Long Threshed Poems

The Room of the Unrequited
By Roger White
    That evening, stillness permeated the lavender-scented room.  Dusk crept through the windows
smudged by oily fingers, The day’s twilight left a dull umbra on wall...

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Cowpoke
by Michael R. Burch, circa age 16

Sleep, old man...
your day has long since passed.
The endless plains,
cool midnight rains
and changeless ragged cows
alone remain
of what once was.

You cannot know
just how the Change
will rape the windswept plains
that you...

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Chinese Translations III

Quiet Night Thoughts
by Li Bai aka Li Po
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Moonlight illuminates my bed
as frost brightens the ground.
Lifting my eyes, the moon allures.
Lowering my eyes, I long for home.


Lines from Laolao...

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†††††††††THE UNFORGIVABLE VOYAGE††††††††
Tears trickled through my face
As our vessel threshed the deep.
Seagulls flapped their wings on
The beach as I watched them 
Disappear before my sight.
I wished to belong to their 
Colony if that meant staying...

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I’m too tired to tell another story 
About the pangs of reality 
of my barricading delusions 
and my spontaneous God given days 

A long wait ;A fat fate
A nine day wonder that forever lay in...

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Perusing the tomes of esoterica,
One truth I've learnt indeed,
Not one book contains it all.
There's always more to read.
Axiom mixed with allegory,
Abstract salt and misty sulphur.
Is this that famous alchemy?
I'll find the quintessence myself.
I wonder will...

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PARENTAL ILLS

Fresh fallacy fall flat
Betwixt blenched beaux
Oldies goldies, modern crime
Lacerated denims, newish culture
Conventional crews, forgotten taws
Dearie draws near, dressed chamber
Old tent, increasing wails
Baggy laps, incessant sounds
Daunted, flabbergasted grips
Pleasurable, gratifying tips
Floppy fathers left in tears
Flooey spinsters...

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Somewhere between Easter Island and 
Santiago skims an ocean skiff loaded with
slumped islanders bound within the teetering
cargo hold. In the distance can be seen the
eyes of seven monolithic faces defending
islanders from the fury of volcanoes.

One...

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One night... I had a dream... what I see
Trees on...  each side of me
Through the path...was Lit all the way

Miraculous Light.... in the distance
Through-out Time.....  Existence
Forever Shines.....   Who's Divine

Knowing Only One.......

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We have come to the
" feast" 
At jungle, to dance
to tunes 
Of music of our
time, and now, 
Leaving the arena
for others, 
Returning with
cheering heart. 

Gladdened by our
worth 
Our shoulder laid
with arrogant pride 
As it was...

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I am a gleaming aubergine
in an oval dish
My purple skin is polished
Like BBC English.

I await my fate for I am ripe
My seeds fulfil my wish
Soon,soon the knife will cut me up
As corn in fields is...

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This transmission is always meshed
Rotating gears of helical threshed
A dog clutch and synchronic ring
Engaging gears this fork in swing




Fourth, Third, second and first
Gears are changed at a burst
Just remember the letter H
When you move that...

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A time to rake; to search embers,
for fingerprints and the scorched optics
of the scattered and blind.

After the violence, fagots, and reeds
are heaped up into pyres,
but first the sorting,
the probing for trinkets of flesh.

A silver crucifix,...

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A wild pagan, the wind, a spectral masseuse,
  Blunt cudgel and claw dipped in liquid frost,
To corrupt and ravage the pit head columns,
  As black trees threshed and leaves were tossed;
Slapped against satanic...

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Arising early everyday
I seek* God's face in prayer's ray.

With Christ's grace, I'm indeed refreshed
Abiding in sacrifice-altar, blissful; faith-threshed.

Bound triumphantly to fulfill His will
Upon the throne of the Prince of peace, I keep still.

Delighting to be...

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Sometimes alone I cry for you
Who upon the waves was thrown
Without a vest to come ashore
Without a passage home
And O my love what could I do
For when we started I promised
Then, that I would swim...

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How would
shuffling beggars
dethrone a King
o'erthrow a tyrant
stand unarmed
before an army
unite with weary peasants
to pass a nod, a look
mouth the words
unspoken
yet whistled
in the wind-threshed wheat
by time's troubadours
singing for the pittance of the poor
raising the angst of...

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The birthday of one our dear friends, Julie,
we three wanted to celebrate duly.
It was harvest time, we went to the farm,
shining golden wheat was reflecting charm.

We walked excited in the morning gale
to the edge of...

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