Long Thunderbolts Poems

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

Read More

Turkish Poetry Translations II

Çanakkale Sehitlerine
"For the Çanakkale Martyrs"
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Was there ever anything like the Bosphorus war??
The earth’s mightiest armies pressing Marmara,
Forcing entry between her mountain passes
To a...

Read More

These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

Read More

Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

Read More

Mehmet Akif Ersoy: Modern English Translations of Turkish Poems

Mehmet Âkif Ersoy (1873-1936) was a Turkish poet, author, writer, academic, member of parliament, and the composer of the Turkish National Anthem.



Snapshot
by Mehmet Akif Ersoy
loose English translation/interpretation...

Read More

PART 1:          THE MEETING

Alone one night neath lantern light, I trudged a weary mile.
Forlorn, I went with shoulders bent (the storms around me howled)
until I met...

Read More

THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS


"For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn  the world,
 but that the world through Him might be saved...-John 3:17 "
-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Crucify Him! Crucify Him! CRUCIFY...

Read More

A Storming Symphony

                            The calm before the storm...

Read More

dark matter(s)
by Michael R. Burch

the matter is dark, despairful, alarming:
ur Creator is hardly prince charming!

yes, ur “Great I Am”
created blake’s lamb

but He also created the tyger
and what about trump and rod steiger? 


The Echoless Green
by...

Read More

The first years of my ruling I was 20 years in the earth. The people were of the first races. There was no famine or death cause the age was renewal. The rainbow shown 40...

Read More

Nero the god! I had a dream. 
There I was at the foot of Mount Olympus.
 Mother was with me as usual. 
As we reached a cross-roads, Agrippina said: 
"Come Nero, here we turn left"...

Read More

Yo what's up bro, how've you been man? I know I haven't talk to you in a while. That's my fault. I just get so tied up with life and all the negative vibes that...

Read More

I

The bell the Town Courier want to toll
To salute the day of reckoning in Getham City
Is now on the neck of the scary-witty cat her paws like dragon
Saints, Publicans looking on at each other nose
Of...

Read More

Each poem I birth
Is a child of my heart
Flesh of my flesh
Bone of my bone
Word of my soul
Conveyor of my emotions

Each one is unique
Different….
One is always happy
And sees the bright side of life
The eternal optimist
With...

Read More

Holograms and hieroglyphs

The whole weighs heavily
touched caressed lightly 
brushed on feather canvass
granite marble marvellous papyrus 
innocence rejuvenated
partial and impartial

Chiselled in and out
of comprehension angled
layered facets facts
subjective trueness 
ciphered and deciphered

Snow flakes teardrops
ink on paper hailing...

Read More

Archetypes flash straight from a pack of Tarot cards
anti-terror Jing Jang synthesis with neuro-spiritual precision
implants explosive animation from the deep unknown
like a taro rootstock growing wings to fly with found suspension

Stereotactic stereotypes archetypes semi-circling soothing...

Read More

HARLEY DAVIDSON

The roar of the victorious twins that spark,
Enigma of the spotless glint in the dark,
The riders, symbolic of rare brood,
Tattooed with insignia and bandana as hood.

Third year of the twentieth century, there starts a...

Read More

Simple things like love arent easy to understand
My pen trembles, my thoughts scramble 
All my monsters are weak in her presence
Its sad how they no longer seem ugly
she says I do not write poetry for...

Read More

Flowers climb the branches
exhibit their full blossom
flowers visit drawing rooms 
They visit temples 
and then they vanish.
defying fixed shapes
rivers hasten to no destination.
carrying countless goals
roads get lost in a maze. 

Unceasingly
I stand
holding the selfsame earth.

Many...

Read More

Nature, Friend and Foe

Speak out the words to the soft petaled plants, 
that grow wearily in the distant corners
It is there that the scrub jay alights,
squawking and gorging on berries.
This habitat has brought the wildlife...

Read More

I pray for God to shine His light,
Down on us, who remember the night
When a Savior was born, the way and life
The One who would relieve us from our strife

I pray for God to seek...

Read More

THOUGHTS OF A JAMAICAN CHRISTMAS

I remember Christmas of yesteryear
Of John Canoe dancing with fife and drum
Horsehead would approach, it was scary but fun
And Scrippy scrappy looked like a real bum

Of Christmas breeze and Poinsettias red
Mixed...

Read More

This is the third in a trilogy of steeler poems and while it is good on its own.I really had fun with this one. All three need read for the full story to be told.

Oh...

Read More

The royal chambermaid and the young warrior, fleeing the wrath of the heavenly palace, were flying low, their robes trailing through the air like colourful ghosts. Their elopement to the earthly domain had been condemned...

Read More

TWO AVENGER'S BOXING BOUT
 
Midst rings of thunder and a vibrant haze,
Two titans clash, in a gladiatorial gaze.
Their presence makes the cosmos sing.  
Immortal meets might in a mortal boxing ring.4

Thor, the Asgardian, with...

Read More