Long Raptors Poems

This is my translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's second elegy from his Duino Elegies, which he began composing at Duino Castle in 1912. 

Second Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Every angel...

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This is a poem I wrote last year for my grand children....one loves bird...future ornithologist, maybe?

Owls belong to one of two different families or classes,
Even though there are more than 216 types in their masses,
The...

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These are poems for the victims of the Nashville Covenant School shootings.


Nashville Covenant Call to Love
by Michael R. Burch

Our hearts are broken today
for our children's small bodies lie broken;
let us gather them up, as we...

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Are you the butterfly
while in my dreams
I flit after Soshi?
—Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It's not at all anxious to bloom,
the plum tree at my gate.
—Kobayashi Issa, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The red...

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I used to be an archaeologist,
and minored in paleontology,
had a job at a college and tenure,
Dr. Bascomb was what students called me.

I specialized much in the early years,
the emergence of civilization,
in summer I’d go and...

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Now I lay me down to sleep… I pray the Lord my mind to keep…
Zombies are gathered all around, trying to keep me from my sleep.
They want to be the futures’ new symbols, for All...

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The bonewind speaks remiss of bone
Always pulling up and headed towards the foam
When the mermaid skins were like scales in signature 
Falling off aenome or when the sea was our home

A man is awkward in...

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EarthCare Elders
repurposed our red brick industrial
BrownField

Including a rusted metal box
the size and shape of a giant's coffin
orange and dingy brown
metal flaking paradox
floating toward sacred ground
along river's sweeping fed up bed.

Here lived a racoon mother 
as...

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I would like to be twelve million kilometers away
From this stupid town, I’d like to be in Minnesota,
To burn all my poems in your hungry eyes,
I want to get away from those raptors that steal...

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I don't know what exactly attracted me to it
I don't know why or how it resonated within me

Something old and characterful, perhaps it saw an equal in me?

The lane is old and windy, the traction...

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A Magical Trip to The Garden of Eden
     By Dane Smith-Johnsen

I hold three magic rocks, in my hand
Rolling them over and over and over
Leaving this reality behind, far behind
I find myself...

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Suddenly I feel at war with my Country,
Country of origin, land of my birth,
Fortunate senior, not long for the Earth.

Patriot lust to kill natives still lingers,
Mass racial prejudice never will end,
Does man exist I would...

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Another Easter spent
feasting on Jelly Bean Martinis,
sculpting butter lambs
with Nana’s mastiff Escort
snoring by tabletop fire.

Aunt Bea smoked lemongrass,
shading wooden eggs 
with Dappled Willow shrubs.

A whimsical Slovakian cousin
suggested we whip each other with willow rods,
sprinkle ice-choked...

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Eggplant is eggplant!
           
             Some food, sort of spices,
              vegetables, legumen,
             leaves ... are undesirable ...!
             Among all, for sure
             the bitter eggplant ... who likes it?
             But poor eggplant wants
             turn this little bitterness
             in pure taste and pleasure ...
             And she herself...

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Be kind to all my fallen failures.
Even when I’ve burnt my house down?
Even when I’ve broken homes in two?
Even when I am guilty of misbehavior?

I’ve experienced downward spirals mangled
Everyone deserves an upward trajectory
Keep my wings...

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Earth blanketed
in plush, green, quilted fabric from which
boundless rows of life emerge.
A season of reward, given for seasons of reserve.
Woodlands. Cavernous, leaf-bound sentinels.
Refuge and shelter to every frail, native creature.
The green leaf of summer refreshes...

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All creatures big and small, including the ravenous raptors,
Adam and God, together, working in the Garden,
My happy day had only begun.  I saw it all.
God taught Adam: living, using, and replenishing, to make earth...

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Animal Kingdom

Beautiful creatures large and small
Species which fly, walk, swim or crawl
Respect life, not hastily condemn
Animal kingdom, we're guests among them

Cats, horses, elephants, giraffes
Hyenas with their infectious loud laugh
Zebras, crocodiles, lizards and snakes
Fish that swim...

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Frigid, knife-edged winds from the northwest
sweep down like hungry raptors on 
pewter gray skies. Feral eyed, keen on destruction.
Late May. Sullen skies discharge sleet and glacial,
stinging rain. Threatening each newly exposed
green leaf and sprout. Frozen...

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Elixers, emulsions, powders and lotions,
spread on the counter like a fleet on  an ocean.
It’s those bathroom battles that I still see,
ground that was lost, or a quiet victory.
A bloodless conflict, I must concede,
But battle...

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Long, Long ago in a hut made of bark
Children awoke to a loud raptors hark,
Where misty moonlight filled the night sky 
And shimmering stars twinkled up high.

They never did flinch from what they did hear
As...

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O yes, Ukraine and Russia
almost one nation and country
and close relates
much more that others people and nations
around the world,
originated from one African woman,
had lived 160 thousands  years ago.

Yes we are all close relates.
and among...

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Do clouds rapidly flee chased by icy gulls?
Is something more horrifying about to happen?
A frightening squall is descending to Earth,
the airways are free of fowls and raptors,
mothers rescue their kids from the captor,
their safety is...

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5th Ave. was shoulder to shoulder with
hungry lunch-seeking business men
and women. Ricardo unpacked
his horn nervously and a foot cymbal.
Spring, early street season, too cold
for most musicians but he needed money.
His lips kissed the cold metal...

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Vacant skies for another watchful day
Winds were present from the northwest
Where the raptors are now that fall is here
Many are watching, hoping for the best.

Getting to the hill early in the morning
Perfect weather is here,...

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