Long Wang Poems

growing up too soon

	you said: is there anything more excruciating than lagging behind
						being passed by
	a hasbeen
				still knocking on portals
twitching toes twirling thumbs
         in fidgety drawn-curtained waiting rooms

and...

Read More

Epigrams VI

These are humorous epigrams including a form I call "Less Heroic Couplets." 



Less Heroic Couplets: Mini-Ode to Stamina
by Michael R. Burch
 
When you’ve given so much
that I can’t bear your touch,
then from a safe...

Read More

Chinese Translations III

Quiet Night Thoughts
by Li Bai aka Li Po
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Moonlight illuminates my bed
as frost brightens the ground.
Lifting my eyes, the moon allures.
Lowering my eyes, I long for home.


Lines from Laolao...

Read More

Epigrams VII

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: 
am I or are the others crazy?
—Albert Einstein, poetic interpretation by Michael R. Burch


The Whole of Wit
by Michael R. Burch

for and after Richard Moore

If brevity is the...

Read More

for King Wen, circa 1151-1143 B.C.E. – with seven mind-bending kowtows

There where you had no occasion for play
There in your confined Ming I space
Where change wrought no change
In your fate
But for those plagued by your...

Read More

Part One

GOU - Hexagram 44: One powerful Yin encounters or comes to meet the Yang in the Sixth month of the Gregorian Calendar, on the Sixth of June onwards – having associated with five (meaning...

Read More

"Rose Thorns"



The bonfire lit within
births a new soul
barefoot and bleeding
it unbends the bound
armoured heart 
constricted 
beating impatient 
naked dreams
hellbent on leaving 
The Numb 
behind,

Casting forgotten
shaman shadow
from an empty 
burnt out shell
a new deity
divine and healing
begins...

Read More

(alternately titled: impossible mission goes awry
probably mortal enemy cast spell binding jinx)

Both mental versus
physical tasks necessitate
laser sharp attentiveness
triggered within blinks
similarly on par when people toast
momentary instance utter silence

before more'n one
wine glass simultaneously clinks
cheering hurray, especially
if...

Read More

In the beginning it was just a smell 
a smell i could not quite make sense of
a smell that the city was, a smell that the people in it were

in the beginning it was just...

Read More

Our family got the news today
Our bubba's gettin' hitched
Young Daisy Mae, she's near fourteen
Got our boy bewitched
He's sayin' that he loves her
He's making her his bride
She's the first to get him this close
Though not too...

Read More

Not On The Menu



Sister girl don’t judge the brothers at

The zip mart with oily stained jeans

And dirty fingernails, judging him not clean

Turning your head, 

Sighing with dread

Thinking he got a nerve to look your way.

It...

Read More

Here is the love story of Zhi Nu and Niu Lang
A romantic ancient Chinese tale of very long 
Zhi was a nymph and Niu Lang was a cowherd
Cowherd-nymph love forbidden,secretly wedded.

Had two children, but their...

Read More

Is what l been trying to tell my mind when it wants to run mad
I try to tell it everything right, but it goes Vaal left
I need to put some sense into this brain should...

Read More

Dan was such an ardent fan of schwab and scoros
With such evil plans, he toadied up this man from
Wang' As we call Wangeratta.) for he didn't give a damn' his pebble specs were
Focused on, the...

Read More

Dim Sum Dong sat at the WEF subversion of free Countries event at Davos, Switzerland and daydreamed about prostitutes home in China and the 
organ harvesting and concentration -re-education 
camps and thought, these things like...

Read More

IF YOU PULL A LONG FACE : Part XXXVII

IF you pull a long repentant face
It avails you to pull it where no one sees you pray
For forgiveness though not after being caught outright losing face
A...

Read More

Although Tai-Gueng-Uang’s* wife 
did not abandon her husband but wanted 
to avoid poverty, she, now, is so sad and agonizing
because no water poured to the ground can be recovered.

Although the people say that Tai-Gueng-Uang angled...

Read More

by this time jesus had made his way to japan
where rock and roll definately originated
"Born in Hong Kong"
two reasons i suppose, they wanted to be the ones who discovered group sex
and even though they weren't...

Read More

zip zap
what is that?
flish flash
we're fighting for cash
wing wang
this is a mighty tang-o
cling clang
the fire bird sang
and this is the battle for out lives
all i wanted was to forget you
i just wanted to be free
no,...

Read More

China Spies and Lies

Concentration camps in the north
disappearing book sellers in the south
Chinese spies hunt one and all
Army of thieves , worldwide

Zhao Ziyang, where is he?
erased from Chinese history
where is the brave young man
who battled...

Read More

She slithered from the jungle in a Vera Wang sarong
Like some wicked juju temptress with no sense of right or wrong. 
I remember how it thrilled me, 
Oh yeah, when she shimmied in the buff;
And...

Read More

Twintig tien tot nou

So vinnig soos jy inwurm… in troosprys vlees-genot
..en dink dat dit so lank sal hou; Pasop vir toekoms lot!
En as ek dan verkeerd mag wees – bewys dit dat jy het 
presies...

Read More

Whispers handsome infinity
Time stands still in the vicinity
Mountains that I love to see
Clouds hug them with impish glee
I am fortunate in my tent at Wang Di 

On the top are my birds of pinkish hue
They...

Read More

I 
want 
to 
undress 
you 
and 
leave 
you 
dressed,
I 
want 
to 
exhume 
the 
scum 
that 
lies 
trapped 
deep 
down 
the 
mines 
of 
your 
shallow 
brain,
I 
want 
to 
slice 
you 
open 
with 
screaming 
double 
edged 
whispers,
Buy...

Read More

A glorious azure summer sky,
Triumphant with its blazing sun
Bestows the land with warmth and life
And lifts the hearts of everyone.

The Village fete is on today!
Come young and old, come rich and poor
To hear excited children...

Read More