Long Transience Poems

THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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Saturday, September 23, 2023  

Coincides with first day of fall
and Autumnal equinox for said year,
where colorful splash kindled like tinder.

After I riff flecked about thee August
Autumn Equinox 2023,
this seasonal polymath teached you 
fall Equinox...

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The remnants of August 2024 Hurricane Debbie

Like a humane huntress, she
(the anthropomorphized storm)
brought a spate of cool Autumn like
temperatures and gentle soothing rain
here within my neck of the woods
for the last couple of days.

No matter...

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This is my translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's second elegy from his Duino Elegies, which he began composing at Duino Castle in 1912. 

Second Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Every angel...

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This is the story of Jeni Haynes, whose father inflicted horrific physical and sexual abuse on her from the age of four years old. As a result she created over 2000 alter egos to get...

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Woven are these pages in poetic verse,
With bare threads of our deepest feelings,
You will find laughter, tears and remorse,
and words of wisdom, prayer and healings.

What compels their pens to shed poetic ink?
What forlorn moment inspired...

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with a cat lying on my lap
a sough whispers in the trees 
as a summer day begins fading
the tiger lilies below bend as if trumpeting
a musical for ears yet to come into existence
evaporating the din...

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“I am not the body, nor is the body my possession— 
I am Awareness itself.”

One who realizes this for certain
has no memory of things done or left undone.
There is only the Absolute.”


We now enter still...

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Thoughts of a living dead

People think that we are dead, we are ended
and our souls passed away from the earth.
That doesn’t cover the truth. Reality is finer

Better and noble, much more practical in life
In life,...

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Maybe among so many barricades that protect my heart,
I was born to be read once and then locked away for eternity.
To be just a fleeting glance, a passing shadow, never the one that turns heads.
To...

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Both void & manifestation
Spanda: life pulse vibration
Expanding & contracting
Concealing & revealing
Stupefying & illuminating
Separating & uniting

Shiva’s self luminescence 
In playful innocence 
Creating a pulse of separation
Culminating in divine union

Paths four for liberation
All found in the void...

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WHEN I WAS A LITTLE boy

i knew no wisdom
i knew no hate
i knew no lies

WHEN I GREW UP

i understood history
i understood love
i understood truth

NOW AS I AM DYING

i know a lot will change
i know the...

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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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Autumnal equinox 2022 - 
Thursday, September 22
in Northern Hemisphere 9:03 PM
Eastern Daylight Time

Empyrean découpage citadel
betokens (bespeaks) autumnal arrival
nine oh three post meridian
chariot of fire emblazons telltale signature,
one humble human doth 
bid summer and his squandered...

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s
        TOO SOON A SPITTOON 

Somehow he has survived
Through due diligence and by sequestering his soul off the corner of “Hate Street” and “Greed 
Avenue.  
From a...

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Autumnal equinox 2020 - Tuesday, September 22
(at 9:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time)

Empyrean découpage citadel
betokens (bespeaks) autumnal arrival
nine thirty one ante meridian
chariot of fire emblazons telltale signature,
one humble human doth 
bid summer and his squandered life...

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I

how could i know him his eyes say
but my eyes reply which of us may speak to that
be busy in the house that needs fixing
despite histories in three
and homes as safe as the clicking of...

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Written: April 14, 2025  for contest sponsored by Brian Strand

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The subject matter of this poem explores themes of transience, intersection of life and death, and the fragile coexistence of...

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My dearest friend,


What an ache it is to write to you, knowing my pain, knowing how my mortal body falters beneath the weight of its trials.

My words, though steeped in suffering, ring like a low...

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Under the canopy of stars, each a distant echo of an unfulfilled dream,
I walk, my footsteps barely touching the earth, as if Terra herself fears the weight of my contemplation.
I am the seeker of immortal...

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In the twilight of this dream world, where shadows whisper through the wind,
I wander through corridors of reflection, each turn a portal to forgotten realms,
The stars above, like ancient storytellers, weave tales of love and...

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Written: March 14, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann

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On that obsidian night,
I found your flawless face, 
echoing with illuminated breaths 
and...

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Epigrams V

Are mayflies missed by mountains? Do stars
applaud the glowworm’s stellar mimicry?
—Michael R. Burch



Teach me to love:
to fly beyond sterile Mars
to percolating Venus. 
—Michael R. Burch



Byron
was not a shy one,
as peacocks run.
—Michael R. Burch

When I...

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                              From bright sunshine to dark...

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What obstacle can there be between a boy and infinity?
Behind the old brick house, among countless fig and persimmon trees, 
next to the concrete cistern and under a beautiful bright summer sky, 
the boy was...

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