Long Lamentations Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

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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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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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The Enchanted City of Dual Realms
In the sprawling labyrinth of concrete towers and spectral glass,
where skyscrapers, like ancient obelisks, pierce the celestial veil with unyielding ambition,
serpentine rivers of fortune murmur in arcane tongues, their secrets...

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I'm such a drama king
What kind of happiness can I bring
At the dinner table? Would they place a label on me?
I'm like a dysfunctional cable box...a beat-up TV 

Pre-chorus: I promise I'll be okay
I just...

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How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!
How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces, has now become a slave.
Bitterly she weeps...

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Those rarer men I once fondly 
knew...                            ...

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Those wonderful stories of God
My grand ma used to set me at the kitchen table
And tell me bible stories
Some bout Cane and Able
One present gifts and praises to God
The other was jealous killed his brother...

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I can see
All the way from in here

That the fate of the world is on a precarious knife-edge

The black-robed vultures
Are gathering 

In secret covens and lodges
For their Great Cull

Carefully planned and patiently waiting

On their gilded...

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Alfredo always abhorred angry approaches
After an amigo accosted after an argument
And, afterward, Alfredo abstained arguing,

Because blackening bruises betrayed blather
Berniccio blindly behaved better, bravely
Becoming brotherly before blasting bullies!

Carefully commandeering calmer Carlos,
Claiming cool comradeship courageously
Communicated clever candid...

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These are poems about storms, poems about squalls, poems about tempests...



Dark-bosomed clouds
pregnant with heavy thunder ...
the water breaks
—Michael R. Burch



Squall
by Michael R. Burch

There, in that sunny arbor,
in the aureate light
filtering through the waxy leaves
of a...

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These are poems about storms, poems about squalls, poems about tempests...



Squall
by Michael R. Burch

There, in that sunny arbor,
in the aureate light
filtering through the waxy leaves
of a stunted banana tree,

I felt the sudden monsoon of your...

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Do you ever look forward to falling asleep...
In hopes of escaping into sweet dreams so deep? :)

If you dread nightmares, careful what TV you watch
(My advice: E.W.T.N. is topnotch!)

Could read the Bible till your eyelids...

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1)  Behold I will do a new thing; it shall spring forth; shall ye know it?
     I will make a way in the wilderness and even in the desert. ...

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I see God by faith, in His majesty 
revealing His blessings for mankind
with His awesome dawn-wonders:
 
Azure-accentuated ambiance awaits aspiring artists
Baby’s birth brings blessings, blowing boredom-blues
Cool calmness charms circumspect chefs to create cuisine cravings 
Daybreak...

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Prometheus
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

obscure Your heavens, Zeus, with a nebulous haze!
and, like boys beheading thistles, decapitate oaks and alps.

yet leave me the earth with its rude dwellings
and my hut...

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Mothers have come
from throughout Earth
to bury our post-Trumpian dead.
Bringing both gifts and lamentations
as each finds appropriate
for healing
what cannot be stanched
and scabbed.

As gathering 
we choose who will speak among us,
for this Earth eulogy.

At last our voices...

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Steadfast, he, as fortress guarded
In his ivory tower slept 
Fearing naught, though faith-departed
Knowing not his lover wept.
Cowardice, thought long-discarded
Secretly in silence crept
Corroded, as if silver, tarnished 
‘Twas his heart - her only quest.

Haunting, held-yet lamentations...

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I’m marching in the dream 
It’s raining heavily and the sky is dark and flashed with electric white
Silver shards gleam down from the sky
To shatter the still and calm I love so of the rain
In...

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August 3 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Lamentations 1-5

Key Verse – Lamentations 3:22-23 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new...

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This is where my grief met Jeremiah's lamentations

OUR FATHER
As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far the Lord has removed our transgressions from us?
Why do I feel not far removed from...

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Never Too Late To Say "I Love You" Until...

Futile lamentations reverberate along
corridors of times long gone, this papa
tearfully apologetic revisiting his base,
fitfully lachrymose torturing unrelenting
voluminous wrongs against thee dearest
precious daughter aware poetic/ prosaic

ministrations cannot substitute...

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