Long Threshing Poems

I see people moving, but going nowhere
I see people moving with their hands thrown in the air
I see people moving but they have nothing to share
Bags and pans, old kettle, and old man
The scavenger, the...

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Nowhere Else To Go

Welcome to Israel: Land of Hope.1
(The land of Zion and Jerusalem.)2
Where prophets walked and prophesied,
For their God, our God:
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.3

And the Lord spoke to Abram, and he...

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The tears well up, and scarce could she not moan
When father, brother, husband, all have died.
She now has no possessions, neither home,
But travels to a distant, unknown land:
Once so secure, yet now compelled to roam;
Once...

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Listen the drums are rumbling and the pots are bubbling
Listen, the drums are rolling and pretty girls are dancing
Listen the drums are speaking and my heart is singing
Listen the drums are beating and I am...

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Old Man Winter now flagging, and slip sliding along...

as his stronghold diminishes.

Signals, triggers, and ushers kickstarting debut
of demure "Flora" who slowly but surely attempts
to reveal her true colors in fits and starts,
nevertheless, she displays skittishness,
when...

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A whirl, a gust, and a thunderous boom commenced,
Heartened by the latter soreness of silent night,
Shackled through the chill blows above,
A tempest, a storm,
Threshing the world,
Shaking the Prison of Plot,

The waters of the Holy Spirit...

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Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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The same black cloud that rested over the field the morning after the mower put out the haystack floated over the tops of the silver-trees on the edges of the rose-garden. Through the silver-trees it...

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Leaves labor in loam, roses endure the drouth’s weight,
From the east, petals peel, in soft drift concatenate.
Chariot’s beacon soars to the glint’s edge of tomorrow
To know, to grow, to sow, to go 

Ooooh… ahhh… mmmm…
Aaaah-ooooh…...

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Let the storms of rage pace us by my friends, for we have our islands
Of friendships resting in calmer waters, shelter coves of treasures devotions
Never to be rocked away, or relinquished!
Admits tidal shifting, know I’m...

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CHINESE TRANSLATIONS IV

These are English translations of Chinese poems about nature, the seasons, autumn, winter, spring, night, time, tears, flowers and love. 

Seeking a Mooring
by Wang Wei
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

A leaf drifts through...

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I met my love one summer's day

Amongst the fields threshing hay

Her bonnet slung about her neck

As homewards afterwards we did trek

Her bonny brown hair

to waist length did fall

A comely wench with wherewithal

She at first was...

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The World is a testing ground to burn out impurity, 
a forge of sorts, 
sorting out infermity. 
A Threshing floor 
of chaff and wheat. 
The bread of life consuming your choices as you eat. 
Of...

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Hour arrived,
Proclaiming first light,
As a shower of mellow sunbeams
Smiled on the foundation laid
For the structure of the man.

And he began to ascend.

Time fused together
An empirical patchwork,
Mirroring the passage of pain and joy,
And slowly and meticulously
Each...

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I’ve been adrift on the sea, a lost soul of ideal inspiration
Tossed asunder amongst realities harsh waves of the incomplete,
A disembarked being, caught at the mercy of a thundering riptide
Of indecision, floundering, drowning alone, with...

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The water like a rumpled sheet
Curled limpless at my feet
And then unrumpled on the sand
Cast its lassitude and moan
Audibly pulling slips of water above a golden knee
The sands' clean belly dissatisfied
Make naked now the barren...

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You refuse, refusing the salvant call,
laying there in fetal position,
enthralled by my hex of vinegar and scrawl of liquids release that just seem to pour out of me organically.
Hissing in Wormwood's frequency dwelling, Hollywood "your...

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***At the bequest of a friend 
or two this poem is a 
continuation of Tennyson''s
 'Ulysses'; though I don't
expect much glory for this
write, it was one of my
finer poetic attempts; 
especially Tennyson who
I think was...

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Hip-hop hooray !!!
GOD is the dj!!!!
what else can I say..he spins the needle of the record of my soul,
every other record gets old and cold...but this record, his record, is as fly as Gold. 
I...

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UNBEARABLE DARKNESS OF  
NEAR VOID

Unbearable darkness of near 
Void
when my Heart sits indigo 
at the back of my throat  
I see no endearing 
vacant eyes of guides
grit in joints scream 
generational curse 
which...

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He who claims to know no fear of death
Falls with the poisoned wine of lies
Upon his lips;
But he who may make this fear a friend
Shall grasp Eternity in the end.
His heart will open as his...

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Every step I take inside this valley
Makes me long for water and for rest
As I walk beneath the mountains shadow
I look up and know that I am blest


For you are the living waters
And you, every...

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(when living nightmare pierced real time
thus engendering the following rhyme)

adrenaline powered stealth bomb blast 
with the noggin of this, ah... ur... bane chap, 
     which debilitating anxiety doth outlast
means to cope...

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Non descript hedge rows sculpted into ornamental animal 
via botanical artist wielding pruning shears and chain saw 
carved, limned and sculpted with wrist wrought voila uber
prestidigitatiously head turning botanical picturesque Sun
kist animals at an exhibition...

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I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and...

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