Long Odes Poems

Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

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Femme Fatale By A Wishing Well 
  (In The Wastelands Of War)

Warm as breath on placid skin,
Soft as gentle summer rains,
Loud as natures angry clouds
That gather in ambushed lanes,
To confer with the wounded boys
Whose...

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"Dandylion" 

The guy was a 
Dandylion 
there was 
no denying it

full of promises
and making wishes
residing over 
this new world

poetically 
speaking, he
shone like 
the Sun

he sat on his throne
for all to see
the mane man
roaring non-garrulous

declaring 
to...

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Woven are these pages in poetic verse,
With bare threads of our deepest feelings,
You will find laughter, tears and remorse,
and words of wisdom, prayer and healings. 
Krish Radhakrishna

The words herein form an anthology of love
From the...

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I, heart on sleeve ... proudly? I suppose, in a contrite way ...
          but it's beyond my breadth to control, so it is what it IS.
...

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O, September, I feel the subtle scents of dandelion days melting into oblivion,
Like spring waterfalls of delirious diamonds collapsing into the abyss of memory,
While sentimental sapphire memories flow among clouds of color-blind cruelty,
Revealing how the...

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“As God’s spark ensouling organic form,
I am that presence which cannot be named,
felt within as a magnetic bliss storm,
divine pulsation that cannot be tamed,
gentled by His touch, within body framed.
I am that which transcends both...

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These are modern English translations of Chinese poems of The Shijing or Shi Jing ("Book of Songs" or "Book of Odes")

Shijing Ode #4: “JIU MU”
ancient Chinese rhyming poem (c. 1200-600 BC)
loose translation by Michael R....

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O August, I feel subtle scents
of dandelion days melting,
like spring falls of delirious diamonds,
while memories of sentimental sapphires
flow amidst clouds of colorblind cruelty,
revealing how butterflies
from the temple of fragmented armors
abandoned my spirit
at the altar of...

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“I Am as I Am complete
Though ego opines otherwise
Invoking grace we feel God’s heartbeat 
What else does there remain for us to realise” Unseeking Seeker

When the sun and soul  
speak in seraphic silence,  
I...

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In the heart of the night, next to the unmoved clock,
She lies, with the pillow—a saline lake of pagan scents,
Mourning something that was never spoken.
Prisoner in the castle of shadows, where darkness
Bearer of chaos, stretches...

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[ For Contest : Ghost of Frankenstein 
Sponsor : Tom Woody
submitted: 9/5/25 ]

Many starry nights I lay
in my wooden cabin next to your 
sanctuary waiting for whisperings
from your past, wisdom words

I wrote odes about a...

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“I am not the body, which is but dust
I am not fickle and limited mind
To whom then comes the feral thrust of lust
Or for that matter, thoughts loving and kind” Unseeking Seeker 

I am more...

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“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind” Kahlil Gibran.  

I remember being lost, 
...

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[This is an advanced version of a poem
that I wrote on the 5th of February 
2008,
titled "The 15th of June" in
commemoration to my late 
Grandmother,
Jane Mvula]
_______An Ode To My Grand(Mother)__ 
______
15 June 1918, was when...

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What could be better than the sight of my room
After a day which nearly did echo with the Devil's name
A day running around to the whims of my boss
A day during which I did feel...

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Fall in love with a poet at your own risk.

She’ll woo your mind with serenading

notes and undress your defenses

behind metaphors and rhymes.

She’ll merge emotions with home-made

verses in a nectarous word play, opening

the mansion of your...

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Chinese Translations III

Quiet Night Thoughts
by Li Bai aka Li Po
translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Moonlight illuminates my bed
as frost brightens the ground.
Lifting my eyes, the moon allures.
Lowering my eyes, I long for home.


The Solitude of Night
by...

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The Shijing or Shi Jing or Shih-Ching (“Book of Songs” or “Book of Odes”) is the oldest Chinese poetry collection, with the poems included believed to date from around 1200 BC to 600 BC. According...

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A cme  yourself, but first be in friendship with the books.
B ooks  never  beguile you....but always be with you.
C ompanion is word.....and book makes it complete sense.
D istinct  aroma of its...

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You've visited me after a long time: Remember; once, I was brimming with might? Named babbling brook, revered as a singing deity, how blissful was my sight! Have reminiscences of your childhood, in my mellow...

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Such heavy artillery,
To whom shall we run,
To God have we come,
In pain and sad form,
To state our hearts' deform,
To stake our rights and reforms,
You know that where two Elephants fight the grass suffers,Do be well...

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I write my thoughts 
on paper,
 let  ink of my soul
      glow, amidst the grief
     I carry in echoing stillness, 
   for it...

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There was an old lady, a frumpy old bag
who people called horrid, a witch and a hag
And 'though she was ugly and danced 'mid moonbeams
all was not quite as it might've then seemed

Old-fashioned black clothing...

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[Continued from Part 1]

“And the efforts of the Senate to extinguish all this fury
Were frustrated by convictions that their god would promptly hurry
To reward and praise the burning of the books in Caesar’s hall:
Pliny, Tacitus...

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