Long Ripple Poems

Raisin liked to make her bed upon a shelf up high
She said she likes the feeling that she’s almost in the sky
One day she fell and bonked her head and Rum could only stare
And wondered...

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Dream-worker 
delves deeply into my dream;

vibrations fondle anticipation
foreplay wakes wide-eyed 
swells of liquid libido quake the rendezvous edge -
a primordial being in his prime
a masculine ego quest for affaire d’amour;
her night-loving body 
c h a...

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Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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A plethora of complex verbiage clogs and clutters solemn university tombs,
gem-encrusted sequestered  vaults  impervious on  mountain peak percentage practical basis, 
when express benevolence  enjoins the ultimate in empirical  assessment ...

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I walk o u t...

I am lost in unapproachable light—a spectral broth
I am tasting the screaming silence—the archetypal observer
dissects my essence-fossil Passion
a seismic rupture between life/death/rebirth
gnaws at my marrow This dilemma-kudzu
coils tight, constricting tomorrow's breath

Death...

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De Tod Motet//
Listen to my raw//
Observe my new law//
Innocent quench hunger waves//
With my black rhymes//
We are reaching the last days they say//
Be with me in soul and everyday//
Because i see dogs piercing sharp emotions to...

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My love was serpentine to the touch
I can't quite explain it...the love of mine
Had gone away from my sight and such
I can quiz my mind to say otherwise, my bittersweet sugar wine…

Why am I extremely...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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In the intimate interlace of free will and fate, in the ultimate interplay of time and place, and with the consummate checkmate of my human dignity, all that is.. is over in the stormy, swarming...

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HOW I WOULD DESCRIBE MYSELF

People often say to me 
“What can you tell me about yourself” 
guess it’s my duty to explain to them 
and so I look them in the face and reply 

My...

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AFTER MANY THOUSANDS 
OF STEPS
I BECAME VERY COMFORTABLE
WITH MY SURROUNDINGS.
I STARTED TO THINK
OF ALL THE EVENTS
LEADING UP TO THIS POINT.

I OPENED THAT DOOR
IN THE UNIVERSE.
I CHOSE TO OPEN THAT DOOR
I WANTED TO KNOW 
WHAT WAS...

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Once again I tip the scale
And mutter, whoever invented it was a man from hell.
It was not a woman who created weights for size
For women can look past the outer shell
And search deep for what...

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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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If I had a hashtag or even understood them,
it might be “TMI.”
I don’t lack for stories and opinions.
I’ll engage in conversations with friendly total strangers
when right away I see they share my views.

Imagine being me,...

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Part 5

They continued to fry under a blistering sky
    With little water to stifle the heat.
When the Hippo put forth, "Considering our course,
    We have entered the waters of...

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Part-1: Preamble

God loves us, so He split Himself in two
Motionless as space, kinetic as time
Shiva and Shakti; truth known to but few
As the word of God - Om sounded life's chime

God's vibration caused a ripple...

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"Well  to  a  certain  degree  yes I  really  don’t  want  to  impose.
I’m getting  used  to  my  deprivation."    As...

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POTD 30th August 2018 

The gently swaying branches of the old oak should elicit calmness
And yet a sense of foreboding permeates the midnight air
Wild imaginings?  Or did shadows flit across the leaf strewn path?
No...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

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Politics and Poetry – is hate really the answer

Why write a poem of hate about Trump
He’s been there just over a week
Though Hilary Clinton the people did dump
It still matters not what they seek

He cussed...

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POTD 8th Jan 24


 NOTHING LESS ~ NOTHING MORE

The ambushed night when all was still,
Amidst the gloom, anxiety took my will.
Though the moon cast its calming glow,
shadows lurked in the night's dark flow.

As the final...

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Dragon visited the famous ‘Stones of Dragon’ at our Mayhem Falls Cave.
Hundreds come every year to see them, found here, in this hollowed enclave.
Dragon runes upon their face, they remained from a very ancient time...

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There is a water glint,
just shining through the copse beyond.
Autumn's sinking sun, 
barred by spindle trees and the last 
of summer's brindled reeds 
and sedge and rush that fringe this stilling pond.
.
 
Damp leaves hide...

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A young girl’s voice / lost in the data / cries out
"Why are we here?"

Pixie Pixela... her words soft and low murmurs...
"This world is yours... dear... a garden for stories to grow."
But her digital eyes...

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