Long Restlessly Poems

Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

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Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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The Untold story of a Sitar Part 3 Concluded

.
A soothing musical note
Was coming out and floating 
In the air 
In that White coated 
Old auditorium  
Of a different era
Which was so alive before...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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"Kaleidoscope" 

They say another
wrote the story, not I.
that I, mere I,
having little experience, shy 
and far removed from 
such an alien world,
would not possess the knowledge
of such terrible and ruthless, lusty 
characters of strong will;...

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Archaischer Torso Apollos ("Archaic Torso of Apollo")
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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I can’t help, but feel kinda restless
Can’t sleep because I’m hopeless
You got to save me from myself, my restful dear
You are asleep in your melodic, swaying chandelier

Prayers please…… 
Give me starlit and moonlit ease
The sun...

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All on a sudden getting awake in the morning, I got stunned seeing, the whole earth had become a great graveyard. Each house was, as it were, a grave. In that grave, all were whispering...

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In his seething silence, I spoke, softly to him,
“Did I desire once to be higher than you, oh seething heart?
Could I, in my human flesh, sympathize for your imminent demise?
Cradling you in my sorrows, as...

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I have seen the fireflies two nights in succession
wandering restlessly in the dark
hundreds of them blinking evocative lights
symbolizes the souls of warriors whose blood 
have drenched  the desiccated earth for a cause 
they believe...

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With words alone they knock me off my feet
At class they push me around and call me freak
Should I do the same, sell drugs on the street,
Stoop to these filthy rats when I'm at my...

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I could hear my last thin dimes and pennies restlessly rattling a curse, 
Lying lost somewhere in the endlessly cruel lining of my knockoff purse
Into which pens just disappear through some hole into a mystery...

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Winter has blemished my skin 
leaving deep wounds inside 
there is still no sign of spring
but joy was overflowing within.

I took an afternoon stroll along a quite path 
searching desperately for a new start
the sun...

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Sunny, hot, humid, summer morning, taking my first train ride
 I'm so excited and it's thrilling can't wait to go north where it's cool 
to stay with my grandpa and grandma.
Ma and pa say I'm...

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When the sky mimics an illusory highway,  
  camouflaged in colors of confusion,  
    crowded with contrasts of chaos,  
I stand stranded    at the crossroads,...

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Breathe easy to the heart that pumps out its rhythm!
Ease the easiest way that penetrates its veins!
Breathe easy to the brightest heartbeat that gives birth to life.
Bring back sensation from within to begin!
Brave back the...

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It’s a book, a poem, a– whatever you must call it.
It’s words.
I haven’t been everywhere.
Nor have you.
The great explorer travels the Earth, its peaks and valleys, the dark and light.
They have been so far, stepping...

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Jimmy sits restlessly on a cane bottom chair at the kitchen table
   In grandma’s kitchen smelling the fresh sweet aroma of her cooking and baking
        ...

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Mary Rose, the mighty sailing sea vessel glided majestically across the waves 
She had robustly and bravely sailed the briny waves for many a night and day
With the ocean's heaving gusting squalls blowing off proud...

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Am I invisible?
No, I’m not.
Sometimes I feel like I am.
Sometimes I wish I was.
But deep down I know I’m not.
Even if it was my deepest desire, 
I’m certain it’d ever come true.

In this house,
I may...

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"I love you"
These are the three ripe words that 
I wanted to whisper in your ears.
So, I
Fixed a date
You came
We met 
We spoke
But I couldn't propose:
Though tattooed on the tip of my tongue,
at my dismay...

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An essence heard a heartfelt plea
meek, unconfident, not familiar
"Should I bother anymore? Please guide me."
His words hardly mist....
a response slices the scene
     with the speed of a guillotine.

skittering over the asymmetrical
similarities...

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Sleep eludes me, my thoughts engulf me...
   The room is quiet....
    I hear a branch outside my window, scratch the glass, in winter's wind
      ...

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