I was
born seeking
your eyes, guided by
memories
of the future to be and
endowed with
a voice so...

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Carved in stone (sonnet to Ishtar)

Hail beauty, still as death, in smooth stone hewn,
The Great Earth's Queen in regal posture stands,
Who in the underworld sings out her tune
Of justice, law and power o'er her lands.
The...

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Are you the Aphrodite of the Greek tales
Or the Artemis who admirers drooling sent? 
No, for Aphrodite had her little flaws
And Artemis the fortunes of Orion bent.

Nor are you the stunning star that the Magi...

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A rising on Valentines
Resur – e – rection

Four AM Valentines morn, I awoke,
stiff as a board – stands a mighty oak,

reaching up to heavenly skies – empty –
whishing upon a star that would not be

a...

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Candle of Ishtar glints their eyes to taste
where fireplace burns hushed tones, a smoky glide
and dew anoints waxed mouths, sighs collide,
like unspoken quakes, uttered not in haste.
Lay bare night’s scent, unrelenting, unchaste
peeled garment floats on...

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No beautiful face on sale; Bazar is out of order
Fairyland - O dear goddess Ishtar! - is out of order.

I was alone at home, we'd to spend the noon together
Now, she rings aft' afternoon: my...

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For Palmyra in her eternal home
Your feminist smell, 
Your purple dress, 
And all what engaged of history, 
Transients with psalms war..
Brobos and Oorljnos 
And the night that saturate wine from 
White pearls of your lips.

And...

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