The HyperTexts
Poetry by Michael R. Burch
This is a page of poetry by
Michael R. Burch, an American poet whose original poems
and translations have been published by hundreds of literary journals and widely
on the Internet. Burch's poetry has been taught in high schools and universities,
translated into 22 languages, incorporated into three plays and two operas,
set to music from swamp blues to classical by 31 composers,
and recited or otherwise employed in over 100 videos.
If you're a student or teacher or poetry lover who would like permission to use
one or more of his poems, you can email Mike Burch at
mikerburch@gmail.com. Please click
here for an
Expanded Bio and Curriculum Vitae.
Styx
by Michael R. Burch
Black waters,
deep and dark and still …
all men have passed this way,
or will.
Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
Something
by Michael R. Burch
for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba
Something inescapable is lost—
lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight,
vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars
immeasurable and void.
Something uncapturable is gone—
gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,
scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass
and remembrance.
Something unforgettable is past—
blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less,
which finality swept into a corner, where it lies
in dust and cobwebs and silence.
Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch
Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow …
Where does the butterfly go?
Where does the rose hide its bloom
when night descends oblique and chill
beyond the capacity of moonlight to fill?
When the only relief's a banked fire's glow,
where does the butterfly go?
And where shall the spirit flee
when life is harsh, too harsh to face,
and hope is lost without a trace?
Oh, when the light of life runs low,
where does the butterfly go?
I have dedicated my Butterfly poem to the children of Gaza and Ukraine, to the
victims of school shootings, and to refugee and homeless children. I agree with
Gandhi, who said that if we want to live in a better world, we must start with
the children.
Are mayflies missed by mountains? Do stars
applaud the glowworm’s stellar mimicry?
—excerpt from “Mayflies” by Michael R. Burch
The Shrinking Season
by Michael R. Burch
With every wearying year
the weight of the winter grows
and while the schoolgirl outgrows
her clothes,
the widow disappears
in hers.
I discovered the Goddess in your body's curves and crevasses.
—attributed to
Sappho, translation by Michael R. Burch
Ophelia
by Michael R. Burch
for Kevin N. Roberts
Ophelia, madness suits you well,
as the ocean sounds in an empty shell,
as the moon shines brightest in a starless sky,
as suns supernova before they die …
Later there’ll be talk of saving whales
over racks of lamb and flambéed snails.
—“After the Poetry Recital” by Michael R. Burch
Sunset
by Michael R. Burch
for my grandfather, George Edwin Hurt Sr.
Between the prophecies of morning
and twilight’s revelations of wonder,
the sky is ripped asunder.
The moon lurks in the clouds,
waiting, as if to plunder
the dusk of its lilac iridescence,
and in the bright-tentacled sunset
we imagine a presence
full of the fury of lost innocence.
What we find within strange whorls of drifting flame,
brief patterns mauling winds deform and maim,
we recognize at once, but cannot name.
Originally published by Contemporary Rhyme
Ebb Tide
by Michael R. Burch
Massive, gray, these leaden waves
bear their unchanging burden—
the sameness of each day to day
while the wind seems to struggle to say
something half-submerged planks at the mouth of the bay
might nuzzle limp seaweed to understand.
Now collapsing dull waves drain away
from the unenticing land;
shrieking gulls shadow fish through salt spray—
whitish streaks on a fogged silver mirror.
Sizzling lightning impresses its brand.
Unseen fingers scribble something in the wet sand.
Originally published by Southwest Review
Will There Be Starlight
by Michael R. Burch
Will there be starlight
tonight
while she gathers
damask
and lilac
and sweet-scented heathers?
And will she find flowers,
or will she find thorns
guarding the petals
of roses unborn?
Will there be starlight
tonight
while she gathers
seashells
and mussels
and albatross feathers?
And will she find treasure
or will she find pain
at the end of this rainbow
of moonlight on rain?
Originally published by Grassroots Poetry, Poetry Webring, TALESetc, The Word (UK)
Kin
by Michael R. Burch
O pale, austere moon,
haughty beauty …
what do we know of love,
or duty?
To Flower
by Michael R. Burch
When Pentheus ["grief'] went into the mountains in the garb of the baccae, his mother [Agave] and the other maenads,
possessed by Dionysus, tore him apart (Euripides, Bacchae; Apollodorus 3.5.2; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.511-733; Hyginus,
Fabulae 184). The agave dies as soon as it blooms; the moonflower, or night-blooming cereus, is a desert plant of similar fate.
We are not long for this earth, I know—
you and I, all our petals incurled,
till a night of pale brilliance, moonflower aglow.
Is there love anywhere in this strange world?
The Agave knows best when it's time to die
and rages to life with such rapturous leaves
her name means Illustrious. Each hour more high,
she claws toward heaven, for, if she believes
in love at all, she has left it behind
to flower, to flower. When darkness falls
she wilts down to meet it, where something crawls:
beheaded, bewildered. And since love is blind,
she never adored it, nor watches it go.
