Long Weightlessly Poems

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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Drifting on the clouds I lie
With my head pointing
To yonder skies
In a sea of dreams 
 Where mind and spirit 
Igniting natures prize
To feel like you are heaven bound 
But feet standing firmly
 On hallowed...

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Alienated by my past, because of my past
Carrying dark secrets across every bridge
I hide them under rocks
And I bury them in the dirt
With this bag of coal strapped to my back
While I trek and climb...

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Hidden

I am the wind whistling in your ears, chilling you to the bone,
I am the heart tearing you to pieces,
I am the path leading you home.
I am the mind that compels,
And the arms carrying ...

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I hate robocalls!

Inxs of recorded messages   
transmitted automatically 
to my telephone number 
by automatic dialing device.

I turn off damn ringer,
and disassemble (carefully 
as disabling a time bomb) 
internal workings nevertheless...
telephone still buzzes
twenty four...

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Sigh (Infinity symbol)

Your damage leaves a scent like the way gun powder smells
I’m the only store where your hurtful ammunition sells
I'm the ground that carries the weight of your bullet shells
The fireworks fall and rest...

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I hate robocalls!

I turn off damn ringer,
nonetheless...
telephone still buzzes
twenty four seven
eight days a week
automated telephone calls

digitally recorded message
perfectly spoken English
differentiation to distinguish
"FAKE" simulation
all bot impossible
totally immune to escape

gagging hospitable invective
electronic jawboning immunized
against antipathy, cruelty, enemy,
hostility,...

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I turn off damn ringer,
nonetheless...
telephone still buzzes
twenty four seven
eight days a week
automated telephone calls

digitally recorded message
perfectly spoken English
differentiation to distinguish
"FAKE" simulation
all bot impossible
totally immune to escape

gagging hospitable invective
electronic jawboning immunized
against antipathy, cruelty, enemy,
hostility, insecurity, pleasantry
Yukon...

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Earth is but a tiny speck of color, spinning round and round
orbiting the sun in the ebon universe without making a sound.
Come and lay beside me in a meadow and let's pretend
we're floating in space...

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celestial moons celestial suns celestial stars and black holes
reflected in our vessels windows 
all rainbow colours that seemed to bleed into the velvet inkiness of
the planet's atmosphere

not much was growing on aJAX I could tell...

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The young boy woke up floating, effortlessly above
his own little, living, breathing, body
that could be clearly seen below
with his own intangible eyes,
drifting… 
as if he were a concealed cloud or Zephyr wind
suspended within
the borders of...

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Where do I live? I live
In the ever changing
Blues and greens of the ocean,
Darting soundlessly, weightlessly
From pink coral to white
Among the waving sea creatures
Amidst iridescent fish
And the bones of sunken ships.
 
Sailing in the air...

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Taste of words written for those who listen
Forked tongues taste the better juice
Yet feel the harsher fate when plates are filled
With poison problems

 forked tongues will engorge 
with mediocrity and acts of simplicity
To suffice themselves...

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Why can't I just let go....

of....

That thin line of string I 
so desperately hold onto,
that is tied around the ventricals
of your heart, and hemmed around
the edging of my soul.

Melded together, sewn as one.

The tiny string...

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I find myself feeling so cliché at times.
I want what I can't have.
I need you but not that bad.

Thoughts of jealousy never cross my mind when I picture you with him.
A typical story with a...

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I sit with my thoughts in confusion not knowing why,
everything is so very clear in my head and in my heart.

I know all that makes me feel free and high,
I feel all that is calming...

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Straight Black Coffee
From some hole in the wall diner
in a town of ten-thousand people
tastes a lot like soot,
or bitter ash.  Coffee grinds
float weightlessly on the surface
black gnats flailing.  Derelicts.
Abandoned in a blackened sea.

The...

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Memories of illogical unreality saunter past my mind, 

Planning expectations of a future with no feelings, 

Deja vu days multiply with an intensity so unkind, 

Happiness is eroded by endless waves of lapping sadness, 

I...

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I'm a nervous wreck when my anxiety makes its presence known
It swallows me whole; my happiness a sinking stone
I want to rise above my insecurities, soar above my flaws, float weightlessly over my obstacles and...

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Take a long look at me,
I’m not who I used to be inside,
I’ve been changed by the world around me.
Erase me from your heart,
But don’t forgive me for all the damage I caused. 

I feel...

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Load your eyes with the wonder of another world.
Fill your heart with the laughter from a child.
Cram your mind with a joy unknown to you before.
Pack you hands with a knowledge all their own.
Give you...

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The weightless float of morn throttles
 like a softly-bathed woman: white, tangy and bubbling
 with a sprig of mint and dew;
 petals’ chests opening a gate of chastity, undressed.


A path of upturned twigs rips free...

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Ornate is the ironwork that I peer through
as my fingers grasp the garden gate,
and I open my eyes to my Wonderland.

My bare feet step down the moonlit path,
where fireflies twinkle amongst the stars
that reflect upon...

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In a glimmered lace of sunrise’s veil,
dawn hovers like a freshly-cleansed nymph,
wafting and bubbling with a spice of mint
in dew’s chastity pool delicately undressed.
The path of upturned boughs rips free
and slides along  a froth...

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Indigenous feel of peaceful love Interferencing touch of skin 
 There has been no where better I have been 
So empowered , clean , free 
  Often like Im at ease , drinking a...

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