Long Murmurs Poems

I often surprise many people in many ways
With the words I say…with the actions I make…
It’s extraordinary how many seek high praise
With the words they say…with the actions they fake…

Neither will I…
Assume the worst in...

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

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

I.
Treasures That May Be Found In Destiny's New Shift

( Mille viri sententia agere nescit donec suscipit calamum scribere.)

For a brief spell, I hung my hammock in the shade
of the ancient tall oak tree, that God's...

Read More

     by how many badbyes can you measure the length of your day

                 first comes...

Read More

The night sky was dark but for the beam of light that glared through the trees before them as they walked into the woods.  Joulupukki and Lumi were careful not to get to close...

Read More

Toddlers' Exploration: 

Cardboard drum, a thunderous beast,
Playful roars in tiny fists and feasts.
Fleeting wings glide, dreams just out of reach,
Soaring through tales of barnyard Waddles and Squeaks,
Moo! Quack! Giggles tumble and bump.
Flaps flapping, bright colors...

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

I suppose there are no new problems in the world to be exterminated,
well, I mean, of course there are as many new problems
as there are creatures having a new day today,
but I mean I suppose...

Read More

PSYCHOTIC JOURNEY
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


Feeling really beat,  I went to bed early last night
Suddenly awakened feeling something’s not right
There was total darkness, I was not in my room
Lying on a cold flooring, with a feeling...

Read More

Love murmurs in my ear that to be hunted
is infinitely more enviable than to be the hunter.
                  ...

Read More

The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning...

Read More

July 2049 the 13th Dolly and Molly
Celebrated their  45th birthday wih
Damian and Holly.
Today was a pleasant day initially 
Then it rained and rained. Now,
Damian spoke with his brother Sidney 
To decide the plan for...

Read More

When I'm gone...
You're gonna miss me over my dead body 
When I'm gone...
Till I'm gone...bye-bye, love...I guess I was your nobody and love everybody, but me...
When I finally belong 
You're gonna depart from me
When I...

Read More

Godot has arrived
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Alive and well thanks!

...said the haiku poster
Crudely pasted to the fence
Who was too busy selling stolen goods
To notice he was a notice
Announcing a brand new play
A fusion of two classics

Waiting for...

Read More

I will not waste away in the streets of such unbearable nightmares where I silently weep
I will survive the rainstorm of lament and listen to the mesmerizing murmurs of the deep
I am alive in the...

Read More

Tetelestai—“It is finished”—may be the most significant word ever uttered across the stratosphere. The single most important statement in all of human history. Spoken by the innocent and dying only begotten Son of God. Tetelestai...

Read More

Into the woods we ventured, where darkness began to encircle us,
Their ancient murmurs mingling with the forest’s ominous chorus.
A chilling breeze, as if the very breath of the woods sighed,
Veiled in tempestuous clouds, the stars...

Read More

(Warning: it has a sexual theme...)

Imagine you and I 
Together, we will fly
But, first and foremost,
Let's spread butter to the toast 

Suicide nervana plays me like the piano player to the piano 
It's a ride...

Read More

A young girl’s voice, lost in the data, cries out,
"Why are we here?"

Pixie Pixela, her words soft and low, murmurs,
"This world is yours, dear, a garden for stories to grow."
But her digital eyes hold a...

Read More

Yin speaks,
murmurs really

Slurpy GoldenShadow
whispering warmly
wetly
hypnotically
fascinatingly
in my left ear.

Notice:
In 2011-12
Bill Plotkin wrote

"Sinister Shadow, projected:
Donald, president of the United States,
refers to the Soviet Union
as 'the Evil Empire'...
and actually believes this is true."

True of all 2019 federations,
integrities,
synergy,
healthy wealth,
cooperative...

Read More

Written 16 August 2023:
Placed First in  "Why Are We Here Poetry contest",
Sponsored by Unseeking Seeker

                   ...

Read More

You stir up trouble
My fears begins to double
I’m sick of lending my ears to your lies
Oh boy, how tiiiiime surely flies
It’s time to shine on…
I’m not the one to look upon
I’m the scar
He’s the star
I’m...

Read More

The most pregnant event that occurred...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
recorded July sixth nineteen sixty
upon birth of she who doggedly 
pursued me to the ends of the earth
and what not take no as an answer.

Unbeknownst to yours truly
a...

Read More