Can we be as she is, moonflower aglow?
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Moonflower
by Michael R. Burch
after Robert Hayden
Marveling,
we at last beheld the achieved flower—
both awed and repelled by its alienness,
its moonlit petals,
its cloying fragrance,
its transcendence,
its shimmering and wavering intimations of mortality …
Ebb Tide
by Michael R. Burch
after Goethe
Ebb tide.
The sea is wide.
In the depths
dark things abide.
Hush, pale child.
Never fear.
None as dark
as men, my dear.
Ebb tide.
The sea is wide.
In the depths
dark creatures glide.
Hush, now father.
Never fear.
Men are nothing
where you are.
Poetry
by Michael R. Burch
Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.
They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both your eyes
which, once cerulean as Gogh's skies,
had leapt at dawn to wild surmise
of what was waiting there.
Your back was bent with untold care;
there savage whips had left cruel scars
as though the wounds of countless wars;
your bones were broken with the force
with which they'd lashed your flesh so fair.
You once were loveliest of all.
So many nights you held in thrall
a scrawny lad who heard your call
from where dawn’s milling showers fall—
pale meteors through sapphire air.
I learned the eagerness of youth
to temper for a lover’s touch;
I felt you, tremulant, reprove
each time I fumbled over-much.
Your merest word became my prayer.
You took me gently by the hand
and led my steps from child to man;
now I look back, remember when
you shone, and cannot understand
why now, tonight, you bear their brand.
***
I will take and cradle you in my arms,
remindful of the gentle charms
you showed me once, of yore;
and I will lead you from your cell tonight
back into that incandescent light
which flows out of the core
of a sun whose robes you wore.
And I will wash your feet with tears
for all those blissful years…
my love, whom I adore.
Originally published by The Lyric
"Poetry" is my Ars Poetica. However, the poem has been misinterpreted to mean that the poet is claiming to be the "savior" of Poetry. The poem never claims
that the poet is a savior or hero. The poem only says that when Poetry is finally freed, in some unspecified way, the poet will be there to take her hand and watch her glory be revealed once again to the
world. The poet expresses love for Poetry, and gratitude, but never claims to have done anything himself. This is a poem of love, compassion and reverence. Poetry is the Messiah, not the poet. The poet
washes her feet with his tears, like Mary Magdalene.
First They Came for the Muslims
by Michael R. Burch
after Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.
Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was not a homosexual.
Then they came for the feminists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a feminist.
Now when will they come for me
because I was too busy and too apathetic
to defend my sisters and brothers?
It is indeed an honor to have one of my poems published by such
an outstanding organization as Amnesty International, one of the world's finest. Not only is the cause good―a stated goal is to
teach students about human rights through poetry―but the poetry
published seems
quite good to me. My poem appears beneath the famous Holocaust
poem that inspired it, "First They Came" by Martin Niemöller. Here is a bit of background
information:
Words That Burn is an online poetry anthology and human rights educational resource for students and
teachers created by Amnesty International in partnership with The Poetry Hour. Amnesty International is the world’s largest human rights
organization, with seven million supporters. Its new webpage has been designed to
"enable young people to explore human rights through poetry whilst developing
their voice and skills as poets." This exemplary resource was inspired by the
poetry anthology Words that Burn, curated by Josephine Hart of The
Poetry Hour, which in turn was inspired by
Thomas Gray's observation that "Poetry is thoughts that breathe and
words that burn."
The Lingering and the Unconsoled Heart
by Michael R. Burch
There is a silence—
the last unspoken moment
before death,
when the moon,
cratered and broken,
is all madness and light,
when the breath comes low and complaining,
and the heart is a ruin
of emptiness and night.
There is a grief—
the grief of a lover's embrace
while faith still shimmers in a mother’s tears …
There is no emptier time, nor place,
while the faint glimmer of life is ours
that the lingering and the unconsoled heart fears
beyond this: seeing its own stricken face
in eyes that drift toward some incomprehensible place.
honeybee
by Michael R. Burch
love was a little treble thing—
prone to sing
and sometimes to sting
She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable place.
—Sappho, fragment 156, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Siren Song
by
Michael R. Burch
The Lorelei’s
soft cries
entreat mariners to save her …
How can they resist
her seductive voice
through the mist?
Soon she will savor
the flavor
of sweet human flesh.
A Surfeit of Light
by Michael R. Burch
There was always a surfeit of light in your presence.
You stood distinctly apart, not of the humdrum world—
a chariot of gold in a procession of plywood.
We were all pioneers of the modern expedient race,
raising the ante: Home Depot to Lowe’s.
Yours was an antique grace—Thrace’s or Mesopotamia’s.
