Long Materiality Poems

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...

Read More

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,...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

Please try and read with the rhythm, flow and spacing I created by use of the lower casing in place of full-stops and commas/breaths. Allow the words to dance...

Snakes and Ladders


I'm not perfect
Never can Be
in...

Read More

He searches in the shady sides,
traces of vanished light,
a drift of the felt,
all of nuances and transitions.

Perhaps is it too early;
cold dawn maintains suspended
the pulsation of the heart,
spreading the ashes,
incomprehension of lack,
in the slow progress...

Read More

In the deep valleys of the spirit, where dreams boil in the overflowing cup of consciousness,
I wander aimlessly, seeking countless treasures not in gold, but in scattered words.
There is no money in poetry, only echoes...

Read More

POETS


Desert dust before the rain hampered our walk
                       on the Oregon  floor
...

Read More

Is it to be something if nothing it is can be
The wheeling whirring cogs
In the cluttering clatter of atoms and stars
Whirring their physics into oblivion
Nothing more than the sum of all thier predictable parts
With their...

Read More

Under the mantle of night, dark and woven with cryptic gleams,
A dreaming artist finds his calling, a secret and eternal protest,
The words that escape his lips tear through the thick veil of conformity,
Defying all that...

Read More

When imbalance of life churns hapless poignancy
And the zephyr of inequities breezes melancholy
Dissonance reverberates echoing pathos of grief
Seeking exaltation within metaphysical profundity
As hushed posture conjures up humbling catharsis,
Leaning in quietude, questing paranormal vitality,
Liberating from bounds...

Read More

The earth element
Gravity, structure, solidity
Gross materiality, animal instinct
Hunger, thirst, shelter, the fear of death
Hunting, hiding, seeking, habit driven
Squirrel storing nuts for winter
Yet stirred by a fragrance
Pleased with the moon

The water element
The urge to procreate
Emotions, maternal,...

Read More

Telling Time
David J Walker

 I
It was our Kindergarten Dissertation 
Tying our shoes in neat bow knots 
Counting to100 
And the recognition of the trek 
Of the Big and Small hands of
The wall clock 
in relation...

Read More

We have brought this upon ourselves:
This virus, this egregore:
This cult of individuality.

	Our right to die and bring others with us!
Truly an inversion of full potentiality:
	Others live so we may make right.
The Sun shines on all,...

Read More

viewing an object of desire
immersion in materiality
losing ourself therein
slave to the senses
lustful passions rising
our thirst keeps deepening
correspondent to indulgence
poised yet as an animated thought
heart awaiting actual fulfilment 
wherefrom we gradually shift
our attention into the void
smiling...

Read More

Follow me, my dear, to mythical shores of hypnotic dream,
Sail on my fantasies, driving passions of your zealous theme,
Afloat on tides of longing, musing on love’s passionate seas,
Vying paradise of bliss, propelling desires love-notions seize,
Savoring...

Read More

The Master Passed through the heart of town
The crowd was huge and crushing down
She couldn’t reach him, began to probe 
And finally touched him on the robe

He felt the jolt of energy 
And turned around...

Read More

Ego Gold

All the accoutrements
Bolster self-images
Polished epitomes of self-aggrandisement
Glittering gold possessions
Are the necessities
Of self importance

Makes me smile
For this puddle shallows
Can be stepped over
So easily

A golden bangle
Appeases this living vacancy
Expresses wealth so readily
All its solidity
Materiality
Reflects in its...

Read More

infant life
                                 ...

Read More

Liquid light crystallised as blood
Entwines with pranic magnetism
God's life force in incessant motion
Enlivening organic mind-body form
Forming an ego to navigate earth
Which is driven by survival instinct
Ego seeks our undivided attention
Within this world of myriad illusions
To...

Read More

This poem is not a Black Lives Matter hashtag
That it will seek justice for George Floyd
It is not a racial stereotype
Or a free the back  hype

This poem is not to seek bail
For the black...

Read More

The river and the almond tree
are sacred totems for me.
They occupy primal ground
in my mind where the stuff
of who I am links 
the esoteric to my history.
I keep them close, hidden from 
the scoff of...

Read More