Long Rootless Poems

Long in the tooth male doth recount, reflect, reimagine...
his woebegone damn dental daze today May 5th, 2021 

No particular rhyme nor reason
garden variety indentured flunky (me)
revisits his salmagundi salad days, 
when oral blight smote 
left...

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Zulaikha:
What a bird you are, o red-billed Bird, 
you don’t eat reddish mangoes!
By eating which ash, will you exist then
in this bower of fate?

Yusuf:
That there is any fruit better than the name of God
and any...

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Considering how many times I set out to pen a small,
Master piece of art, a gem that might underwrite,
The utter liability of being just that stamp,
Or tramp, or whatever other denomination one might reliably take...

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I have been reading a rootless thesis:
Lack of commitment to a permanent home
causes depression,
over-commitment to inside claustrophobic voices,
failing deep-rooted immune systems,
obesity,
disassociation,

Fear of outdoor climate pathologies,
un-walled infestations
alien predators
threats to our own ongoing ecopolitical empowerment
too competitively overwhelming
to...

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Li Bai translations

These are my modern English translations of Chinese poems by Li Bai, also known as Li Po.



Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
by Li Bai
translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Now the birds have deserted the sky
and the...

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A sizzling hot pancake metropolis
   Kingsize of all market places,
   Every mystery is salable 
   The wind and shadows move and speeds transaction times;
   And the delicious...

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I attended a meeting with, supposedly a friend, and was introduced to
Despised, Dehumanized, Decreased, Diminished, Disregarded, and Devalued,                 ...

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I dwell on virgin moments lightly spent
beyond the lips of verdant fairy glens
A grand invincibility was mine
and life, ah life, the sweetest purest wine.

I danced on dainty rings of dryad saddles,
I fought and died in...

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Who are you, my Lord?
And what am I standing here as a weather-beaten tombstone,
O Lord, reveal yourself to me on the tombstone standing here alone.

Long, long ago
Cain averted his face from the light,
the condemned river,...

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Written: April 1st  For Legend Silent One contest

Rumi Quote: Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.

          ...

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Written: June 30, 2024 For Unseeking Seeker Contest

Quote by Aristotle "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom"

                 ...

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It don't hurt.
—Johnny Thunders, lead guitarist of The Dolls, last words

My ancestors are made of malt and barley,  
barely a drop of water left—  
Midas in jorts and Nikes,  
overplaying hands, turning...

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Thinking it sophisticated, he declared himself a sophist. 
Dwelling deep in Plato’s cave, he became learned in the shapes of shadows. 
Enamored by their dim dancing, he concluded there can be no truth.
One day he...

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Among a stand of pines I lived my life,
blissful in the ignorance of my own fate.
Tall and proud, my fellow trees and I
stood along a ridge that overlooked a lake -
its crystal surface mirroring our...

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To the tree
The standby viewer , the fortune teller who avoided my path,
What was it ? The way I looked? Or my innocence you envied?  you were selfish and heartless or should I say...

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My Bothers and Sisters
(Street Kids)

We grow up in public landfills, train stations, 
under the bridges of towns,
victims of all kinds of abuse, but we still had rights…
because of conflicts with our relatives, 
we did not...

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Dear You,

Listen for God's sake!!   
The world sends vibrations so frequently
you've memorized the frequency
and hear it a mile away drawing closer
...but when closer becomes here
eyes widen like deer uncertain of their doom

Man, must...

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rootless on sapphire seas
tides dishonored then begrimed
a keel eroded, relentlessly thinned 
barnacles disguised with time

drifting toward dark horizons 
battered and barely alive 
distant isles beg an appearance
pleading I arrive

beyond the rotting corpses 
mired and run...

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I watched you set fire to everything I had left-
the already charred remnants you had been 
trying to leave behind since you discovered
the charity of forgetting. 
“You can leave anything in the past, if you...

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SPIRITS   IN   THE   SKY



To be lost is to be rootless 
Without guide, form, future or past.
Go to the mountains with care lest
You lose your  path through this world...

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I remembered those tall trees,
I remembered those naked children
I remembered those mould houses,
I remembered where I was uprooted
I remembered home; a guiltless home.


I remembered those girls we touched
Their nipples and they died in excitement,
We hid...

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Folks, 
Look to what's right and just, not man-made rules, 
Keep wary of constituents who cater to fools, 
Count not on so-called friends, count on your next breath, 
Breathing ominous volumes of understanding curbs the...

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I remember now. Something was heavy, a winged
dragon that refused to fly from my chest
My eyes were secret mirrors, or a doomsday judge.
I remember morning as a flighty horse,
or like a new school year,
that first...

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Burgerama

Wrap it
Plastic box 
In fast polythene food it
As easy as frozen
And having children
Mash it
Mince it
Churn out time saving
Quick cut cardboard
Dinner
Is ready

Smell it
The regularity
Of air freshed
Puff
Repeats in timely separation
Of stinkless Molotov’s
Antiseptic illusions
Of falsehood

Scrubs the advertisement
Quick and...

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In Africa you were born 
In deep serenity
To the sounds of mighty drums 
And rhythm’s authenticity.

Stole you from your righteous land
Cut it up like a birthday cake
Gave it back to Anglo hands
But your birth was...

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