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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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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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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                              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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Pre-puberty years
Playful innocence 
Warm ready embrace
Quarrels, aberrations 
Rapidly erased
An uncluttered mind
Open, forgiving heart
Reborn each morn anew

Growing up, ego manifests
Taught to be street smart 
Testosterone levels high
Feral instincts prevail
In the game of one-upmanship 
Need to win...

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As we look on, doing nothing at all,
witnessing the play of spirit in form,
we sense soul presence within, standing tall,
in midst of swirling currents, cool and warm.
Magical cool heat that has heart upbeat,
a boon of...

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Written: October 21, 2023
                            ______________________________

To be quite truthful—this...

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In the eternal garden of being, where love weaves its myth,  
The desires of the world fade, overshadowed by its grandeur.  
Not flesh, not bones, but the soul seeks to unite,  
On...

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Today there are no rubber ducks, no flawless hues, 
To hide behind, as we once did.

This day is dark, and gray and dreary,
Air thick with the scent of decay and mold,
Dull light filters in through...

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As the sun sets over your naked postures, bringing
twilight into Kichak’s frightful mouth, and yet, still you,
all of you, continue to dance in the dusk of eternal love.
It is hard to not bear witness to
Our...

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Melancholy  searches of our patches
impending death imminenting danger
ecstatic of tomorrow we sold desolated
Our heart beat no more bathos of hope
the family bell summond us no more
our spirits haunting and hunting of a land
which no...

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In the ebbing glory of the night
As the moon with a pallid face
Moved away and hid herself,
The sun with his lustrous rays 
Appeared through the cracked walls of the sky,
To wake the sleeping hamlet.

Bales of...

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shifting into the void
yet in occupation of form
as identityless presence
we cognise that what is
what was and what will be
is aliveness as awareness
immediate and intimate
awareness self aware
eternal and unchanging
as the life essence of self

the self we...

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