Long Shamans Poems

Hi.
We don't have a lot of time,
or, well, I guess you do,
but I don't,
so let's plunge right into the first big question:
Which came first, form or function?

False dichotomy. No such thing as a totally dysfunctional...

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Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

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Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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Imagine we live in an eco-normative story
of competing for wealth-commodities,
cash piled in quantifiable currencies,
collectively blinded to our Win-Win
natural economic,
ecological,
psychological,
biological health and well-being 
nurturing value roots.

One day, our PolyCultural Received View
unveils a co-operatively synergetic evolution 
of...

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A prayer for God to bless Americans,
whether northern or southern,
is also a reminder of traditional political mindfulness,
basic awareness of our economic investments 
in global health and security.

No one "keeps" these northern confederations 
of uniting states...

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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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"Dream 1: 4 Weeks in Positano"



Kisses long linger warm lips tasted intense
so sweet like cured Valencia Oranges
lips liquored triple sec not dry drunk on love
softly grazed, then held long

slow, deep, warm and wet

The story is...

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                           Expectations high did not pan out  ...

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Reading Csikszentmihalyi again,
whose last name would be Csikszenti,
if Mihaly, his first name,
need not also bring up the rear of his family name,
which has nothing to do with anything that follows,
I am sure you are already...

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My grandparents' grandparents,
all sixteen,
digging roots through cultural meristems,
young adults,
adolescents during Time's 1880's,
post Civil War birth of Sir James Crow monoculture.

What would we name this self-hatred,
this lack of compassion and gratitude for help
for human nature's lavish...

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In what ways have nutritional 
and health
and financial
and well-being values increased 
over past time,
whether a season,
or a year,
or a decade,
or a lifetime,
or a millennium,
and in what ways have toxic dissonant disvalues
and decaying trends ebbed and...

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What is love?
A sea of nonexistence
both tranquil and calamitous
where the mind
does not dare enter.
(Rumi, M. Mafi, "Day By Day", p. 120, 2014, Hampton Roads)

What is timeless synergy?
Our sea of coexistence
both confluent and dissonant
where blind consciousness
seldom...

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If we follow the BigBang Energy Story
told by still evolving scientists,
this is an emergent story of how stardust
becomes progenitor of sunlight,
and how our Sun becomes the Creator
of Earth's healthy fertile soil.

If we follow earliest shamans
and...

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THE BUFFALO
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


THERE WAS A TIME I ROAMED THESE PLAINS
FAR BEYOND WHERE THE EYE CAN SEE
IF YOU LIVED ON THESE PLAINS 
YOU HAD TO DEPEND AND FOLLOW ME
IF YOU WANTED QUALITY MEAT TO EAT
GRASS...

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———

2016,

Sheep.
Magpie.
Mule deer.
Mustang, colt, mustang...upon the ridge.

Eagle's nest, bald.
Oreo cows, in far field.
Running baby cows.
Sheep.

Felled branch...100 mph winds.
Controlled burn, left quiet;
but not, as it turned out,
without embers enough
to catch to flames
and race up the Sierra,
down the...

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It takes this version of you awhile for
Me to consider, as an illusion your so
Consistent i can lean on the 
Imaginary love i create to spend time
Being out of love, walking a path i
Can’t share...

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“Patients, carefully wash your hands and mouth
As the spirits are offended by our smells
And get yourself clean of the defilements”
Thus Matho announced the arrival of the **Dakini
To the séance of the Stok Monastery.
Then Dakini donned...

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~The Only Solution~

It’s the only solution isn’t it amazing
Words transcribed by lightning emblazing
Etched upon stone that hangs on our tomb
When flowers no longer blossom and bloom

We shed divine spirit of faith for the flesh
Without weaving...

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The Shamans gather to discuss the oblivious reason
Dispel cruelty as fate opens for our unorthodox legion
Conformity’s blue armies will try to trap you and me in
Destroy notions preconceived, let the celebration begin

The mind is confused...

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He remembered the day 
Before he was exhausted 
And his soul was very sick
He was suicidal that night
But when he woke up
From his nightmarish dream 
His soul was not hurting
Anymore and felt clean

He came back...

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Zorba was a friend of mine
momentum of lunacy shine
insane shrieking lunacy
to venture to an exotic island.
Let's be free; snip the strap.

sardonic heart phratry man
Shamans are ritzy ladies!
at the maximum load level
a stampede of race cars
Eternity...

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In ancient looms of my homeland,
Fairies once shuttled across threads of rainbows
Weaving folklores of gods and goddesses.

Our tapestry needed no haberdashery of
Brabubahanas and Chitrngadas or a vijay panchali,
For no tantric-needle knitted our folktales.

I want to...

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POSESSION


The astral priest saw that the time had come
To finally invoke an Aztec god,
He left his family and Friends behind
To go to Tlaxcala on the day of the wind
To call Quetzalcoatl with bone flute and...

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