Long Salmon Poems

THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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The Song of Amergin: Modern English Translations

The Song of Amergin
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I am the sea breeze
I am the ocean wave
I am the surf's thunder
I am the stag of the seven tines
I am...

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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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My Daughter

My beautiful Daughter, walks life’s paths alone,
She does so, by design – not of hers – on her own.
She travels heavily !, from place to empty space,
from space to vacant place – in what...

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A nice couple. The Tale of Jean and William. Part 1

Jean Fallen was born in 1999 and had a lonely childhood. 
She grew up in Redfern but never went to school.
She lived with her mother...

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The Rhine Salmon Complaint, Translation of Etiemble’s Complainte d’un salmon du Rhin

						For Yvon Belaval
(A lilting musical poem of varying line length in quatrains with a refrain and much internal
 rhyming; end-rhyme scheme: alternate rhymes in...

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Nelson Mandela, crossed my spirited mind today, a visionary legend of peace, love, equality, and unity of all people.

As a prevailer of great affliction, he was like a Greek God fighting for the—"Common man!”

I had...

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Christ!
A warparty of 60 Shoshone warriors has just stampeded into the meadow
faces painted red and white for blood and death, all sorts of strange designs,
bows and arrows ready to fly on us, skull breaking cudgels...

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MEMORIES OF WAR 


In prison we turmoiled 
packed up cards to fall 
whilst they sucked 
genitals like bonbons 
a quartz on a table
gleamed its knowing

War torn ghettos with 
swollen stomachs 
stretched wide, auras 
shattered, splintered...

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Lisa and I went to a reception, yesterday evening, for students who’d landed summer fellowships at a particular hospital in Boston. (Yeah us!) It wasn’t formal, so I wore a crimson cropped sweater, a beige...

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Long long ago in a lonely lovely hill
When earth was young, handsome and green
Besides the meadow near the curly winding flow
There stood a tree proudly high and spry.

Swaying and dancing in wheezy pleasy breeze
Never was...

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Alaska; the wilderness state, the last frontier:
Where majestic mountains,
Deliver streams into flowing rivers:
Down slopes covered in forests
Of Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock,
That dominates the landscape.
The name Alaska originates
From the Aleut word ‘Alyeska,’
Meaning the ‘mainland’ or...

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THE UK

Poling, Patching, Nether Wallop, 
Matching Tye and Droop

Plumpton, Lickfold, Puddletown, 
Westward Ho! and Throop.

Hole of Horcum, New Invention,
Boghead, Frome, Cat's Ash

North Piddle, Staines and Pen*stone,
Wash Dyke, East Breast and Flash.

Six Mile Bottom, Mudford Sock,
Wetwood,...

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It was like a whisper- 
My wife delivered the sad news- 
"Your grandfather was dead."- 
And so he was- 
Her eyes was awfully sad- 
Touched me gently on my back- 
He was old- 
The time...

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Are we really free?*
Free to chose to:
Go wherever we please? 
Do whatever we desire?
Be with whom we wish? 
Pick whichever thing we fancy?
Without coercion? 
Without ever being obliged by an unseen force in 
A predetermined...

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When potable water nearly disappeared,
good faith communities
for healthy living 
water,
Earth,
people,
plants,
soil,
air,

Fire-breathing resistance churches
and calmer rapture temples,
synagogues,
mosques,
green post-millennial sanctuaries,
Gaian ecofeminist fire-circles
gathered their members and neighboring allies,
republican nationalists,
green democrats,
ecosystemic libertarian zeroists,

To discuss and discern
which potential Presidential
and Vice-Presidential candidates...

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Have you swam the forests      under the seas
glided it's waters             wandered it's keys
watched the gray giants  ...

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Christmas Past and Present Bring Me Tears 

My legs of yesterday's 
walked into a Christmas storybook,
a glorious past,
pages filled with good tidings.
And as young kid, once with open eyes,
with clinging beliefs
in good shepherds,
it was
my parents,...

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It's too hot and humid for September!
Even dust specks descending in the room's sunlight
are beads of sweat running down my sides.
I bring pencil, crossword and ice tea 
to this chair and table, these angled shutters,...

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There have been many times in my life
when I heard about hit lists (kill lists so to speak).
Sometimes these death threats against others
even make it onto international news.
I’m reminded of the prize-winning author ,
a certain...

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The Nez Perce Indians who lead lean lives on these knolls and river brooks
have a style of soul that sneaks into the songs of the sun
and plays on the prayers in the patience of their...

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One particularly stormy day, I wandered along a back alley way.
I slipped on my galoshes and fell headlong into a gigantic storm drain.
It was a pain, as away I went, tumbling around in the pouring...

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Odyssey from Africa 14g

“This research by young Alinda
Tells us something most important 
For we find upon our beaches
Plants that are entirely different 

“From the flora on our island 
Or from the adjacent mainland 
This can...

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Odyssey from Africa 15c (Southland, continued...)

Being rich in skill and talent
He soon gained the feel and measure 
Of the boomerang’s employment 
Sent it arching near the treetops 
 
Then returning where it started
As the king...

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Chapter 14d (King Ptolemy the second, cont.)

https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Africa-adventures-Phil-Salmon/dp/197392479X


“And upon the open ocean
Far from land in roving sail-ships
How to find the congregations 
Of the sharks and rays and tuna

“Where the seabirds thresh the water
Diving after shoals of...

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