We were never quite sure of your silver allure,
of your trillium-and-platinum diadem,
of your utter lack of flatware-like utility.
You told us that night—your wound would not scar.
The black moment passed, then you were no more.
The darker the sky, how much brighter the Star!
The day of your funeral, I ripped out the crown mold.
You were this fool’s gold.
Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch
It's not that every leaf must finally fall,
it's just that we can never catch them all.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Silently observing
the bottomless mountain lake:
water lilies
―Inahata Teiko, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Distances
by Michael R. Burch
Moonbeams on water —
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night …
So your memories are.
Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter …
So near, yet so far.
In the first stanza the "halcyon star" is the sun, which has dropped below the
horizon and is thus "drowning in night." But its light strikes the moon,
creating moonbeams which are reflected by the water. Sometimes memories seem
that distant, that faint, that elusive. Footprints are being washed away, a
heart is missing from its ribcage, and even things close at hand can seem
infinitely beyond our reach.
Eros harrows my heart:
wild winds whipping desolate mountains,
uprooting oaks.
―Sappho, fragment 42, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Effects of Memory
by Michael R. Burch
A black ringlet
curls to lie
at the nape of her neck,
glistening with sweat
in the evaporate moonlight …
This is what I remember
now that I cannot forget.
And tonight,
if I have forgotten her name,
I remember:
rigid wire and white lace
half-impressed in her flesh …
our soft cries, like regret,
… the enameled white clips
of her bra strap
still inscribe dimpled marks
that my kisses erase …
now that I have forgotten her face.
Originally published by Poetry Magazine
This day of chrysanthemums
I shake and comb my wet hair,
as their petals shed rain
―Hisajo Sugita, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Infinity
by Michael R. Burch
Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your heart sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then scuttled inside to be safe, out of reach?
Might I lift you tonight from earth’s wreckage and damage
on these waves gently rising to pay the moon homage?
Or better, perhaps, let me say that I, too,
have dreamed of infinity … windswept and blue.
Ghost
by Michael R. Burch
White in the shadows
I see your face,
unbidden. Go, tell
Love it is commonplace;
Tell Regret it is not so rare.
Our love is not here
though you smile,
full of sedulous grace.
Lost in darkness, I fear
the past is our resting place.
Moments
by Michael R. Burch
There were moments
full of promise,
like the petal-scented rainfall
of early spring,
when to hold you in my arms
and to kiss your willing lips
seemed everything.
There are moments
strangely empty
full of pale unearthly twilight—how the cold stars stare!—
when to be without you
is a dark enchantment
the night and I share.
A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!
Sappho, fragment 155, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Enigma
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
O, terrible angel,
bright lover and avenger,
full of whimsical light and vile anger;
wild stranger,
seeking the solace of night, or the danger;
pale foreigner,
alien to man, or savior.
Who are you,
seeking consolation and passion
in the same breath,
screaming for pleasure, bereft
of all articles of faith,
finding life
harsher than death?
Grieving angel,
giving more than taking,
how lucky the man
who has found in your love, this—our reclamation;
fallen wren,
you must strive to fly though your heart is shaken;
weary pilgrim,
you must not give up though your feet are aching;
lonely child,
lie here still in my arms; you must soon be waking.
The moon has long since set;
The Pleiades are gone;
Now half the night is spent,
Yet here I lie … alone.
Sappho, fragment 156, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Frail Envelope of Flesh
―for the mothers and children of the Holocaust and Gaza
by Michael R. Burch
Frail envelope of flesh,
lying cold on the surgeon’s table
with anguished eyes
like your mother’s eyes
and a heartbeat weak, unstable …
Frail crucible of dust,
brief flower come to this—
your tiny hand
in your mother’s hand
for a last bewildered kiss …
Brief mayfly of a child,
to live two artless years!
Now your mother’s lips
seal up your lips
from the Deluge of her tears …
Pain
drains
me
to
the
last
drop
.
Sappho, fragment 156, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Step Into Starlight
by Michael R. Burch
Step into starlight,
lovely and wild,
lonely and longing,
a woman, a child …
Throw back drawn curtains,
enter the night,
dream of his kiss
as a comet ignites …
Then fall to your knees
in a wind-fumbled cloud
and shudder to hear
oak hocks groaning aloud.
Flee down the dark path
to where the snaking vine bends
and withers and writhes
as winter descends …
And learn that each season
ends one vanished day,
that each pregnant moon holds
no spent tides in its sway …
For, as suns seek horizons—
boys fall, men decline.
As the grape sags with its burden,
remember—the wine!
I believe I wrote the original version of this poem in my early twenties.
don’t forget …
by Michael R. Burch
don’t forget to remember
that Space is curved
(like your Heart)
and that even Light is bent
by your Gravity.
I dedicated this poem to the love of my life, but you are welcome to dedicate it
to the love of yours, if you like it. The opening lines were
inspired by a love poem by e. e. cummings.
