Long Mountain pass Poems

Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds



Flying
by Michael R. Burch

I shall rise
and try the bloody wings of thought
ten thousand times
before I fly...

and then I'll sleep
and waste ten thousand nights
before I dream;

but when at last...
I soar the...

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Matsuo Basho New Haiku Translations

Air ballet:
twin butterflies, twice white,
meet, match & mate
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Denied transformation
into a butterfly,
autumn worsens for the worm
—Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Dusk-gliding...

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49 years past; a puppy was bought, picked up out of his pen on a pet shop floor;
he had honey brown eyes & an inquisitive way. He grew to be so loyal and true, how...

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Matsuo Basho English Translations of haiku about spring, birds, bats, butterflies, flowers, sun, cherry.

Seeing them naked
almost makes me caress
the wanton flowers.
—Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch

As temple bells fade
flowers strike their fragrance
into the silence.
—Matsuo...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU V

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku. 

A cat in heat
can't catch a mouse? —
pathetic! 
—Kinpu, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

It's getting to the point
of sucking on...

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The pre-dawn stillness was temporarily broken by the sound of crunching gravel as boots meet rock like an orchestra of timpani drums,  beating in unison as the wearers make their way to the iron...

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A frown 'pon his face_ bills, bills, 
                           ...

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Ah Frontiera, here we are at your last, you've thrown a rod, your life lies black
on oily ground - all this snow and you're a mobile no longer; so I must walk.

It's cold, and now...

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Cobblestones of pantry and a wide toothed grin. Visitors from afar pay no heed and paramount is the settling and uprooting of cultures old. Might as well be blood in that feather quill who prints...

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I’m about to die
But before I do,
let me tell you why
There was a savage battle
between some Apache scouts and my frontier men
And as they like to say
down by the Texas border,
it was a Mexican standoff
Neither...

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To get there one must
Pass eerie looking moorland that is vast
Largest tree on earth its shadow will cast
Beyond it on will reach mountain pass at last

Continue up the mountain until you reach imposing drop
Down in...

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"The forest is my loyal friend A Delphic Shine to me."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Greek Poet

Who is always there, through the good times and bad? 
Who welcomes me when I'm happy, when I'm sad? 
It's mother...

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...A boy once blanketed this yonder mountain pass. He watched its shape changed by man's ever passing byes. His held onto true beliefs faded along side the paved roads he now knows. Ducks and deer...

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Driving South Dakota in December
Means you’re a “Stupid Club” member
I’d never even heard of a “White Out”
That’s what this story’s all about

Cruising along and relaxed as can be
My three daughters, my wife and me
You could...

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I can hear Thermopylae beckoning me upon my return
Leonidas’ voice calls me forward to battle with hardened pride

Time’s grains shifting bellowing out the past I have lived
And I am of that past…I can touch the...

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Sunday Rose 
A poem about enriching your life with the love of your partner-in-life, inspired by Ancient Greek Wisdom

As I walk quickly upon the steep mountain pass
I find you searching though the ever-green grass
For wild...

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She found a job near Annapurna and when she trekked around a turn
It was like walking into a wall of beauty, awesome like a burn
It sometimes stopped her cold; this display words could not surpass:...

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One day and one space bar later an irrational iguana put on a wetsuit and some roller skates and left the house. He met with his friends on the way who were waiting at the...

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She was taken by bears, that was the consensus,
dragged off in her sleeping bag; tracks confirmed.

Later the child was eaten, but not before she died of old age.

She lodged with the Grizzlies, growing sturdy, unusually...

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It’s said that God bestows on us, each and every soul,
A special gift just meant for us, to make our lifetime whole.
How often I have thought about what gift was to be mine.
I waited for...

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They once were men, but not these days.
See their quest for power
in their starving gaze.
A people once so, prospered and proud.
Since then let in,
much dark they've allowed.
A thirst unquenched, always wanting more.
Greed has sickened them,...

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She was taken by bears;
that was the unlikely consensus -
dragged off in her sleeping bag, 
tracks confirmed.

She lodged with the grizzlies, 
growing sturdy, unusually hirsute
for a human girl, 
but pretty in a wide-bottomed way.
Eventually she...

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Soosa plans to go on a cycle ride,
to a distant place, misty and wild
where nature’s beauty could be seen 
the fog that could ensnare the eye.

The teen girl was blissfully alone,
rides through the chill in...

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Sometimes Nature Joins Life's Celebration

Sometimes Nature joins life's celebration
giving generously beautiful scenes;
relief from man's saddest tribulations,
such rewards are worthy by any means.

Where morning sun glistens on dewy grass
glowing blue sky graces the live long day;
rests...

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The Mystic and the King

~~~~~~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The valiant king rode across
A perilous mountain pass, which
Led to a mystic who could
Dispel the chance of death at war.

He roved along the rough terrain
Through rows of shuddering pine
His journey had...

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