Long Resound Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

Read More

Various Heresies 5

Tonight, Let's Remember
by Michael R. Burch

July 7,2007 (7-7-7)

Tonight, let's remember the fond ways
our fingers engendered new methods to praise
the gray at my temples, your thinning hair.
Tonight, let's remember, and let us draw near...

Tonight,...

Read More

I'd like to apply for a permit
for a protest march
on the Washington Mall.

Lovely idea.
But, we're only issuing Mall permits
for Song and Dance Events.

I think this might be a violation of my Rights
to Free Speech.

I see...

Read More

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

Read More

Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

Read More

Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

Read More

My dog's as smart as a geek.
He can bark in English, Arabic, and Greek.
He’s expert in canine mathematics,
can discuss dog-fight aerodynamics,
and is fluent in bow-wow doublespeak.
And yours?

Would it be okay if later today
I brought Bixby...

Read More

Universal elegy grieves and yet embraces shifts of paradigm
New beginnings consciousness initiates comprehends and thus proceeds from
Illusion’s delusion collusions misconceptions in the irritating
Vortex whirlpool immanent void of false containment

Enlightenment modern postmodern retro visionary futuristic aspirations
Resound...

Read More

Once within eternal time
of pre-LeftBrain domination,
I recall breathing in 
EarthMother's richly hued nutrition,
and this Other inhaling me,
purging lungs of misperceptions
that I was Her
any more or less than S/he was me.

We owned this communion together,
sacred breath...

Read More

It might become too ironically
and iconically embareassing
to admit
I am taking a (s)hit
while exploring
my latest
and perhaps final 
nutritional surmise
compressing peak climax 
surprise

A well-capitalized
Systematic Theology
of EcoLogical Systems
is not such 
an inviting much
of a moving title

Yet herein
we might...

Read More

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...

Read More

My most troubling client
told me he died last night.

While this did not appear to be his somber case,
nor, sadly,
did my home office silently resound
like this was his actual historical peace,
I did conjure up sufficient energy
to...

Read More

The True Story Of Ariel

You know the story 'bout Ariel
The one that’s on the Disney cereal
Who came to the happy soppy ending
With the prince and herself winding up kissing?

Well, it’s about time you knew the...

Read More

In Ouachita's tales, where pine needles sigh.
I trace the mountains' ancient, weathered crown.
Silvered river forgotten secrets float by
And fills my heart, a sonorous chamber now.

A flame ignites, dispelling shadows deep,
A beacon for lost souls on...

Read More

To boil with all the energy of Hell
may set aflame untethered wherewithal,
for once expended nothing can foretell
the limits of demise that may befall.
A single match may flicker to a flame
or simply set the whole of...

Read More

In the orchestra of being 
   life’s patterns emerge. 
Ancient voices resound / 
   as harmony sounds its surge. 
Music breathes life into the silent stars, Plato said, 
As heavenly tunes...

Read More

Prophesy of Invention

Compositions of profound illumination resonating from a prophetic musician 
Impositions that compound remuneration as the economists of capitalism demand an inquisition 
A tired physician’s diagnosis that confounds all surgical precision 
A technician becomes...

Read More

“The Lazarus Heart”



In the moment 
time stops:
suspended; seen
in solitary confinement
the heart of a soul
silent light weighted 
in the dark, rebellious
is the meaning of a name
Mary waits four days
in the flux
The Lazarus Heart
kick starts bedevilled 
by...

Read More

"The core of knowledge is love"
Satha Sai Baba

This dark November night
in New England
has come but midway

I, not so bright,
have given in
without a fight
to insomnia.

Above the small round yellow light
on my factory 48-pane window ledge
overpowering my...

Read More

Hold That Thought in Faith

I know that there is something that surrounds me
Permeating through every living thing
In every blade of grass and with every atom
It speaks to me from the light
A light which is born...

Read More

Yahya Kemal Beyatli translations

Yahya Kemal Beyatli (1884-1958) was a Turkish poet, editor, columnist and historian, as well as a politician and diplomat. Born born Ahmet Âgâh, he wrote under the pen names Agâh Kemal, Esrar,...

Read More

Poems about Poets IV



The Princess and the Pauper
by Michael R. Burch

for June Kraeft

Here was a woman bright, intent on life,
who did not flinch from Death, but caught his eye
and drew him, powerless, into her spell
of...

Read More

Life flashes by in a moment of time.
Late twilight’s rose fades, the sweet songbirds leave.
Though we strive to remain in reasoned rhyme
All living will die, the joyful will grieve.
What vision can guide us? What blinding...

Read More

Arthur Rimbaud Translations of Antico (“Ancient” or “Antique”), Rêvé Pour l'hiver (“Winter Dream”), and Dawn



Antico (“Ancient” or “Antique”)
by Arthur Rimbaud
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Graceful son of Pan! Around your brow, crowned with flowers and...

Read More

King Cephissus lured Liriope
.  To bathe and frolic in his stream
   Entrapping her she lost all hope
   His favours now she must redeem 
   Her ardent struggles came...

Read More