Chit Chat: In the Poetry Chat Room
by Michael R. Burch
WHY SHULD I LERN TO SPELL?
HELL,
NO ONE REEDS WHAT I SAY
ANYWAY!!! :(
Sing for the cool night,
whispers of constellations.
Sing for the supple grass,
the tall grass, gently whispering.
Sing of infinities, multitudes,
of all that lies beyond us now,
whispers begetting whispers.
And i am glad to also whisper…
I WUS HURT IN LUV I’M DYIN’
FER TH’ TEARS I BEEN A-CRYIN’!!!
i abide beyond serenities
and realms of grace,
above love’s misdirected earth,
i lift my face.
i am beyond finding now…
I WAS IN, LOVE, AND HE SCREWED ME!!!
THE JERK!!! TOTALLY!!!
i loved her once, before, when i
was mortal too, and sometimes i
would listen and distinctly hear
her laughter from the juniper,
but did not go…
I JUST DON’T GET POETRY, SOMETIMES.
IT’S OKAY, I GUESS.
I REALLY DON’T READ THAT MUCH AT ALL,
I MUST CONFESS!!! ;-)
Travail, inherent to all flesh,
i do not know, nor how to feel.
Although i sing them nighttimes still:
the bitter woes, that do not heal…
POETRY IS BORING.
SEE, IT SUCKS!!!, I’M SNORING!!! ZZZZZZZ!!!
The words like breath, i find them here,
among the fragrant juniper,
and conifers amid the snow,
old loves imagined long ago…
WHY DON’T YOU LIKE MY PERFICKT WORDS
YOU USELESS UN-AMERIC’N TURDS?!!!
What use is love, to me, or Thou?
O Words, my awe, to fly so smooth
above the anguished hearts of men
to heights unknown, Thy bare remove…
Dispensing Keys
by Hafiz
translation by Michael R. Burch
The imbecile
constructs cages
for everyone he knows,
while the sage
(who has to duck his head
whenever the moon glows)
keeps dispensing keys
all night long
to the beautiful, rowdy,
prison gang.
I love the wisdom and spirit of Hafiz in this subversive (pardon the pun)
little poem. I can see Trump putting refugees in cages, while Hafiz goes around
letting them out for a moondance!
Please feel free to share this poem with anyone it might help …
Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch
for anyone struggling with self-image
She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm …
but she’s grossly unthin
when seen from within;
soon an entire campus will mourn.
Yet she’d never once criticize
a friend for the size of her thighs.
Do unto others—
sisters and brothers?
Yes, but also ourselves, likewise.
Dark-bosomed clouds
pregnant with heavy thunder …
the water breaks
―original haiku by Michael R. Burch
Observance
by Michael R. Burch
Here the hills are old and rolling
casually in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains …
By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have known the years to pass
almost unnoticed, whispering through treetops …
For here the valleys fill with sunlight
to the brim, then empty again,
and it seems that only I notice
how the years flood out, and in …
Free Fall
by Michael R. Burch
These cloudless nights, the sky becomes a wheel
where suns revolve around an axle star …
Look there, and choose. Decide which moon is yours.
Sink Lethe-ward, held only by a heel.
Advantage. Disadvantage. Who can tell?
To see is not to know, but you can feel
the tug sometimes—the gravity, the shell
as lustrous as damp pearl. You sink, you reel
toward some draining revelation. Air—
too thin to grasp, to breath. Such pressure. Gasp.
The stars invert, electric, everywhere.
And so we fall, down-tumbling through night’s fissure …
two beings pale, intent to fall forever
around each other—fumbling at love’s tether …
now separate, now distant, now together.
Originally published by Sonnet Scroll
The butterfly
perfuming its wings
fans the orchid
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Child of 9-11
by Michael R. Burch
a poem for Christina-Taylor Green, who was born
on September 11, 2001 and died at the age of nine,
shot to death …
Child of 9-11, beloved,
I bring this lily, lay it down
here at your feet, and eiderdown,
and all soft things, for your gentle spirit.
I bring this psalm — I hope you hear it.
Much love I bring — I lay it down
here by your form, which is not you,
but what you left this shell-shocked world
to help us learn what we must do
to save another child like you.
Child of 9-11, I know
you are not here, but watch, afar
from distant stars, where angels rue
the vicious things some mortals do.
I also watch; I also rue.
And so I make this pledge and vow:
though I may weep, I will not rest
nor will my pen fail heaven's test
till guns and wars and hate are banned
from every shore, from every land.
Child of 9-11, I grieve
your tender life, cut short … bereaved,
what can I do, but pledge my life
to saving lives like yours? Belief
in your sweet worth has led me here …
I give my all: my pen, this tear,
this lily and this eiderdown,
and all soft things my heart can bear;
I bear them to your final bier,
and leave them with my promise, here.
