Long Promethean Poems

MICHELANGELO: Modern English Translations

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is considered by many experts to be the greatest artist and sculptor of all time. These are modern English translations of his poems and epigrams by Michael R. Burch.



SONNET:...

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PETRARCH TRANSLATIONS

Sonnet XIV
by Petrarch
translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lust, gluttony and idleness conspire
to banish every virtue from mankind, 
replaced by evil in his treacherous mind, 
thus robbing man of his Promethean fire, 
till his nature, overcome...

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The Heights of Machu Picchu, Canto VIII
by Pablo Neruda
translation by Michael R. Burch

Ascend with me, my American love!

Let’s kiss these mysterious stones together!

The Urubamba’s torrential silver
lures pollen to fly from its golden chalice
while above this...

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Have You Tried My Slushie?             By 
Briar Rabbit
 
 
 
I don’t know if it brings the boys to the 
yard
I’d want some time to myself
 
I  think..
 
I think of angel dust
while
liberty belles call my name
 
 
cement and concrete as...

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When our world seems so chaotic…filled with man’s inhumanity to man
We search for peace and happiness…anywhere we can

On my walk this morning as I was wondering what fortunes today would bring
somewhere in the darkness a...

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curious how this old soul
marooned here on this bleak unfulfilled
island wasteland of dreary dreams unfulfilled,
desiring a change into something more static,
let's see how it moves, this Promethean forged
mystical monster, see how it wrecks halls,
shakes earth,...

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Hey! Look at me, I'm a Poem!
my words rhyme with my tongue
with lips summoning secret séance scribblings
from upper palate delights while my teeth scalpel
saturnine ecstasies from mammock reservoirs of
poor pouring pores like promethean cantation preferences,
quickly...

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To all the poets near and far
Alive and well or beyond the stars,
I bid you peace, I bid you rest,
I bid you all the very best.

Life and death may er’ contain
All the fruits of love...

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he stood …

atop another world
another …
promethean creation
ineffable beauty and innovation spread at his
feet like a glorious carpet of progress
a macrocosm of concept and imagination
that surprised even HIM
he had, again, exceeded his own
undefinable ingenuity and prospect
and...

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4.

Each dawn, the cold steps back a pace,
In the lengthening light the cold steps back
As the lands rise fresh and free from deathlike sleep again,
To play the full young mother dressed in life itself,
Strolling through...

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Sunrise, sunset in adjacent systems blends behind 
a calm waterfall wake, the hollow unknown man only
minds his altruistic poems of prism alchemy--cleverly
arranging perfect crystal aurora petals against a
color coded ancient star Genesis, forming opulent
halos of...

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The scent of ancient seas converts the breeze 
As burst of amber dawn comes breaking through. 
Gulls wend and wind the thermal streams with ease 
While sunshine warms their bellies blue-grey hue. 

The Sirens' sing...

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If you were born in city:
Their luminous enamor is inexorable;
You never capture them at night; mind empty,
And ensnared by their mysterious un-effable

That that dismal night wistful,
That that glow distance stars solace,
That that expert called complex...

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Never in secluded pools they dwell,
I speak of ornate  waterfalls,
they rise and fall majestically,
near docks, wharves and piers,
sparkle, gleam, smooth flow trickle,
eye balm whirl fantastic perk on tap,
stickybeak on podium rapids,
instigator signage when our...

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Critics Beware!

Poets are vulnerable no less than anyone,
when fallen victim to outrageous critics.
As Shelley wrote,  critics' darts struck Keats,
who blindly,  cruelly, mocked 'Endymion.'

Lethal no less the heady potion  fame.
Some drowned, took poison,...

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been pretty bad people
burst pipes belching putrid
burgundy petrol
  being perfect bleeding puddle

Big People bringing
                poverty
    ...

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 Ever-Upwards, I AM The Sun
 I Am the Sum of One,
 I Am the Total of the Light Force, Ever-So Bright
 Ever So High, I Blaze in Kundalini Fire
 Illuminating Ethers of Life Within
...

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 Shielding Darkness with Virilities of Light
 One with the Sword of the Most High,
 Promethean by the Thunder, Supreme by Rain
 Forever Rising on this Quest Uncaged,
 I AM the Blazing One, Soul Glowing...

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The marooned muse floats
with waned creative craving
in the emotive stream of impeded passion,
faces the monotonous stodgy scenario
over the tedious span of time
in the bleary plateau of poet’s blasé block.

That’s when it seeks for 
AI’s algorithmic...

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I press my hands into the ruins of you,
fingertips cut in the quiet rot of ancient wounds
that have never quite been touched.
Beneath splintered ribs, 
your earth is sulfurous in suffering—
your volcanic pulse muffled under sediment,
heart-rages...

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I celebrate no light switched off,
I celebrate no ragged cough,
But sing, I do, the men of mind,
And I myself, who am not blind.
I sing the pride of happy wealth---
That light-foot walk of free men's health
When,...

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