Long Mesh Poems

See
by Michael R. Burch

See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are...

Read More

Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“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...

Read More

Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“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...

Read More

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

I heard two distinct voices in the night,
Conversing amongst themselves most eagerly
They whispered like children in excitement
Their sardonic mouths sung many savvy tunes
It was Death I could perceive, defending me,
And he, a strange, distant friend
Seemed...

Read More

In sandy Egypt lived three men
In ancient days when pharaohs reigned
The kingdom of the pyramids,
Osiris and that Isis’ den,
Whom everyone worships and heeds,
Or at least doing so they feigned,
And those gods too blessed them and...

Read More

Font Din Black

so u real??? 
Warning! The following choppy, batty, 
dopey: elegy = flaky, goofy, history: iffy, 
jumpy, kooky: loopy, matty, nappy, nippy, 
sketchy material prone to find the reader 
dazed and bewildered, yet comfortably...

Read More

Archaischer Torso Apollos ("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...

Read More

medication malfunctions, feelin 6 in depression
world guessin eyes stressed when, lord of heaven drops confessions
code of matrix saturates, bash it's core of hate.....
make my getaway, in noble deeds as I speed.....
so fast must move slow,...

Read More

Passion and compassion vibes flow
Let the flowers grow, you know?
Yes, you know...because it’s shown
In your oceanic eyes...it’s like an ice cream with its favorite cone...it’s flavorful and all alone

Your voice is depicted in shimmering, scrumptious...

Read More

It's styles of a nameless brand pristine day
an exclusive star-sheathed shadow after 
overwhelming luminous glare fainted
a somewhat true-to-life footpath in
a back of structured quaintness

Encountering myself at a passionate spring
oozing its life gliding o'er its rocky...

Read More

It was 3AM.
I had too many cups of rum and I wanted to hear your voice
before I fell into a drunken stupor. 
You didn't answer my two FaceTime calls or texts so
it got my mind...

Read More

O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

Read More

Do not vainly look in those remote
Places,
That, once, were acquainted with a 
Small part of me;                   ...

Read More

I heard the dreadful Dryad's scream
As axe bit into woody flesh
The sap oozed out as scented cream
My veins stood out in rictal mesh

My wits all scrambled left me quick
My hands and face were full a-sweat
My...

Read More

No Eden here, for there’s no snake;
There’s just a thief who likes to take 
The labors of all our hard work.
My blood is boiling, half berserk
Near stripped of reason, one thing’s clear:
I’m settling the score...

Read More

A lovely summers day with my family on a Sunday,
could not be any more perfect than for us to get away,
so we packed a picnic hamper and threw in a fishing rod
and drove towards a...

Read More

Inside A ‘72 Econoline

This old green van has a musty smell to it,
Like a pair of sweaty rancid socks
Mixed with half-empty beer cans.
It’s a banged up thing, this ’72 Econoline.
Scratches and mysterious dents 
Cover its...

Read More

"50 Words for Poe: Blue Skies"



She was dressed to kill
Hot like a blazing Australian Bushfire
She crackled with heat as she
sashayed through the entrance
like Summer towards him, 
Like she was painted in 
Gold Lame Mesh
Armour tight,...

Read More

gardens are where we are:

  from "Eden" to "Gilgamesh", "Babylon" to "Gethsemane"
  from mountain to coast, town to country
  from wetlands to desert oasis, under the sea to the edge of ice
...

Read More

Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation 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...

Read More

~The Only Solution~

It’s the only solution isn’t it amazing
Words transcribed by lightning emblazing
Etched upon stone that hangs on our tomb
When flowers no longer blossom and bloom

We shed divine spirit of faith for the flesh
Without weaving...

Read More

There are skeletons in the wardrobe but they’re home and dry

Looked after properly moth balled and yet unkindly falling apart

Conscience is layered just as are subconscious wishes and fears

Sometimes I play with the bones and...

Read More

Melted candles atop a resigned dresser
Wilted roses lying atop a white cloud
The flickering of fires and shadows mesh well with your
Batting eyelashes your heavy words and your breathing in rhythm with
the cadences of muted car...

Read More

Callum is an old-fashioned man on the verge of becoming history’s memory

Ancient even in that he holds only one job but that is for privation of another 

Sort of a whiz kid at what he...

Read More