Originally published by The Flea
Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
―Takaha Shugyo, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Love Has a Southern Flavor
by Michael R. Burch
Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume …
Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in the trees,
unmentionables that peek from dancing lines …
Love cannot be contained, like Southern nights:
the constellations’ dying mysteries,
the fireflies that hum to light, each tree’s
resplendent autumn cape, a genteel sight …
Love also is as wild, as sprawling-sweet,
as decadent as the wet leaves at our feet.
Originally published by The Lyric
One apple, alone
in the abandoned orchard
reddens for winter
―Patrick Blanche, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Wulf and Eadwacer
(Anonymous, circa 960-990 AD)
―loose translation by Michael R. Burch
My clan's curs pursue him like crippled game.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different.
Wulf's on one island; I'm on another.
His island's a fortress, surrounded by fens.
Here bloodthirsty men howl for sacrifice.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different.
My thoughts pursued Wulf like panting hounds.
Whenever it rained and I wept, disconsolate,
big, battle-strong arms grabbed and held me.
It felt good, to a point, but the end was loathsome.
Wulf, oh, my Wulf! My desire for you
has made me sick; your seldom-comings
have left me famished, deprived of real meat.
Do you hear, Heaven-Watcher? A wolf has borne
our wretched whelp to the woods.
One can easily sever what never was one:
our song together.
Translator's Note:
"Wulf and Eadwacer" is one of the truly great poems in the English language:
a bittersweet saga of love and perhaps rape and betrayal. This ancient poem has been characterized as an elegy, a wild lament, a lover's lament, a
passion play, a riddle, and as a song or early
ballad with a refrain. However, most modern scholars choose to place it,
along with
The Wife's Lament, within
the genre of the frauenlied, or woman's song. It may be the first
extant poem authored by a woman in the fledgling English
language, although the poet and his/her sex remain unknown. But it seems likely that the
poet was a woman because we don't usually think of ancient warriors
and scops pretending
to be women. "Wulf and Eadwacer" is perhaps the
first Old English poem to contain sexual intrigue not adulterated by
Christian monks. It may also be called the first English feminist text, as the
speaker seems to be challenging and mocking the man who has raped and
impregnated her. And the poem's closing metaphor of a loveless relationship
being like a song in which two voices never harmonized remains one of the
strongest in the English language, or any language. The poem is also notable for
its rich ambiguity, which leaves much open to reader
interpretation. For instance, the "wolf" that has borne the whelp
to the woods might be Wulf, the heartsick
female speaker, Eadwacer, Eadwacer's jealous wife, or some other member of the clan. We
do not know what
happened to the child in the woods, but we have the impression of a dark
catastrophe: perhaps human sacrifice. "Wulf and Eadwacer" is also one of the first English poems to employ a refrain, a
hallmark of the great ballads and villanelles to come. The poem appeared in the Exeter Book,
between "Deor's Lament" and the riddles,
meaning that it was written no later than around 990 AD. But the poem
itself is probably older, perhaps much older. I hope readers
enjoy my other translations of this wonderfully powerful, haunting poem that speaks to us from the dawn of
time and
English poetry.—Michael R. Burch
Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
―Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
See
by Michael R. Burch
See how her hair has thinned: it doesn't seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs,
and deepens on itself, as though mirth took
some comfort there and burrowed deeply in,
outlasting winter. See how very thin
her features are—that time has made more spare,
so that each bone shows, elegant and rare.
For loveliness remains in her grave eyes,
and courage in her still-delighted looks:
each face presented like a picture book's.
Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes.
Originally published by Writer's Digest's—The Year's Best Writing 2003
Our life here on earth:
to what shall we compare it?
It is not like a rowboat
departing at daybreak,
leaving no trace of man in its wake?
―Takaha Shugyo, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I Pray Tonight
by Michael R. Burch
I pray tonight
the starry Light
might
surround you.
I pray
by day
that, come what may,
no dark thing confound you.
I pray ere the morrow
an end to your sorrow.
May angels' white chorales
sing, and astound you.
Originally published by Kritya
Mother, I’ve made a terrible mess of things …
Is there grace in the world, as the nightingale sings?
—Michael R. Burch
Athenian Epitaphs
Now that I am dead sea-enclosed Cyzicus shrouds my bones.
Faretheewell, O my adoptive land that nurtured me, that held me;
I take rest at your breast.
―Michael R. Burch, after Erycius
Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
―Michael R. Burch,
after Plato
Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls in their high, lonely circuits may tell.
―Michael R. Burch,
after Glaucus
Passerby,
tell the Spartans we lie
here, dead at their word,
obedient to their command.
Have they heard?
Do they understand?
―Michael R. Burch,
after Simonides
These men earned a crown of imperishable glory,
nor did the maelstrom of death obscure their story.
