Long Startles Poems

Renee Vivien Translations


Song
by Renée Vivien
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When the moon weeps,
illuminating flowers on the graves of the faithful,
my memories creep
back to you, wrapped in flightless wings.

It's getting late; soon we will sleep
(your eyes...

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True love, the kind that lasts,
Remembers to give, with an open heart,
Remembers to listen, to hear what’s being spoken,
Remembers to laugh, to smile, to kiss,
Remembers to embrace the music, the wish,
Remembers to hope, to inspire,...

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My heart hit the wall like graffiti spray.
Shakespeare could have cast you 
just as you had cast me.
Playtime was rushed to sleep with resistance, 
as cinderblock thoughts tossed and turned 
until drifting became corroding numbness...

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Though all are blessed with eyes to see,
Eyes never lay sight upon the seer;
No retina perceives the seedling
beneath its iris.

Ocular nerves sense Occam-ented pictures
Of identity: portraits framed by
Ourselves, Us, and Others
- Whose eyes perceived whole
But...

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Surrender to sleep at last! What a misery, keeping watch all night, wide awake. Soon you’ll succumb to sleep and escape all your troubles. Sleep. — Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch

Passage home? Impossible! Surely...

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Homer translations

Surrender to sleep at last! What an ordeal, keeping watch all night, wide awake. Soon you’ll succumb to sleep and escape all your troubles. Sleep. — Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch

Passage home? Impossible!...

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In a whisper, love poured out its light, its truth, its purpose… a still, small voice who told me He is worthy of the worship, the truth, the praise that promises to stir my faith...

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‘Twas unsettled light which greeted me
  this morning first when after slept alone,
As though moon ascended too timidly
 and left no space for sun to call its own;
From nearby cars exhausted music played
 beneath...

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He sits in solitude except for the incoherent yelling in the next room.
The yelling is accompanied by the high pitch shrill of breaking glass and china smashing the ground and the wall behind her. 
She...

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This is a broken emptiness
So surrounded in fixedness you can't get at it
All I've ever wanted, I'm that
But in disorder
Unoriginal amongst poets
My drama is bound, I won't let it out
All doors remain shut
I dare not...

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It plagues my mind… the silence
That is truth, when the roar
Of this place, this eternal thunder
Pounding away at the stillness
A stardust sky, shimmering – graceful
Promising the heart to bring, rather
Quiet, yet piercing peace, colored in...

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I lie, 
on my large comfort bed.. 
counting seconds,
syncing my heartbeat,
with the tick of the great white clock,
above my head. 
What I'm thinking, 
even I do not know..
Clouds have formed on my thoughts...
Fogs have scathed...

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It's all imaginary
it's all real

it's all ephemeral
all eternal

every little gesture
every racing emotion

every breathless whisper
every dark and mystical room
overflowing with night air and moonlight 

nothing is ever lost
truth is what is not forgotten
suffering, we learn
learning is...

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I lay on a bed and
I hear voices beside me,
But alas, For I cannot see the beings,
From whom my name is spoken.

My eyes are closed and the darkness surrounds me but not the same,
For my...

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LAST CHANCE AT LOVE

                      Winter sun startles ambitious songbirds,

     ...

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Ecstatic, electrifying, exhilaration ignites inside,
Inspiring my soul to capture the hope,
Songs echoing on the coast where there is light,
Silent light tossing, trembling, tempting my thoughts,
Into the night where pieces of my heart reflect the music
Playing...

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She stands 
OUTSIDE...
In the Blackness
of the SHADOWS...

She is
TALL,
SKINNY,
like a SKELETON...
in HIP
CLOTHES...

Her hair
LONG...
SILKY/BLOND
blows
with the rhythm
of the WIND...

Her name
SILVIA....
Prostitute-
Herion shooting
CRACK ADDICT...

She needs
A FIX-
A SMACK-
A TOKE...
A RIDE
ON THE DEVILS TONGUE...

Streets
EMPTY...
Seems like she
STEPPED into,
Another WORLD-
Another DIMENSION...

She cries out
"WHERE IS-
MY...

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Inuksuk Hunter
                         Seen, and unseen, white in, stars out
  ...

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Heathens, scamps and thieves were lying in wait around the cove
Could not see them in gray dusk, but Captain Tawny Right felt them
Being an empath, as well as an Irish pirate queen, she was clairaudient.
She...

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The chill of the morning air startles the soul. 
A disastrous night brought hot flashes and sweat. 
What is the dream and what is reality?
A mind torn into two spirits, into two people. 
A story...

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A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS EVE

A child’s in thought by a cozy fire
His dog stretched out at hearthside
Big sister and a friend fun-gone
On a frosty    snowy sleigh ride

His kitty    Miss Boots...

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The way-back machine cranks out
memories which haunt us.  Scenes
from days long past revive longings
for things to be the way they were
when youth was taken for granted, 
when sharp minds and nimble  limbs 
propelled...

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While the dawn collects its rhythm, 
Quietly protecting the whispers of a new day,
Tangerine sunsets composing chrysanthemum hymns,
Risk their gentling tones in rarest glimpses,
Through the silence, into the fated feelings,
Where truth glows and kindness flows…

Shadows...

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It aches

Insanity – it is rich with light,
Ever lusher with shadows,
Dimly faded feelings, whispers
Welcoming the wars that come
To those who listen… it’s voice…

I know crazy

Crazy – it is like the wind,
Forever moving, never giving in
To...

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I look around the unfamiliar place I am standing in.
All I can see is darkness.
Its cold out.
The cool frosted wind whips through my long hair and past my ears.
Im alone and confused.
As my eyes adjust,...

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