Long Persists Poems

Watching wan moonlight
illuminate tree limbs,
my heart also brims,
overflowing with autumn.
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

As I slept in isolation
my desired beloved appeared to me; 
therefore, dreams have become my reality
and consolation. 
—Ono...

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As I slept in isolation
my desired beloved appeared to me; 
therefore, dreams have become my reality
and consolation. 
—Ono no Komachi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Submit to you—is that what you advise? 
The way the ripples...

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The King of the Castle 



Said I’m but a child
Afraid of the world outside 
Afraid to run wild and to  be proud
Of the freedom it provides
Afraid of love 
Afraid of the dark 

Said you...

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“The God Complex”



His face imprinted 
hidden under layers of ink
he whispers his words

like a haunting breeze
dust blown off the pages
towards the back of their minds

once-in-a-while 
reminding them of stories 
they are eventually, all souls

book-marked 
tagged...

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I suppose
cannibalism
is the logical conclusion
of rabidly overpopulated fascism.

Some cannibals,
perhaps all,
ate their human prey
not for typical nutritional reasons
like other forms of digested nature,
but more specifically
because those dining
hoped their prey's sacred powers
would thereby become their own,
conjoining for...

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Understanding Nature

Part 1: What (I Think) God Wants You to Know!

Some people don’t understand Nature,
Feel death and pain prove there’s no God
Or if there is He is a monster,
His empathy for us a fraud.

They say...

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Digital Creationism
(Man 0, God 1)         

Part 1: Binary God
For men it seems God is a binary function
And like ones and zeros 'HE IS ON or 'he's off.'
Is...

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The bird wanted to fly

But the wind wanted to blow

“Rest now bird”, said the wind

“You now take it down slow,

And let me flow.”

 

The bird accepted thinking it was a request,

And ignored the proud in...

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Are My Words So Foreign Or Obtuse 
That You May Not, Within Them, See Truth? 
That We Live Together Within, 
While Without We Share, What May One Day, 
Become A Common View; 
A Mutual Love...

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POEM: Welcome to Palestine. The land of the prophets and the martyrs. 


Let’s show show some respect, and bow down in humility…
Gaza may be small, but their angels are all over and as far as...

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In a foreign lush green sprawling land
A patchwork carpet stitched together
In shades of tawny browns yellows and green
Rugged rock forest and wind-swept moor
Is a awe-inspiring spectacle to be seen

In summer's adorned frock adorned bushes and...

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Hiccups 

An involuntary spasm 
of the diaphragm 
and respiratory organs, 
with a sudden closure 
of the glottis 
and a characteristic 
sound like that of a cough.

Rather mundane topic 
lest one cursed 
with said minor inconvenience
that...

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The finis sing touches touché

Knead dull brows knitted; 
belief system I cogitate 
gearing thee ordinary bipedal hominid 
acquiesces to deck the halls 
of the mountain (dew) king with boughs 
of sister golden haired 
sprinkling angel...

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Niitthaar Perumai, The Fundamental Role of the Ascetic: Canto 3, K29 and K30 of the Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar
(In these kurals, I give both the "unrefined" versions using connective particles and modified post-positions (in Tamil: according...

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The “existence of God” can’t be proven by Science.
Since man’s reasoning seems to run God off the rails.
There’s the alternate view that “the world just exists,”
But whatever your take, devil lives in details.

How can God...

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I was listening to The Naked Apprentice,
carefully,
cautiously sifting for any substance
behind mindlessly reactionary mulish gruel,
universally bullying
yet morally thin as frozen rain 
on transparent windshield.

He has the mechanical aptitude,
systematic rectitude,
academic attitude
of a tired,
hungry,
and pissed off mule.

I...

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(To the Spartan Queen) 

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra via
Mi inoltrai in una selva oscura
  
‘They drive horses down this hill’ 
She said, 
‘They take them to drink down there, that pool, there’ 
She...

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A morning spent with nurses.
A sharp pain in my side, like a spear being plunged
In my right side when I laughed, sat up or sat down.
Pain in my eyes, and my stomach.
Sharp, mean, angry pain.
I...

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(alternatively titled: tardy duff fender of assertiveness,
especially after adjusting following insanity clause
affixed with rubber baby-buggy bumpers)

Methinks I nearly got snookered
courtesy CVS employee at store number 7569
(address: 1206 North Gravel Pike,
Zieglerville, Pennsylvania 19492)
September ninth, two thousand...

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Snorting, snarling, spewing, glowing
phosphors from its flaring, hairy nostrils
the Truesoarius is a mythic dragon
that stalks and lurks in lore.
Never cowering in a cave,
ready to rise from the deep seas
or from mountains poised to pounce,
in the...

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I feel invisible. And Christmas feels like another terror crisis for families. I design 
every city, feel no pity for this except, and  can't travel and have romantic sex in the 
cities with my...

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I wrote you a lovesong
and I slipped it into my shoe.
The blue shoes;
the ones I wore to the dance tonight.
I put the shoes outside my bedroom door,
to be shining when I wake up.
When I wake...

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Before it starts, I know the end,
But my heart still makes me go.
Into the depths of the throbbing dark,
Where strobes flash and minds run slow. 

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
I clutch the alcohol: my only chance.
Boom!...

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Can we awake from the madness, 
that divides this world in two,
can we set free our ‘rightness’
to a different point of view?

Free-will as a gift has been given 
as a sacred God-given right,
to all of...

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If you are angry with me 
Or with anyone or everyone
For some (in-)explicable reasons, 
Then, this poem is meant for you!

My basic hypothesis: 
In a moment of anger
There will be choice—almost always.
Choose the best.
A taxonomy...

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