―Michael R. Burch,
after Simonides
He lies in state tonight: great is his Monument!
Yet Ares cares not, neither does War relent.
―Michael R. Burch,
after Anacreon
They observed our fearful fetters, braved the overwhelming darkness.
Now we extol their excellence: bravely, they died for us.
―Michael R. Burch,
after Mnasalcas
Deepening autumn:
my neighbor,
how does he make out? …
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Winter in the air:
my neighbor,
how does he fare?
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Cædmon's Hymn (circa 658-680 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Now let us honour heaven-kingdom's Guardian,
the might of the Architect and his mind-plans,
the work of the Glory-Father. First he,
the eternal Lord,
established the foundation of wonders.
Then he, the first Poet, created heaven as a roof
for the sons of men, holy Creator,
Guardian of mankind. Then he,
the eternal Lord,
afterwards made men middle-earth: Master almighty!
Let us arrange
these lovely flowers in the bowl
since there's no rice
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch
Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.
Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.
There you go,
in diaphanous lace,
making another man’s heart swoon.
Suddenly, unthinkably, here he is,
taking my place.
Originally published by Tucumcari Literary Review
An ancient pond,
the frog leaps:
the silver plop and gurgle of water
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Resemblance
by Michael R. Burch
Take this geode with its rough exterior—
crude-skinned, brilliant-hearted …
a diode of amethyst—wild, electric;
its sequined cavity—parted, revealing.
Find in its fire all brittle passion,
each jagged shard relentlessly aching.
Each spire inward—a fission startled;
in its shattered entrails—fractured light,
the heart ice breaking.
Originally published by Poet Lore
The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow low
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Divide
by Michael R. Burch
The sea was not salt the first tide …
was man born to sorrow that first day
with the moon—a pale beacon across the Divide,
the brighter for longing, an object denied—
the tug at his heart's pink, bourgeoning clay?
The sea was not salt the first tide …
but grew bitter, bitter—man's torrents supplied.
The bride of their longing—forever astray,
her shield a cold beacon across the Divide,
flashing pale signals: Decide. Decide.
Choose me, or His Brightness, I will not stay.
The sea was not salt the first tide …
imploring her, ebbing: Abide, abide.
The silver fish flash there, the manatees gray.
The moon, a pale beacon across the Divide,
has taught us to seek Love's concealed side:
the dark face of longing, the poets say.
The sea was not salt the first tide …
the moon a pale beacon across the Divide.
Originally published by Sonnetto Poesia
Come, investigate loneliness!
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Willy Nilly
by Michael R. Burch
for the Demiurge aka Yahweh/Jehovah
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly,
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You forced them to run
all their days uphilly.
They ran till they dropped—
life’s a pickle, dilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
They say I should worship you!
Oh, really!
They say I should pray
so you’ll not act illy.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
Graven images of long-departed gods,
dry spiritless leaves:
companions of the temple porch
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
What Would Santa Claus Say
by Michael R. Burch
What would Santa Claus say,
I wonder,
about Jesus returning
to kill and plunder?
For He’ll likely return
on Christmas day
to blow the bad
little boys away!
When He flashes like lightning
across the skies
and many a homosexual
dies,
when the harlots and heretics
are ripped asunder,
what will the Easter Bunny think,
I wonder?
See: whose surviving sons
visit the ancestral graves
white-bearded, with trembling canes?
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
How Long the Night (Anonymous Old English Lyric, circa early
13th century AD)
―loose translation/interpretation
by Michael R. Burch
It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song …
but now I feel the northern wind's blast—
its severe weather strong.
Alas! Alas! This night seems so long!
And I, because of my momentous wrong
now grieve, mourn and fast.
The first chill rain, so raw!
Poor monkey, you too could use
a woven cape of straw.
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Sweet Rose of Virtue
by William Dunbar [1460-1525]
loose translation/interpretation
by Michael R. Burch
Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,
delightful lily of youthful wantonness,
richest in bounty and in beauty clear
and in every virtue that is held most dear―
except only that you are merciless.
Into your garden, today, I followed you;
there I saw flowers of freshest hue,
both white and red, delightful to see,
and wholesome herbs, waving resplendently―
yet everywhere, no odor but bitter rue.
I fear that March with his last arctic blast
has slain my fair rose of pallid and gentle cast,
whose piteous death does my heart such pain
that, if I could, I would compose her roots again―
so comforting her bowering leaves have been.
This snowy morning:
cries of the crow I despise
(ah, but so beautiful!)
―Matsuo Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Redolence
by Michael R. Burch
Now darkness ponds upon the violet hills;
cicadas sing; the tall elms gently sway;
and night bends near, a deepening shade of gray;
the bass concerto of a bullfrog fills
what silence there once was; globed searchlights play.
Green hanging ferns adorn dark window sills,
all drooping fronds, awaiting morning’s flares;
mosquitoes whine; the lissome moth again
flits like a veiled oud-dancer, and endures
the fumblings of night’s enervate gray rain.
