Long Undistinguished Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

Read More

Quotes:
1. "Doubt is not the absence of faith - certainty is!"  Karen Armstrong

therefore

2. "It is impossible to be a true Christian and not have doubts!"   Brian Johnston

3. “For by grace you have...

Read More

“The Language of the Undone”

I prefer 
them 
over humans
those velvet souls 

loving 
the lesser 
parts of me 
always

more than anyone 
else cares to admit 
they inspect 
every inch of me 

walking over me 
territorily 
like...

Read More

Sappho, fragment 118
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Sing, my sacred tortoiseshell lyre;
come, let my words
accompany your voice.

"Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius. Sappho is apparently addressing her lyre. The legend is that Hermes made the first...

Read More

These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…

With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 35, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mother,...

Read More

“Wow, life”! 

Always in the proper order organized and determined to stay intact.
Step by step rules with regulations and all judged with such strict order.
And all of this is what’s focused on me?
My, My! What...

Read More

Sappho Translations I

Sappho, fragment 132 (Lobel-Page 132)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
I have a delightful daughter
fairer than the fairest flowers, Cleis,
whom I cherish more than all Lydia and lovely Lesbos.

2.
I have a lovely daughter
with a...

Read More

This poem was too long to submit without premium membership, so I have submitted it in two parts, but it is meant to be read together. 

Part one....

They say he is clearly psychotic, if knowing...

Read More

Stepping into a new year,
especially one calling for 20/20 revision
reform
not retribution for anger's past
but restoration of WinLeft/WinRight bicameral sanctuary,

Stepping into a new ZeroZone Asylum,
positive deviance from leftbrain competitions
deductive, 
predicting reductive, 
business as usual.

Positive left/right harmonic...

Read More

We’re all at rivalry with an undistinguished universe
 let the truth be known;
politics are garrulous about freedom and what they’re going to do
hell of hands their helpless.

Before the world goes to fire,
I hope all is...

Read More

Some are sparks

Some are the sparks from a Parliament bonfire,
That fly ever upwards to spin and whirl 
amongst the stars and then are extinguished,
falling as a fleck of ash to lie amongst many 
in a...

Read More

Ever reliant placid pilled compliant nevertheless undefined anarchaic fool fk clandestined anamorphoric clumsy apparentless undistinguished negiligent aforthought defiant scopic blind congenital aborted panoramic distilled coherent brain dead dynamic stagnant democratic fascist positive negative here now...

Read More

Robotic


Silver tears fall from robot eyes;
The hole for a heart has broken wires.
The love we used to feel?  I have removed those files.
Robotic people lead robotic lives.


Delete memories to give us more memory space;
The...

Read More

Good poetry is like an Old Master
Crafted with expert skill imbued with soul
No abstracted throwaway disaster
Or a bland undistinguished casserole
Of poor ingredients cooked up faster
And deposited in the toilet bowl
No, it should stimulate the appetite
And...

Read More

A pro bowler is not thought of as a precision performer
  Laying a 16-pound ball in the exact same spot
Over and over again, as many as 300 times a day
  Morning, afternoon and...

Read More

Released into an opening of warmth
and mystery, he melded with the throng
of his undistinguished peers,
their number seeming infinite,
their ultimate design one and the same.
And as they forward streamed, 
rapidly, they scattered and disappeared into oblivion.
He...

Read More

The marvel, the all-knower make days the

Sanctuary for all who live,day within days:

Twenty four periods during which the earth total

Rotation on it axis,days arrive like crows in the field 

Of stubble corn,in days we born,in...

Read More

And now the ebb tide flows,
The end of all intentions,
Hopes and energies
Exhausted in submission to a greater power.
Terms are struck
And life relinquished
To subside in age
And reminiscence
Of what might have been
So many fine and fragile hopes
Remembered...

Read More

Whispered.
A sound undistinguished,
forcing the ears to listen
more intently,
giving the mind, flashing 
images of the whisperer.

We both know only you and I
are here.
We both know neither you, nor I
spoke, full voice or
in a whisper.

The animals caught...

Read More

Nestled closely curved
Like two spoons well kept in a drawer
I lay beside you every night
Drifiting towards dreamtime
Pressing the alien softness of your female flesh
Filling hand with its gentle weight
Enfolding into your perfect curvature
Feeding on your...

Read More

I’m living dead, I’m a bad nation
As bad as you like to percieve
The easiest for condemnation
En masse, so maybe I’m not me
Because I’m always undistinguished
I am a crowd you ignore
All personalities relinquished 
It doesn’t matter...

Read More

Nothing is shaking, but these mountains are moving.
Broken and shapeless, lost found and renown. 
Can you see it's multiple faces,
The moment you close your eyes at night?
Blind in your hands you take action,
Sharing in the...

Read More

Magnetic anomalies
Often tied to a crystal
That submerged with Atlantis
In Bermuda’s Triangle

Flight 19 left Florida
Routine military squad
Training mission, planes on course
‘Til pilots saw something odd

Sea met sky; which way was up?
Compasses spinning about
Then radio transmissions
They were...

Read More

The stone that felled the Philistine
Was just a common river stone, 
Worn smooth by the waters of the Jordan 
Over years of being eroded and diminished,
Weathering the turbulence of existence
With stoic indifference.
It was just another...

Read More

Precipitation changing, Rain into snow
These Lights illuminating, A scene that glows
Cumulus clouds scattered and arranging, an intimate view
Great conversation between me and you

A calmness much like the sea, reflecting the sky being blue
An undistinguished current,...

Read More