Long Outcries Poems

Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

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The Exaltation of Inanna: Opening Lines and Excerpts 
by Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon I of Akkad and high priestess of Inanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lady of all divine powers!
Lady of the resplendent light!
Righteous Lady...

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Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

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  MAGDALENE : JEWEL OF JESUS 


She was the Chosen
a beckoned one
to ignite His speeches 
smooth it with her own
illustrious strength
‘Courage against Odds’
marked her inner Jewel 
 soft it lay cradled  
rhapsodic rubicon...

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Victorian Poverty In London.
.
Slumming it in adverse poverty
In Victorian London’s  
Limehouse White Chapel and Bethnal Green 
Dingy doss houses packed to the brim
Narrow dirty streets with cobbles
And loud cartwheel din
.
Large families sharing one room
Overcrowded...

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Renee Vivien English Translation

Words to My Love
by Renée Vivien
translation by Michael R. Burch

This is Vivien’s “coming out” poem, although the term wasn’t coined until many years after Vivien’s death. The poem was written about forbidden...

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A smile crawls onto my face.
What a strange feeling to be happy. 
I spot him within the crowded mass of zombies.
He flashes a smirk my way.
My cheeks flare a vibrant pink.
I can feel the warmth...

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Her persona is like 
a portrait 
   of picturesque perfection,
embalmed in 
  bittersweet lavender, 
unseen within depths 
of tributaries of elixir.
If only they knew 
 the chaos that flows, 
constrained in 
a...

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Blues in the Night.

A malignant moon
shines his metallic claws -
combs my hair and brushes me forward.
I am alone in the shadowy crooks 
of a poisoned metropolis.

A clandestine garbage chute -
where waifs and strays burn
within the...

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Genesis received no love as a kid,
 Hated herself as much as everyone else did.
 Never understood how happy children felt,
 Never comprehend that she needed help.
 So she lived life with many insecurities,
 Fed...

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[Our perspective]
Blackness superimposed by glowing blue
Smearing white spiraling cloud icings
Appearing applied by a painter’s hand
Soon to stretch and then to transform
As eventually will happen with all belief systems

The curvature and reflection of oceans
Vast emerald forests...

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the highest peak for me is the element of praise 

every disappointment is a gentle kiss from the most incandescent star 

my forward motion stays inspired by the truth within the divine uplifting 

to be...

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You ask me why I love mountains?
I smile in the silence and quiet mind
Seeing the golden horizon with the heavenly sky
To the deep green valleys and the floating white wings
Far from the humankind.

You ask me...

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In a time of bad conditions; you can hear it in the air;
And there’s a feeling of being emptied that leaves a hollowness in the soul.
       In those winds...

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I’ve been blessed enough
To be protected
Positive surroundings
Never been rejected
Never redirected
No misdirection
In my life to date
No bad decisions
That could’ve sealed my fate
But my fortunate status
Won’t allow me to stall,
Failing to see the world as it is
Outside...

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Where have you been
Darkened with uncertainty
No place to be found
Chanted spiritual songs within one’s encouraging thought
I need to be free
I pray to thee
Thunder raw
Lightening outburst
Slavery was hard and tormented
Beaten and torn
Sunrises being a forbidden rise
Working...

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Silently she slips
into another dream
she drifts through an illusion
that cloaks her memories in an eclipse
a shadow of her life
a reminder of the grief and strife
she's met by promises that cant come true
they lie on her...

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Tick-tock of a clock lasts a fraction of moment,
Yet, makes me cognizant of the moments potent;
The dewdrop that glistens from the tip of a leaf,
Though its life is a second or minute so brief...
The mayfly...

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Locked firm in place in desolate space so devoid of grace
Sire, looked grim, he was gone without a trace
Earth glistens from heaven's view so high
Like a blue sapphire it shines to open portals when we...

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NOT ALL THE CHILDREN LAUGH

War in my land
People torn apart
Leaving us with a torn heart
Homeless and alone
No place to call home


On our own
Hand out-stretched
Mother and Father gone
Little ones not knowing what to do
Myself not much...

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Her soul bounds,
Looking for her ecstasy
Bound by chains,
Her flesh stinging,
Her blood boiling,
Her body,
Oh,
Her body,
How battered and unchanging
Aching for change
For that forgien tingling,
For her rocking body,
For her outcries, to stop

She aches
And she cries
For that filling warmth
For...

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Through vacant atmospheres
the landscapes of seagull town,
and the ears that hear the silent outcries,
lies the riddles that gallop unpredictable songs
that rises hues of pallad sunsets.
I'd leave you alone with your thoughts,
thoughts of empty avenues
and speeches...

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Like a birds wings love is to be free 
spread wide, leaping across oceans 
& desserts alike.
Meant to be beautiful & prosper 
without hiddenness.
However there is evidence of a 
blight that has taken root in...

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Being an early African American actress, included moments of outcries & burst
That ended with pride & joy, on being so many of our first

Like the first African to win an Oscar, for the movie Gone...

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Pains of displeasure gnawing
At my insides
Screams of disappointments
Harmonizing with my outcries

Wrong turns and deceptive trust
My self-worth equality of zero
The currency says “In God We Trust”
Yearning for my designated hero

I am a broken vessel, lost in...

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