Long Sparingly Poems

Yosa Buson haiku translations

On the temple’s great bronze gong
a butterfly
snoozes.
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hard to describe:
this light sensation of being pinched
by a butterfly!
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not to worry...

Read More

In London Town, a girl was born
Who lost the crown, but won the scorn 
Of Lady Margaret's deep disdain
For something proud, she cannot reign

Her daughter's name was Mary Grace
An angel with a beaming face
Who blessed...

Read More

 *        *    *       *           *   ...

Read More

I love women who gracefully dance
And sweetly sing; and women who 
Avidly read and who brilliantly think;
I love women who love to love—

And who despise to hate—and who 
Receive and give of themselves, as well....

Read More

A
fine
Parrot Tulip
in vibrant intensities 
with unique undertones
of green acquirable only in a 
few forests. A ruby red swirls within 
its petals beckons awareness of those very 
strokes that live in the lustre of your shapely...

Read More

"He made a difference."

Gramps, my mother's father, 
Dave Luke -- my grandfather, 
a tall unlettered white (decidedly white) 
Louisiana man -- was born August 1888.  
He lived 87 years.  He grew under 
the...

Read More

Some place somewhere,in nowhere
Oh! come dearly wind,come to the place and everywhere
Were it not bad of you to bend and bypass us in your haste
Eternal it would be-had love been bethrothe'
To the valley,slummed with valour...

Read More

Let no one despise your youth
May all disciples tell you the truth 
In Word,
Not just the first, second, or third, let your thoughts be heard
And your feelings unstirred
Your heart Misguided and Misheard
Let no lesson go...

Read More

It is generally thought of to be one of the myriad,
Guiding, governing, binding principles and precepts of all 
Mature civilized countries that what horrors that they unleashed in
Vilest, bloodiest, convulsive conflictual combative martial 
Confrontation, on their fellow...

Read More

Our Father Loves Us..
We our Precious & Priceless in His Eyes
Wants the Very Best things for us…
Wants to give us Blessing and Promises
In this Life we Live
And also… in Glorious Eternity
 He wants to give...

Read More

Fragile long I’ve been 
Broken like a split wind
Leaves blow through the doorway into the hall 
Another scandalous fall
Desperately trying to fight the call to split 
Some wit I’ve nurtured 
An insecurity blanket I’ve carefully...

Read More

I

I have learnt
To be always, myself
For no one can ever be me
And if am not myself
I will be nobody, for I can’t be anybody

I have learn 
To learn as much from
Great people from the past...

Read More

"you are more than I deserve. It's a love I never dreamed I'd find. Happinesd like this is worth dying for..."
- Yasunari Kawabata-

Looking down, while flying midway between sky and earth,
I saw a dog on...

Read More

By the light of a window sits an old man, his pennies he does count.
His hair is gray, his eyes are old, and there’s little in his bank account.
He has lived his life by the...

Read More

It doesn’t hurt just explains a lot of my relationships with males I guess
I don’t ask for your forgiveness or your pity
I just want to understand:

“OH, Brittany! You’re so blessed to be living with both...

Read More

The day my life went ape ‘chit’ in no more than three-hundred words

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch counts

And pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis works wonders

When I am asked to write a poem that is either precise or reductionist


Thus I report from my personal...

Read More

Unfettered flying floats free of restraint,
free from radical or erratic containment
or even perceptual direction,
free of focus,
free to become most any conjecture of mind,
disembodied.

Yet also trapped in unboundaried integral potentialities
unwilling-unable to choose
to decay further into holistic-straining...

Read More

It sits in a glass case in our bookstore…for all our customers to see…
It is old and It’s expensive and must be handled sparingly.

I’ve often wondered about the route this book has taken…from the frontier...

Read More

MARRIAGE AND LIFE

People marry in search of a new life
expectations are high, hearts soaring, 
unlocking closed hearts ready for the new adventure
aching to give and partake in the new experience

Talk to me of people in...

Read More

He begs to know "what is that smoke,
it smells like burning human skin?
and then he begins to choke
and was there to witness the madness begin

i can see him
a tattered tot in tattered cotton slacks
a child...

Read More

"When people treat you like they don't care, believe them."

time is the most valuable commodity
at the end of the day
there’s never much to spare
every second counting

the time it takes
for a smile or kind word
says it...

Read More

All is still and quiet on the drill pad.
Even night still sleeps at zero dark-thirty.
Celestial bodies lend their light, but sparingly.
Though their contribution will hardly be noticed once
she begins their day.
In her head she goes...

Read More

Alone, Looking for Blossoms Along the River 

The sorrow of riverside blossoms inexplicable, 
And nowhere to complain -- I've gone half crazy. 
I look up our southern neighbor. But my friend in wine 
Gone ten...

Read More

You have stained stars in your eyes tonight,
a gold glitter asunder as vast as any Past
stuck fast on this moon light sight,
give me softly the sultry sigh of a woman's strong age,
I am not passing...

Read More

Trip To The Sea

The morning dawns brightly with just a hint of chill
Sunlight dances through the trees while playing tag with the elusive breeze
Our hearts are light as our excitement unites with anticipation
And we set...

Read More