Long Thunders Poems

The Original Sin: Rhyming Haiku!
 
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
-Michael R. Burch
 
The herons stand,
sentry-like, at attention ...
rigid observers of some unknown command.
-Michael R. Burch
 
Late
fall;
all
the golden leaves turn black underfoot:
soot
-Michael R. Burch
 
Dry leaf...

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Veronica Franco translations

Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was a Venetian courtesan who wrote literary-quality poetry and prose.

Capitolo 19: A Courtesan's Love Lyric (I) 
by Veronica Franco
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

"I resolved to make a virtue of...

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Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

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(A somnambulistic drama in four acts)

Actors:

Jean-Paul Marat; 
Charles Barbarou;
Charlotte Corday;
1st Philosopher;
2nd Philosopher;
The Commentator’s Voice.

Act 1. A tavern. Two philosopher sit at the table; 
Marat sits at the other, some distance away.

1st Philosopher 

…or even worse:...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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~ He's  The  One  ~ 
( Whitney ) 


~O~



Call  the  Lord 
He  will be there 
For me,  gives  
Love, Hope, Peace, Joy
Strength,  always 
He's  the...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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A king entered in a robe,
Clothed in a raiment of
Multitudous colors:
Vast and enormous is he,
Occupying matters of matters,
Spaces of Spaces.
His presence accomodates no vacuum.
Before him was raident throne,
Swathed in light and graced
With fire of sulphur...

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Dark Gothic Heart, A Valiant Knight & The inner harmony tuned to its hidden beasts menagerie 

Dark Gothic Heart

I look to the sea
viral implications take me to the surf
along the rocky ledge leads to an...

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Venite
Come let us sing to the Lord;*
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving*
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

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I walked pass the neighborhood restaurants and saw Americans
browsing on their laptops and having their Saturday evening meals
Some were having a serious chat over dinner
I could see angry faces filled with disappointments and resentments
There is...

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                                  ...

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Imperfection follows me through the wilds
Forests of failure, feelings flowing
Breathless darkness, consuming the dreams
Erasing the joy, destroying the wonders
Coloring the hopes in silence that flings away
Music and dance, poetry and promises
From the heart who listens...

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11	Contracted in this state our marriage made
		And only far too late we recognize
		That gladly with Reptilian Flesh we’ve laid
		The veil torn away revealing eyes
		Of yellow flame exposéd we surmise
		Out from the darkened room these floating...

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The same speech before hardly could bit me
So that were redden both my cheeks for shame,
And after gave  me comfort as to free;

So used to be the spear, I felt the same,
Of Achilles and...

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Haiku Variations
by Michael R. Burch

This is a poem composed of haiku-like stanzas:


Variations on the Seasons I
by Michael R. Burch

Lift up your head
dandelion,
hear spring roar!

How will you tidy your hair
this near
summer?

Leave to each still night
your lightest...

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“The Autumn is old; The sere leaves are flying; He hath gathered up gold, And now he is dying…Old age, begin sighing.”- Thomas Hood


In the amber hues, kissed by scarlet
Soothing whispers in laughing hearts,
Music, trembling...

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There was a time 
In the not distant past
When farmers would sell their wares
Of fruits and vegetables they had planted
To feed the town folks, and balance a budget
In exchange, for clothes, sundries and junket
For the...

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Achab*, Translation of Pierre Emmanuel’s Achab by T. Wignesan

One man alone stands erect before the king, and speaks
A man
Alone

The king is not accustomed to being confronted face to 
      ...

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Many-colored and candle-lights; high beyond the soft trees a fresh country leans heavily toward the night, far beyond the sea’s shady shore.

Beams, o’er wide fields like a white star, \till from the earth’s crown drops...

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As winter fades into spring,
Hearts impressed by the gentle swaying,
Dancing dreams, hasten to explain away,
Gentling shadows of yesterday,
Praying hands, folded and appealing,
To the love of One whose light is piercing
Through the darkness, through the doubting
Of...

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Like an allspice incensed quartet chorus,
the spirit of the living Word unveils before us.
Holy foundational page corners turn
in cardinal winds as red letters churn,

proclaiming the Gospel to each earthly corner,
through bolted borders, even reaching the...

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So never do I want so truly never, never to be bound bruised under sorrow’s frown.
So never do I want so truly never ever to be found fused under sorrow’s crown.

So, so always have you...

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A narrow way
between left-brain dominant history
in wealthy solidarity
with right-brain prominent yin-flow

Heart-touched and nature-tasted
multi-generationally tested
both/and cooperative health
with either/or competing against
stretching
creatively/uncreatively fragmenting ego-integrity potential
for win/win left here/now
with win/lose health/pathology remembering night,
cautioning,
tip-pointing both/and heuristic
holistic
holonic timeless fertile right
EarthSoul centered...

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