Long Wilted Poems

Fahr an' Ice
by Michael R. Burch

From what I know of death, I'll side with those
who'd like to have a say in how it goes:
just make mine cool, cool rocks (twice drowned in likker),
and real fahr...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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Chinese Poets: English Translations II

These are modern English translations of poems by the Chinese poets Tzu Yeh, Lin Huiyin, Xu Zhimo and Huang E. These are poems about love, passion and beauty. 


Tzu Yeh (circa...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear...

once starlight
languished
in your hair...

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret,
a pain
I chose to bear...

unleash
the torrent
of your hair...

and show me
once...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch



Smoke
by Michael R. Burch

The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in)...

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New Year Poetry

Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
translation by Michael R. Burch 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed,...

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A pondering of multiple raindrops from a detrimental storm onto the empty fields, crashing into them as hard and loud as clashing metals. The depth and existence of love weighs over any deprivation an unexpected...

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The Professor's campaign
although stealthily benign
still co-arose fair hecklers.

How can you reassure me
that our vulnerable children
will not hate me
and you
for stealing from all Earth's tribal future
any possibility of healthy presence?

While Yangyinstein stands
with stunning wonder
about all win/win...

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Once upon a time, there lived a boy called Simon.
He was an ordinary boy who did what ordinary nine year old
boys do: collecting bugs and putting them in jars,
speaking to imaginary friends, riding a bike...

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Where did you go?
I want you to know
That I love you so, 
But I got to get up and roam
Due to being far from home 

Oh, I hear them...and feel them...

I hear the echoes of...

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#1
"It is a sin to kill a Mockingbird.
While playing games with rocks or guns, defray,
them, please, ...shoot old tin cans.  Each whispered song 
from Mockingbirds, can heal the wounds  of the day"

Virtues are...

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I can’t help, but feel kinda restless
Can’t sleep because I’m hopeless
You got to save me from myself, my restful dear
You are asleep in your melodic, swaying chandelier

Prayers please…… 
Give me starlit and moonlit ease
The sun...

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within these times of war
Within these times of war


Within the times of war

Silence of its terrors calling
Children play within their laughter
Now recedes in cries of torture
Screeching whistles scrap metal clusters
In murderous heat of summers day
rage...

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I was a very enthusiastic gardener, who loved being surrounded by beauty,
Like the songbirds that visit cherry trees, with a taste for something fruity.

I adored the familiar blooms, but held a fascinated interest in the...

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Identifying as a Taoist-Christian hybrid,
a polypath feasting on root systems
of East meets West
Right greets Left
Yin embraces Yang
does not make me a good Christian
or a healthy Taoist.

However, these bilateral designs
on polyculturing 
polypathic neuro-sensory healthy outcomes
do seem...

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Although I had always adored flowers, I had never had a green thumb;
And while I tried awfully hard, my efforts always had sorry outcomes.

Like the sorrow of old garden roses, during the unanticipated drought,
Or storms...

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Rest now
O restless heart
released in ebb   to flow

ride the other side of the king tide rising
buoyant your movement in rise with the waves
Rise! to beyond where breakers break long-suffering shores
pitiless the grind of...

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Brahma III

The frivolous life lives vainly 
looking at a phantom, chasing after illusion;
men accuse one another thinking their life is real,
fight each other thinking they are existing. Today as well,
I wander in the valley of...

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I was once argumentative, though I am not at all proud of the fact,
I was extremely opinionated, expressing my views with little tact.

It is not that I was malicious, but I really thought I knew...

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The wails that disturb very few in their bed
Reach only the ears of the psychic… or dead

                  ...

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It was springtime in my nursery, an industrious time of the year,
For spring is the time to be planting, so luxurious flora appears.

As the sole owner of a nursery, there was quite a bit to...

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it had indeed become the autumn of his life and he had harshly lost

every spring in his step when his wife began to abuse his good faith

abandoned him by the way side and the side...

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I wait—

here I wait
for white magic reverie
to embrace me   free me

here I wait—
an hourglass full
of leopard-print thoughts 
sugar-granular-musings spill
the beginning to the end of a story
the potential   the inevitable
life finite ...

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Christmas Past and Present Bring Me Tears 

My legs of yesterday's 
walked into a Christmas storybook,
a glorious past,
pages filled with good tidings.
And as young kid, once with open eyes,
with clinging beliefs
in good shepherds,
it was
my parents,...

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