Long Strident Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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Enheduanna is the first writer we know by name. She created the first poetry anthology and hymnal, circa 2250 BC, in ancient Sumer. She was the daughter of King Saragon the Great. 

Lament to the...

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I sung all the night with the Devil,
It seemed harmony had found itself spooning with dissonance
Not indeed needing to be one or the same
Yes—the light indeed could sustain itself in the midst
Of what then was...

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The Exaltation of Inanna: Opening Lines and Excerpts 
by Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon I of Akkad and high priestess of Inanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lady of all divine powers!
Lady of the resplendent light!
Righteous Lady...

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Dear Toni,

I saw you on The Daily Show
the other day
having your way
with Trevor,
or was it the other way around?
Not sure.

I'm also not sure where we first went wrong,
but I'm sorry for once having thought you...

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Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna (circa 2285-2250 BCE)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy the land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like...

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"Conceits"



Such conceits
as veils between 
our windowed worlds 
torn torrential incomplete

mayst thou watch and learn 
the one I spawned, 
strength beats weakness
carried soft and harsh

one direction or the other
strength and weakness
both carried soft and harsh
ego and...

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The Deception of Free Verse: Dreams I, Translation of Etiemble’s L’imposture du vers libre by T. Wignesan 

(From René Etiemble’s only poetry collection: le Coeur et la cendre: soixante ans de poésie (the heart and...

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The crime is snowed over, Translation of Pierre Emmanuel’s  Il neige sur le crime

Are we buried under snow holding our silence
in what immense Cimmerian (collision) of terror ?
The mouth kept open in the shriek...

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His was,
A kiss of promise
A kiss of challenge
A kiss of power
And a kiss of doom
Where our lips had met
He was a threat, a strident peril
And yet a strange safety,
To which I held such visions
To which...

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                                  It’s...

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"The Path of Evolutionary Enlightenment,
like all enlightenment teachings,
is a path of ego [Past/Future Tense]-transcendence.
In Evolutionary Enlightenment,
however,
transcending ego [investment in anything other than the Present]
is not an end in itself--
it's a means to a higher [Presence...

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Paying The Bill
 
You may come to this some day
It may issue from nowhere
A moment un-strident
A loose flagging half remembrance
Something which neither carries
Nor contains
But a fickle shadow 
Thin and as meaningless with an empty whimper
Not...

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Lion Dancing To A New Year

It is that time of the year, you'll know it by the din reaching your ears...
Thunderous gong beats, clashing cymbals that's all you can hear...

It is a most riotous time...

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I was a bed and mattress tester, a dream job like that of a yellow moon.
I tested the comfort of beds, pillows, etc., for night is ever coming soon.

I studied sleep patterns too, like vivid...

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A Self-Tutoring Translation of RIMBAUD's Final Version " Vowels " in Contemporary Terms

(" Vowels " (final version, without the definite article, with the poet's corrections)  in RIMBAUD Œuvres complètes. Ed. by Pierre Brunel. Paris...

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Hands Caught In The Till

The cash register, there is a pleasant  little "TING !" as it slides open....
More often than not, it will reveal cash notes, neatly stashed and weighted down..
Various denominations of cash...

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Will you burn the earth`s  skin  to glass?. 

Yet, right there , in Harmony of `69
I bent  in adoration 
before the dusky pearl of your forehead
the soft slopes of your never-ending body
shifting...

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Dragon of the Night, O'Winged One Lost in Flight,
Shattered dreams and scattered leaves blown in sight,
Whispers of smoke and fiery stroke lofted on midnight
air,
Tales of wonder and loneliness cast upon a creature so
rare.

Cast in cave...

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Today, the local daily papers highlighted a man of honour...
Deserving of his honorific title Datuk bestowed on men of honour...

Given his loud and strident calls for those holding the reins of power....
To better buck up...

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Fukuda Chiyo-ni Haiku

Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703-1775) was a celebrated Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period, also known as Kaga no Chiyo.

CHIYO-NI POEMS ABOUT WOMEN AND DESIRE

How alarming:
her scarlet fingernails
tending the white chrysanthemums!
—Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation...

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The desolate perfection of solitude. The shiver of recognition that there is only one being on the mountain, and that’s you. The pine trees watch, the boulders brood, but there is no one there. The...

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I watched the endless procession of stalwart youth, resplendent in their panoply gathered, a 
steelly passion filling resolute gait.
And I asked of them, "To what place does such noble assemblage march?"
"To the Temple of Ares,...

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Forecasts

 
'...the burnt-out end of smoky days'

                            T.S....

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“Nous nous sommes assises” (“We Sat Down”)
by Renee Vivien
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
Darling, we were like two exiles
bearing our desolate souls within us.

Dawn broke more revolting than any illness...

Neither of us knew the native...

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