Long Panther Poems

With this needle and thread I stitch the wounds Avril left
but with this blade I angrily carve a new
rough, short, jagged adjacent from the bone in my wrist
for a reflection of our relationship
and an outlet...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Premise
The great poem by the italian poet Dante is the DIVINA COMMEDIA
I have tried to translate in english verses of INFERNO (HELL).
It was a very difficult task. 
I expect criticism.

When just the midway of my...

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It was 1968 we'd gathered again in the school auditorium my tiny hands sweating only five years old while my name was called in all of this cold  
civil rights riots plagued my little...

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I knew my life was in grave danger when I contacted the FBI desperate plea for dire help IDENTITY FRAUD ON MY LIFE BY IMPOSTER JAY TOWNSEND JOHNSON HENRY received threats from special agent Alan...

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Fbi Alan King was very angry shocking as he warns me that Gargano burns blacks physically and politically I couldn’t fathom any of this as he asked why are Gargano so close what is it...

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Already I reached the place where heard the sound
Of falling water in the circle next
Suchlike the rumble done by hives around,

When three spirits together changed their treks,
Running, out of  an horde just passing there
Under...

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Yet at this very moment the cathedral was crumbling
down upon the cries of foresaken refugees, 
the monastery's walls wobbling from war's wreckage, 
and as the black bursts billowed into sun drenched brutality
with the bodies of...

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**Trigger Warning**



"I Knew Anne Silently - My Ravenous Poe" 

I knew Anne.
you’d think 
with a name like hers
she’d be able to find her way 
out of unchartered waters.

it didn’t come as a suprise, 
then, on...

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Stood upright, between two roads,
On a thin metal rail,
A solitary, brown coloured bottle 
Of beer,                    ...

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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

When I stopped Dancing
(new edit, 2022)


I stopped dancing first 
when the screeching screaming voice, 
cut into my small, happy, care-free body 
like a sharp knife cuts into warm butter, 
the accusing words freezing my bones,...

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What if you were born in the 1800's?
                           ...

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killing her song
(for Adhimu aka Lawrence Hamm and Sheila Reid*)
by ‘bro. zayid’

“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield,
Until I die…”
--Freedom Song

this is not rocket science…
no experts...

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killing her song
(for Adhimu aka Lawrence Hamm and Sheila Reid*)
by ‘bro. zayid’

“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
“I'm gonna stay on the battlefield,
Until I die…”
--Freedom Song

this is not rocket science…
no experts...

Read More

“The Penelope Squad”



A line of bluebirds 
tittering on a line
swaying on the winds
like comedian pageboys 
having a good time
poop in the peg bucket
words wooden and sharp
fly off with frosty notes
dirt and sherry stains
imprinted on 
Penelope’s...

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Unquotable quotes: Fashion modeling with an eye on footballers – XXVII

Isn’t “haute couture” like “cordon bleu cuisine”? Both equally edible? You still have to pull the shrimp scales apart to get at the meat.

What do...

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Sonny hid behind the melons 
In a busy Asian marketplace,
Near the plantains and the mangos 
Where the shadows could obscure his face.  
He inhaled the air around him 
And enjoyed the fragrant scent of...

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       CLOSING TIME AT THE PUB


The joy, the camaraderie, the smoke.
The great ale, my great friends in Chicago.
Old Town, North Avenue, twas Chicago,1967.
O' Rourke's Pub, where else?
Smoky, filled with...

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              The Night Soil Man

			I

		Nothing sticks to-get-her like turds
             ...

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Starched tears stream, crust
over like a spoiled sweet on 
pink cheeks, flushed,
from suffocated time,
gasping for air,
I shatter at his words like brittle rust,
crushed to dust, 
mind meek.

Fifth time this week.
Shallow breaths to Karma Police,
struggle to...

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If i remember  correctly: 
My philosophy was Don't react unless 
Necessary. The school day was over.
The ride home began normally. 
(Corrections made In this poem) 
Then the School bus Bully began 
annoying me. Robert!...

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Villanelle: Who's afraid of the Virgin Wolf's wisdom tooth

(As unlikely as it may sound, this happens to be the TRUTH: the foremost French journalist, André FONTAINE of Le Monde; an illustrious  Academician poet, Pierre...

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