Long Reopen Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...






Beast 666
by Michael R. Burch

“... what rough beast ... slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”?W. B. Yeats

Brutality is a cross
wooden, blood-stained,
gas hissing, sibilant,
lungs gilled, deveined,
red flecks on a...

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Today, catching sight of the mallards
crying over Lake Iware:
Must I too vanish into the clouds?
—Prince Otsu translation by Michael R. Burch  

This world—
to what may we compare it?
To autumn fields
lying darkening at dusk
illuminated by...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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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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I was in the shotgun seat
in 1960 Lansing Michigan
headed straight as a harddrive
through ghettoizing "Negra Section"
hunting down our commercial whitebread 
heavenly ThriftyAcres

Wanna be a WalMart ImPlantation
but not Southern enough,
somehow,
to withstand straight-male competition
in fluent White Privileged...

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SCANTILY-CLAD in the GARDEN of S W EDEN

Here I stand, all alone, scantily-clad in the garden of S W EDEN.
Wondering if the Original Garden still remains untilled and uneven.
Wondering how that Serpent knew of the...

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Sinai Campaign, 1967

“Operation Focus” sees Israeli jets streaking, 1
Attacking Arab fighter jets and air force bases, 2
Thus attaining dominance over Middle Eastern skies,
While IDF ground divisions launch into action. 3

Israeli tanks (Pattons, Shermans, and Centurions)
Blitzkrieg...

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A tragic tale about the six kids who were kidnapped on a Halloween night, preludes the trick or treat in the street were Halloween was going to be celebrated after twenty years of the disapparition...

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Joy in mourning
opens this new eye day.

Am I OK?

Healthy?

Compromised
yet survive able
air inhaling
"Death, tonight,
or some tomorrow,
my life's inevitable
closed,
no longer curious,
final answer."

Warm, wet exhaling,
"My moisture, too,
dying to reopen
yet another deep breath 
resurrecting dawn."

Is my heart still beating
safe...

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She sat in her little cottage
Her ears tuned
Her body alive
Waiting…
Waiting for that knock on the door
Anytime now
She pulled back the frilly curtains
And peered out at the gathering dusk
The time when most of her visitors
Would knock...

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Time slips by as the wind whispers through the trees,
Waving hands fly like the movement of the breeze
And families pray for those they love, all because,
Time gave hope, time restored, welcome home;
Yet every blessing stems...

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As the cases keep rising
The Death toll crawls ever closer
Piercing the peak of the mountain
Toward the stars in the sky
Ready to come crashing down
As they burn out from the arrow's touch.


While the stars burn out...

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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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Matsuo Basho Haiku: English Translations of haiku about seasons, spring, rain, moon, flowers, blossoms, wind, river, etc.

Blame the rainy season
for my absence,
old friend Moon.
—Matsuo Basho, translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

For yet a little while,
the pale...

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The sting in my throat when I swallow that pill 
You know the pill.... that they say is hard to swallow
The knot in my stomach and my heart 
As my mind replays the hurt ,...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU VIII

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku. 

Since I was born, 
I must die, 
and so …
—Kisei (1688-1764) , loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem)  by...

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I don’t deserve
This kind of punch to my pride
You used your best left hook, uppercut and jab to my ego
Here desperately griping the corner of the ring
Unable to believe the idea
That he ever felt that...

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I have been untrue
To myself and to my heart
I waited for the questions to answer themselves
I waited for the possible to become probable
I cowered down behind shadows
Even they shied away
I cowered down behind lies
Even they...

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Open your mind
Open your heart
Look at your life
Mine was torn apart
Loving you by day
Dreaming of you by night
I have nothing to live for
Just one last fight
You slept with my best friend 
Behind my back
Creating so...

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In ancient looms of my homeland,
Fairies once shuttled across threads of rainbows
Weaving folklores of gods and goddesses.

Our tapestry needed no haberdashery of
Brabubahanas and Chitrngadas or a vijay panchali,
For no tantric-needle knitted our folktales.

I want to...

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Several weeks ago, I passed a church                            ...

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In the twilight of my consciousness, where shadows weave secrets into the fabric of the wind,
I contemplate the whispers of time, its sweet deception that it heals all wounds.
For time heals not; it is but...

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You told me that no one else would want me 
I believed you and began to feel ugly 
Obeyed all your rules so that your hands, feet & UFOs didn't meet my body 
People tried...

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OK, mindful class,
past time to reopen our nurturing nests,
our nutritional mouths
and good-natured ears
and fertile reverse reserves
of not Lose/Lose
EarthMother Health-Wealth Care.

First,
we define our variables,
bilaterally co-arising
recreating
bipartisan dipolarities

Depolarizing
bipolar competing aggravations
replacing Old School co-gravitations
cooperative structured spatial out-forms (x-Yang)
and compassionate...

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