Long Uncaged Poems

Sonnets XXV-XXXII

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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Sonnets X-XVI


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...

Read More

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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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...

Read More

Jack and Sam
were two inseparable souls
Best friends tend to be like that,
especially if both were born on the same day
They were two good looking kids,
who liked to play rough and tumble
Didn't mind scraping their knees...

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Once upon Trump time,
Free-range,
organic,
totally uncaged hens
brown
and black
and even white
and all things in-between
prepared to vote for more green climate health
growing indoor/outdoor good-egg chicken family values
planning to optimize healthy wealth
green ecoschool henhouse natural-spiritual remodeling
for deep and richly...

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These secret silent stillnessess,
wistful wispy whisperings
which enter through the windows in my heart,
I try to softly touch them 
and they recede, far, so far away,
I try to gently hold them
they slip beyond my grasp,
and so,...

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

Come, you--the last one I acknowledge; return--
incurable pain searing this physical mesh.
As I burned in the spirit once, so now I burn
with you; meanwhile, you consume...

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I was done
Packed my bags
Ran from the grasp
Of Liars and Cons

Considered myself lucky
To know the truth
And walk away
Mostly intact

No damage
No harm
No foul

It’s funny the lies we tell
To mitigate pain

Only now as I unravel
Myself from the...

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The Creed

A crested lark rises in to the window 
	In the bittersweet rendezvous of a vow,
	And my fear passes, 
For it is in the free fall of our landing,
	its chord colliding into the road,
The sweet...

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Written: December 26, 2023, For Robert James Liguori Contest
                  __________________________________________
        ...

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Let me wipe away your tears of hopeless pain
The Lord's love towards all is numerous like the stars, so let the past disappear like California rain 
The heart beats on like the drums in the...

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Restless soccer moms,
whose kittens have all become mature,
got plenty of suburban boredom
Time enough for sure
to get hooked on every advertised lure
As daytime soaps and gossip kitsch
are the mundane, daily double feature
So they buy themselves some...

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First person shooter,
on a hate tour of duty,
swinging a bullet sling blade
Buying a death row ticket,
worth fifteen minutes of fame
First person murder shooter;
womb-to-the-cradle-to-the-grave robber,
using your Automatic Revolver
to solve your anti-social mental problems
Sharpen that sling blade
on...

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A path strewn thick with ruddy-faced leaves
led to nowhere and everywhere in fantasies, 
our near-death rescue from boredom 
        come afternoon chores and homework pages 
  ...

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I AM...
HAPPY, THINKING, AWARE, HOPEFUL
RELEASING NEGATIVTY, THOUGH ITS NOT EASY
COMMITTED TO MY TRUTH
LOVING MY HUSBAND, FULL OF JOY AND PEACE OF MIND
CONNECTED FINALLY IN THIS LIFETIME.
  
I AM...
WISE, FOOLISH, A LEADER, AND STUDENT
WILLING TO...

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On a pale July winter
I danced with the last Princess
In the middle of a sordid one room...
So long after sunset and so far from dawn
The smell of tomorrow burnt and tempting
I warmed my frozen fingers...

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In the dark of night 
I’m in my tower of light
It’s time to face my demons
And face the fight
My hands are clenched 
These fists of rage
The beasts uncaged
My rage bleeds out 
upon a journals page....

My...

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". . . Do egoic fears & desires agitate
Or heart throbs with bliss sublime . . . "
                ...

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Raise the white flag of defiance,
surrender to the hate

Offer no concession or compliance,
a vote count short 
is the winning debate

Cry ballot thievery trace:
Urban poll pickpockets, of color suspect voices,
stole the presidential race

Let that dark anger...

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My moon shun windows have been unhinged
and a panoramic mind binged on self deplore freed
Indeed by the defined journey I’ve moved through.
Through you the miraculous reflections of self-love I find
once blind, now bare to the...

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Introspection 

suspends in dark blue amnion
as rainwater blooms a reflection pool
an oasis of energy for contemplative embryo;
in stillness I grow.. my pulse a flowing stream of raindrops 
my body  the rhythm maker  ...

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Comrade

Some say, in youth,
Youth can not win for losing.
And then there is the truth of a comrade
Righted by his own will and a use of him,
And he is his best back-slapping memory of you.
A projected...

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Eye of the Tiger

Those eyes – piercing amber -
 So like mine
  Smoldering with uncaged curiosity 

I drown in the golden pools
 As I stalk across the floor
  Captured in a tractor beam...

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Down at the creek
     The sun rises magenta
           Against cobalt
           ...

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