Long Stamens Poems

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anaïs Nin







“Man Eating Flower” 



Voluptuous lips 
Velvet soft and slick
mouth words that skip
and crush off wet tongues to 
french kiss and swallow
all...

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Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society." 

The Unfortunate Plight of Women
by Ho Xuan Huong
translation by Michael R....

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Sung to the tune of “I Paint My Lips Red”
by an anonymous courtesan or Li Ch’ing-Chao
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

After swinging and kicking lasciviously,
I get off to rouge my palms.
Like...

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The Heights of Machu Picchu, Canto VIII
by Pablo Neruda
translation by Michael R. Burch

Ascend with me, my American love!

Let’s kiss these mysterious stones together!

The Urubamba’s torrential silver
lures pollen to fly from its golden chalice
while above this...

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"Psychobabble"
 


She plants the seeds
in Her mind 
through the 
fathomless
oceanful wells
of Her eyes
saltwater falls
over the unchartered
sharp edges of 
Her tight boundaries
to the playing fields
Elysian
where She waits 
impatiently 
in all Her glowing 
warm-skinned dreams
black words turn
to...

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Although flowers bloom it’s awkward to say that they are flowers
because they are not flowers, but thorns disguised as yellow pistils 
and stamens surrounded by the petals made of pieces of colorless
paper. Moreover, their fragrance...

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The muscles flexed like wings for flight
I saw fell down from heaven like light
The trees shook
Off their callous demure, grew gold green
My masked look
Came where adoration feathered preen
The cold pride that risked my life
The risks...

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mallards... a pair
koi carp can't compete... duck feet
strang orange shapes
~
sunshine... summertime
fickle spring... climate changing
muted cuckoos
~
Jenny wren... begging
let summer have its way
seasons confound spring
~
first orange tip
fluttered by... seeking partners
tortoiseshell denied
~
sloe... blackthorn blossoms
cover branches... bumper crop
sloe gin......

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                    The beer gardens of hatred
          ...

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I know that people find me strange 
I don't alway think the same 
I look on life so different 
Than others some time do

I look at what's around me ,
In a deep way , 
A...

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Last night's Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, not starring Adam
      Sandler,
great in the great tradition of Metropolis, Fellini, Children of Paradise,
      Ikiru, Open City.
This...

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"WHITE LILY"


When the first 
snow-white lily 
sprouted from drops of milk
spilled from Hera’s breast
and on her lap sweet Hurcules 
rested, baby feather fingers touching
she smiled a surrogate mother’s
fantasy, to make time stop still
reached her hands...

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NATURE OF HEART 

Dual curved carved
crystalline
earth pointed plasmic 
        Oneness 
quantum wave
particled 
allows Heart to heave
 
Heal with white light 
eagles 
on Tibetan height nights  
continuously crafted...

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Through frayed seams a rosy dream bleeds 
needled and re-stitched 
with threads of time and love and hope..

and still — a rosy dream bleeds 
the miscarriage of a promised rose garden 
leaving me bereft but...

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Trust your imagination, dream, believe,
Take my hand,
I'll show you land,
that you cannot perceive.

Join me as we take a ride,
Not across the planet, but inside,
Each creature, plant and stone,
Inhabit them, and make them home.

Burn with me...

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The drunken pen knows no boundaries, flowing from one page to the next, one idea to the next never stopping too long in one place. It longs to write fluffy, flowery, big descriptive words that...

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Beautiful flowers; how the blossoms grow,from the fruitful seed to vicarious bees.Bursting with intercourse, as pollen flows.Speaking naturally of needs on the breeze,life must go on, so relations are a whorl.Nearer to life’s apex, feeling...

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Picasso painted me ugly.
Two lips slung over a rusted hanger.
One eyebrow burnt for attention's sake.
Let's tell Grandma how much fun we had today.
Picasso is still at work.

Monet swallowed your stupidity.
Five teeth missing and nary a...

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In this time , this town, you'd grow
In this town, this time, you'll feel at home
your poor plenty more than rich enough
to crack the faultline,
your cup half full, half overflowing.

You stretch your legs and wings...

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Poppies

Go ahead; grab a gander at our grandeur
Our smooth, sweet, smelling, smorgasbord
Of colorful carpet comprised of countless creations 
Of nature’s naturally nurtured niceties’

Skip, jump, tumble, roll, wrestle
You are welcome…rest your bodies 
In the cool heat...

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Bud of a flower,
open, reveal thy beauty,
and color our eyes.

I cannot picture,
this earth without your presence,
you are needed in life.

Your plant family,
400,000 species,
grass, daisy, orchid, are some.

Remnants of you, see,
your kingdom trace back to a,
Jurassic...

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Spirit of the hive
Translucent golden elixir 
Held up to flaming sun of day 
Nectar of the gods within 
The spirit of the hive comes to be 
 
Old wooden cases 
Through filtered morning light 
Peeling...

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Chalice of Darkness

Buried deep inside the blinded eye of midnight
 My fugitive heart,
Homeless in winter’s frozen wrath,
Seeks an abyss with rotund borders –
A rounded vault of endorphic sacredness
Overflowing with elixirs of metamorphosis
Born from dark dry...

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I cut a bouquet of fresh lilies, 
and placed them in a sparkling crystal vase, 
then sat idly by, admiring 
the stillness of their beauty. 

With no wind to tickle nor stir the petals 
into...

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A FLOWER THAT BLOOMS

God sees your life as a flower
That sprouts, grows, blooms, wilts, withers, and dies in one Day.

And it is not so much the way the Lord sees how you were Rooted to...

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