Long Surrealism Poems

Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp...

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"Salvage"


Salvage the fixating salvation 
unfurling from the wreckage
of a numb world twisted inside
treasure climbs swimming 
the ladder from the deep of all things 
reaching upwards travelling in a new time
of melting morpheme moments overlapping 
dissolved...

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It was September 
Of one thousand 
Nine hundred seven
The end of summer
With apples lying thickly
Under the apple trees
And the smell of Autumn
Covering the grass
Filled with ripe yellow
And orange squash
He was born in a little
Wooden house...

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"Angel Eyes" 

that dark angel
standing in the corner
observing the shadows of man 
pass him by -

he has angel eyes

that shine high beam
bright bushfires that light 
the entire transparent 
padded room parade

dance cards lit 
he’s biding...

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These are my modern English translations of sonnets by the French poet Stephane Mallarme.

The Tomb of Edgar Poe
by Stéphane Mallarmé
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Transformed into himself by Death, at last,
the Bard unsheathed his Art’s...

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Paris then was a place
Where new ideas were
Brewing in the intellectual 
And art communities
And new ones were
Emerging everyday
Some brilliant some not 
Time will make it clear 
What is what
But then it was an exciting
Paris of...

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Dos Cabezas Getaway     

Coming of age film about Boy Baby Wally found wrapped in a 1943 issue of "Farm Implement" magazine abandoned screaming in a Last Chance gas station toilet on...

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When your idols are fragile
Is it any wonder kids lack style
Perhaps if we walked a mile
In the shoes of the soldier we'd attain guile

Look at the newspaper
The government is a caper
And everything will taper
Due to...

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i need to stop frowning and epitomizing
and sell this Caddy to the Cardinal
trying to let it miss your attention won't fly
since writing is speech even if somewhat removed
or fit only for bouncy news anchor banter
pancake...

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his last gasp was quite lengthy
trying to go out with a bang as usual
a rationalist manifesto covering his face
accompanied by a cotton field work song
his grip went slack under the torrent of images
fortunes have been...

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feeling his vitamin injection a new adventure begins
a slapstick epic of unfathomable implication here unfolds
as the rat gnawed curtain rises at Ye Bone and Gristle
among the clattering of wooden pints of bitter ale
the floor show...

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don't even think about it
a bucket of motel ice in the face
proving the thing in itself does not exist
because he registered all the meanings all the time
with a nausea so profound 
the retching never ended
rearranging...

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the only tree for a thousand miles 
gave him welcome if temporary shade
a kaleidoscope of mockingbirds filling its branches
it was no longer possible to be blind
but very possible to be jailed
for being unaware of our...

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What is it to hear a poem?
Ears ajar.
Eyes focused.
Mouth shut.
I struggle to listen when such words cut open
my head and try to make a nest out of my brain.
I DO NOT WISH TO HEAR A...

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he waived cross examination
innovation had suffered a sucking head wound
and the Mossad was after my ass 
a post Ragnarok picnic with a fire on the ice
hot enough to fry a penguin steak
code breakers grab your...

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being treated for fructose spasms
during one of the last movies on Earth
after the great Enema of 2012
when the heaters were on high
the authorities were called in
but his claims were all backed up
by the logic of...

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no one saw it coming they never do
the phone poles were giving off sparks
dogs began to howl birds flocked to the sky
A Plymouth hubcap of immense proportions
quivered and droned in the air over the capitol
television...

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I saw the faces
of dolls.

Pink cold dolls,
       blind frightened dolls.

Dolls with round uniform
                ...

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we all have our ups and downs
enjoyed in lesser detail on the upswing
and greater granularity on the corresponding
and subsequent regress to various terrors
the trick is to not obsess and get conned
into the notion of a...

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African embodied in a birth of a nation,
I do apologize for my lateness in my African time
To the only goddess of Mother Nature in her smell of sweet
Grains of mountainous African mahogany, fruits; mahlatswa, ditshidi.

Picking...

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both sides use conscience for a hook
it's a con artist's suitcase
fill your cup in the Ocean of Tears
there's enough of everything in there
toasters glowing blenders humming
dogs humping on lawns across the land
in a cloying oppressive...

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educated by the ancient twin mystics 
right eye and left eye
to nurture nature a desire for beauty
and sweet self astonishment
can't perceive without perceiving
music of the spheres for dummies
the elderly should be smarter than they are...

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Granny hit you with it you fly across the room
she was a 5th generation hep cat 
a finger popping bebopster with double elbows
you can have your two bit Buddha garden
and your silly Jesus candles
Granny created...

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HEADLIGHTS ON DARK ROADS

Timid tentative tap on her door at midnight
as she lay expectantly in suspense and the hope
that he would defy all obstacles to prove his love
for her

Like Romeo and Juliet forbidden to date...

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if Rowena's kuzzle was
the center of the Earth
he'd look for a shovel
she was an underpass hooker
exploited by a grim and grimy past
reckless as the day is long
a tourism so shameless 
her own union set her...

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