Long Trifle Poems

Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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I shall resolve to leave this
Place now...
And steadfastly search out,
Nestling between ridge and bluff
Amidst the folds of a foreign 
Land,
Several acres of unkempt ground
Fallow and rough;
Upon which stands...
Crumbled stone walls
With an exposed slate roof in
Some...

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One day not long past our economy faltered
And wouldn’t improve if our course were unaltered.

'Cause we buy stuff at Wal-Mart (where things are dirt cheap)
'Cause they buy from China (treats workers like sheep

(So farmers left...

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MICHELANGELO: Modern English Translations

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is considered by many experts to be the greatest artist and sculptor of all time. These are modern English translations of his poems and epigrams by Michael R. Burch.



SONNET:...

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Archaischer Torso Apollos ("Archaic Torso of Apollo")
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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A Place Not Meant To Be
           
PART: II            (699 of 1487 words)

#9: Days of...

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"Midnight to 3.33, Morning Kills"



He said, 
“Go to where the poets go
Love rolls wet and sways
Intensity wraps itself inside out
and somersaults its legs backward
to open a way
Out
It’s kind of burning hot 
like Summer burns 
bare...

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Stan was feeling somewhat glum,nay even despairing,on Monday morning.
Mary had gone to work on her new folding 6 gear bicycle with own basket and an extra basket from Wells-next -the- Sea 1995
[the wicker basket now...

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for Ronald Hindmarsh-Midwood 
                               ...

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Against a willowy wailing backdrop of inner chaos,
an indignant incendiary mask stifles the simmering cauldrons,
of a stoic stage clown post lachrymose performance wearily stunning yet stung,
or the surreptitious posture of the laugh it off as...

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A coffee and a love,
On the seashore, hidden under the shade of a canopy,
Pensive, I gaze emptily, outside the deserted beach.
There's no bustle, no noise around me,
The sun burns gently, the wind is calm and...

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Ah!  Here comes another pawn* should I trifle with him?
Or should I do it quickly and painlessly?
Well, if I think about it quickly and painlessly would be better
Because there are consequences to having a...

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"An X-Mess Carol"

Somewhere standing barefoot
in the sand, she thought with guilty pleasure
“This is the KORO SEA!” and
conjured up a multitude of story scenarios
Buccaneers, Pirates Parlay, Treasure Maps, 
Davy Jones Locker, Jack Sparrow, Ho’es
you know, those...

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Wonderworks
by Michael R. Burch

History’s
mysteries
abound
& astound,
found
(profound)
the whole earth ’round,
even if mostly
underground.


The Procrastinator’s Creed
by Michael R. Burch

It’s always, “Tomorrow, I’ll do it.”
Work? I eschew it.
I never collect money I’ve loaned
and the rest of this poem’s been postponed.


WHEN...

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4/7/21
"

(Chorus)
Hanging out at the continental shelf
I've been living in a mental hell
I'm now just a shell of myself
Realize the importance of dental health
People with nothing and others with exceptional wealth
I've become a professional at stealth

Realize...

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I climbed atop the mountains,
To find the Elevated One,
He is in one of it's summits,
Living all alone.

I found him under a tree,
Can't be found by anyone,
I sit beside him,
Tired and done.

I began to speak,
"O' Elevated...

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zilch = the current net result dabbling with said medium
which upside per literary skill 
   allows, enables and provides
a golden opportunity 
   to write my own nonestablishmentarian epitaph.

Though gleeful at assiduous...

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Admittedly a little bit of me can see I have an ability
missing ambition to mission living submissively in submission,

If I believe built into me 
a skill too free 
up my sleeve capability
I'll gift to me...

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Prospector Hank rode down the canyon cold
Ten years on the trail, out looking for gold,
Hank found a camp, not long abandoned then
In the dust lay tracks, of cows and of men.
Why cows would be here,...

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MICHELANGELO TRANSLATIONS

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet. He and his fellow Florentine, Leonardo da Vinci, were rivals for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man. Michelangelo is...

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Spit free roads with no traffic
Pit free streets of designs prolific
Rich cultural heritage and intellect
Folks-full of compassion and perfect
Discipline innate and mission oriented
Pupils are prodigal and celebrated
Duty seems to safeguard their land
All the nations are...

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His voice raised, with the right hand
And a proud, angry face to the sky,
The sage chanted mastered hymns aloud;
His strange mission was to send
King Satyavrata into the abode high;
The latter was under a cloud of...

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The world is so mechanical
It is so scientific 
It's getting to be so-so difficult
Everything works at a fingers touch
Everything is speeded up too much
Neon lights the night
Smog darkens the sunlight
Time is to the seconds
While details...

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Ruminating on the events over two-thousand years ago:
the life, suffering, death, burial of Jesus, and the exciting,
dramatic, and supernatural arousal of Christ, incarnate -
from death to life, of the imputation - his sacrifice.

Jesus is the...

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To my dearest dear…
Am going through a very bad phase
Loads of works and above all business targets,
Once you came to my thought 
And out of all yips, I smiled back for a second
Those flicks with...

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