Long Transcendence Poems

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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Red light, the neon beer sign on the distant wall reflects off the long expanse of polished bar top, overpowering the quiet brown wood. It’s after lunch, only a few people in to stir the...

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8. Transformation

Yielding to those who have mastered the art
Of grasping one's place in existence's grand scheme
Life’s constant challenges never depart
But humble diligence will grow the dream

In passing from childhood to adulthood
Innocence to responsibility
Firm new role...

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Ghosts of the Sun Dance

1. The Path

A quest dating back through our history
Surpassing the flesh, a spiritual path
Human endurance, road to mystery
Dark trail winding through the gardens of wrath

It echoes through me, this deep ambition
Half...

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China Tour Diary Moment #1
--------------------------------

KUNMING THOUGHTS


Sunday morning flight to Kunming city;
East bound to explore vignettes of China;
New vistas to sight, postcard memories;
Feast visual galore on tour agenda.

Yunnan province greets our earthly landing;
Brisk clearance and we...

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Fear haunted me, taunted me, daunted me. I was not the overcomer, but the overcome. Fear played with me the way a kitten might toy with a mouse, eventually leaving the mouse despondent, discouraged, darkened...

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Back with poetry vengeance,
Don’t fear this, Transcendence 
Or from the Abyss?
Elohim’s Prince,
Or a Demonic Word Smith with written myths? 
These flames destroy man’s deceitful tactics and machines,
Once seen……. 
Story Rhymes dreamt and told, 
To the...

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Further post-millennial dialogue with Abraham Heschel:

"The problem of our youth is not youth.
The problem is the [learning] spirit of our age:
denial of transcendence [in our homes and schools],
the vapidity of [learning] values,
[competing] emptiness in the...

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It was somewhere in Cambridge, when the amalgam of substances 
began to cloud our judgment. 
The changes were between vague and blatantly obvious, but 
we were masters at this terrifying craft. 
A small dose of...

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The original Independence declarations
of the late 1700s
were born from a West European colonizing
and North American creolizing immigration wave
knowing and exploring a God of EnLightenment,
opposed to dark evils of inherited entitlements
to monopolies of economic health-hoarding and...

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"The Path of Evolutionary Enlightenment,
like all enlightenment teachings,
is a path of ego [Past/Future Tense]-transcendence.
In Evolutionary Enlightenment,
however,
transcending ego [investment in anything other than the Present]
is not an end in itself--
it's a means to a higher [Presence...

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YESHUA
His name was Yeshua, the legitimate, not immaculate,
scion of a young Jewish couple named Miriam and Yosef and surely
a brown-haired, brown-eyed Middle-Eastern man, sun-bathed and beige,
raised in the traditions of Abraham and Moses, David and...

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In the valley 
I'm down on my haunches 
with the tall grass whispering around me,
enveloped like I was wrapped in a blanket
I listen to the mournful dirges 
of my scattered brothers and sisters
filling the skies...

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We are evolving towards a higher level of conscience! all of us
You and me 
There is no escaping this truth 
There are no poles to climb out of this reality. 
We are in a changing...

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Is it Hanukkah 
Or Chanukah 
Both are correct
It depends if you use the Latin or Hebrew dialect 

Regardless of what you say
The meaning is the same both here and far away 
It is an eight...

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Since the ancient Greeks, the West has developed individuality as an ideal; this led to many good things like democracy, political rights and creativity. But it has also created a great stress on people: once...

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HE WAS NEVER A CHRISTIAN!

His name was Yeshua, the legitimate, not immaculate,
scion of a young Jewish couple named Miriam and 
Yosef and surely an olive-skinned, brown-haired, brown-eyed
Middle-Eastern man of medium height, raised in the traditions...

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Since humanity first became a sentient species, aware of time, space and its own mortality, there has been only one question that matters:are we just clever animals destined for nothingness, or does a part of...

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Beginning with what it is not
Being certainly not transience we can slot

Calling a spade a spade
Love not an exchange or trade
‘I love you provided you reciprocate’
‘If your look is not endearing, my love will abate’

Moving...

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Nightmares, Ravages Of A Prometheus, Free And Unchained
from my new blog
 
(I.)
 
What of life, mortality and blessings of virgin ground
Philosophy, religion and *Prometheus unbound
Of Mother Nature, illuminations and transcendence
Science, and vanity of weakened mortal...

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The best lines always evade me;
I can never say what must be said
to you, 
to her, 
to them...
to myself.

Mortality whispers in my ear.
Mortality dances about my seer
Allows it. Justly, for justice
folding up my life's essence,
putting...

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On Independence Day
I declare  independence 
from American imperialism.
I declare U.S. out of Iraq.
And while I am at it
the C.I.A. out of the business
of supplying murderous thugs
with rifles and uniforms 
along with the strategies 
to...

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