And now the pact of night is made complete;
the air is fresh and cool, washed of the grime
of the city’s ashen breath; and, for a time,
the fragrance of her clings, obscure and sweet.
Published by The Eclectic Muse and The Best of the Eclectic Muse 1989-2003
A kite floats
at the same place in the sky
where yesterday it floated …
―Buson Yosa, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch
If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover what the heart is for.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
We cannot see the moon
and yet the waves still rise
―Shiki Masaoka, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Locker
by Michael R. Burch
All the dull hollow clamor has died
and what was contained,
removed,
reproved
adulation or sentiment,
left with the pungent darkness
as remembered as the sudden light.
Originally published by The Raintown Review
The first morning of autumn:
the mirror I investigate
reflects my father’s face
―Shiki Masaoka, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Leaf Fall
by Michael R. Burch
Whatever winds encountered soon resolved
to swirling fragments, till chaotic heaps
of leaves lay pulsing by the backyard wall.
In lieu of rakes, our fingers sorted each
dry leaf into its place and built a high,
soft bastion against earth's gravitron—
a patchwork quilt, a trampoline, a bright
impediment to fling ourselves upon.
And nothing in our laughter as we fell
into those leaves was like the autumn's cry
of also falling. Nothing meant to die
could be so bright as we, so colorful—
clad in our plaids, oblivious to pain
we'd feel today, should we leaf-fall again.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Wild geese pass
leaving the emptiness of heaven
revealed
―Takaha Shugyo, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Isolde's Song
by Michael R. Burch
Through our long years of dreaming to be one
we grew toward an enigmatic light
that gently warmed our tendrils. Was it sun?
We had no eyes to tell; we loved despite
the lack of all sensation—all but one:
we felt the night's deep chill, the air so bright
at dawn we quivered limply, overcome.
To touch was all we knew, and how to bask.
We knew to touch; we grew to touch; we felt
spring's urgency, midsummer's heat, fall's lash,
wild winter's ice and thaw and fervent melt.
We felt returning light and could not ask
its meaning, or if something was withheld
more glorious. To touch seemed life's great task.
At last the petal of me learned: unfold.
And you were there, surrounding me. We touched.
The curious golden pollens! Ah, we touched,
and learned to cling and, finally, to hold.
Originally published by The Raintown Review
Cranes
flapping ceaselessly
test the sky's upper limits
―Inahata Teiko, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Auschwitz Rose
by Michael R. Burch
There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar,
a rose like Sharon's, lovely as her name.
The world forgot her,
and is not the same.
I still love her and enlist this sacred fire
to keep her memory exalted flame
unmolested by the thistles and the nettles.
On Auschwitz now the reddening sunset settles;
they sleep alike—diminutive and tall,
the innocent, the "surgeons."
Sleeping, all.
Red oxides of her blood, bright crimson petals,
if accidents of coloration, gall
my heart no less.
Amid thick weeds and muck
there lies a rose man's crackling lightning struck:
the only Rose I ever longed to pluck.
Soon I'll bed there and bid the world "Good Luck."
Originally published in a slightly different version by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Blizzards here on earth,
blizzards of stars
in the sky
―Inahata Teiko, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
For All that I Remembered
by Michael R. Burch
For all that I remembered, I forgot
her name, her face, the reason that we loved …
and yet I hold her close within my thought.
I feel the burnished weight of auburn hair
that fell across her face, the apricot
clean scent of her shampoo, the way she glowed
so palely in the moonlight, angel-wan.
The memory of her gathers like a flood
and bears me to that night, that only night,
when she and I were one, and if I could …
I'd reach to her this time and, smiling, brush
the hair out of her eyes, and hold intact
each feature, each impression. Love is such
a threadbare sort of magic, it is gone
before we recognize it. I would crush
my lips to hers to hold their memory,
if not more tightly, less elusively.
Originally published by The Raintown Review
The new calendar! …
as if tomorrow
is assured
―Inahata Teiko, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch
The earth is full of rhythms so precise
the octave of the crystal can produce
a trillion oscillations, yet not lose
a second's beat. The ear needs no device
to hear the unsprung rhythms of the couch
drown out the mouth's; the lips can be debauched
by kisses, should the heart put back its watch
and find the pulse of love, and sing, devout.
If moons and tides in interlocking dance
obey their numbers, what's been left to chance?
Should poets be more lax—their circumstance
as humble as it is?—or readers wince
to see their ragged numbers thin, to hear
the moans of drones drown out the Chanticleer?
Originally published by The Eclectic Muse then by The Best of the Eclectic Muse 1989-2003
Ah butterfly,
what dreams do you ply
with your beautiful wings?
―Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful
by Michael R. Burch
She was very strange, and beautiful,
like a violet mist enshrouding hills
before night falls
when the hoot owl calls
and the cricket trills
and the envapored moon hangs low and full.
She was very strange, in a pleasant way,
as the hummingbird
flies madly still,
so I drank my fill
of her every word.
What she knew of love, she demurred to say.
She was meant to leave, as the wind must blow,
as the sun must set,
as the rain must fall.
Though she gave her all,
I had nothing left …
yet I smiled, bereft, in her receding glow.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Because morning glories
hold my well-bucket hostage
I go begging for water
―Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Watch
by Michael R. Burch
Moonlight spills down vacant sills,
illuminates an empty bed.
Dreams lie in crates. One hand creates
wan silver circles, left unread
by its companion—unmoved now
by anything that lies ahead.
I watch the minutes test the limits
of ornamental movement here,
where once another hand would hover.
Each circuit—incomplete. So dear,
so precious, so precise, the touch
of hands that wait, yet ask so much.
Originally published by The Lyric
Spring
stirs the clouds
in the sky's teabowl
―Kikusha-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Flight 93
by Michael R. Burch
I held the switch in trembling fingers, asked
why existence felt so small, so purposeless,
like a minnow wriggling feebly in my grasp …
vibrations of huge engines thrummed my arms
as, glistening with sweat, I nudged the switch
to OFF … I heard the klaxon-shrill alarms
like vultures’ shriekings … earthward, in a stall …
we floated … earthward … wings outstretched, aghast
like Icarus … as through the void we fell …
till nothing was so beautiful, so blue …
so vivid as that moment … and I held
an image of your face, and dreamed I flew
into your arms. The earth rushed up. I knew
such comfort, in that moment, loving you.
Originally published by The Lyric
Tonight I saw
how
the peony crumples
in the fire's embers
―Katoh Shuhson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
It fills me with anger,
this moon; it fills me
and makes me whole
―Takeshita Shizunojo, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
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 off, instead of quicker.
Originally published by Light Quarterly
War
stood at the end of the hall
in the long shadows
―Watanabe Hakusen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Violets
by Michael R. Burch
Once, only once,
when the wind flicked your skirt
to an indiscreet height
and you laughed,
abruptly demure,
outblushing shocked violets:
suddenly,
I knew:
everything had changed
and as you braided your hair
into long bluish plaits
the shadows empurpled,
the dragonflies’
last darting feints
dissolving mid-air,
we watched the sun’s long glide
into evening,
knowing and unknowing.
O, how the illusions of love
await us in the commonplace
and rare
then haunt our small remainder of hours.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly
Pale mountain sky:
cherry petals play
as they tumble earthward
―Kusama Tokihiko, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch
What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer underwater,
watching the shoreline blur,
sees through his breath's weightless bubbles:
both worlds grow obscure.
Originally published by Mandrake Poetry Review
The frozen moon,
the frozen lake:
two oval mirrors reflecting each other.
―Hashimoto Takako, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Tremble
by Michael R. Burch
Her predatory eye,
the single feral iris,
scans.
Her raptor beak,
all jagged sharp-edged thrust,
juts.
Her hard talon,
clenched in pinched expectation,
waits.
Her clipped wings,
preened against reality,
tremble.
Originally published by The Lyric
The bitter winter wind
ends here
with the frozen sea
―Ikenishi Gonsui, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Ordinary Love
by Michael R. Burch
Indescribable—our love—and still we say
with eyes averted, turning out the light,
"I love you," in the ordinary way
and tug the coverlet where once we lay,
all suntanned limbs entangled, shivering, white …
indescribably in love. Or so we say.
Your hair's blonde thicket now is tangle-gray;
you turn your back; you murmur to the night,
"I love you," in the ordinary way.
Beneath the sheets our hands and feet would stray
to warm ourselves. We do not touch despite
a love so indescribable. We say
we're older now, that "love" has had its day.
But that which Love once countenanced, delight,
still makes you indescribable. I say,
"I love you," in the ordinary way.
Winner of the 2001 Algernon Charles Swinburne poetry contest; originally published by Romantics Quarterly
Oh, bitter winter wind,
why bellow so
when there's no leaves to fell?
―Natsume Sôseki, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
At Wilfred Owen's Grave
by Michael R. Burch
A week before the Armistice, you died.
They did not keep your heart like Livingstone's,
then plant your bones near Shakespeare's. So you lie
between two privates, sacrificed like Christ
to politics, your poetry unknown
except for one brief flurry: thirteen months
with Gaukroger beside you in the trench,
dismembered, as you babbled, as the stench
of gangrene filled your nostrils, till you clenched
your broken heart together and the fist
began to pulse with life, so close to death.
Or was it at Craiglockhart, in the care
of "ergotherapists" that you sensed life
is only in the work, and made despair
a thing that Yeats despised, but also breath,
a mouthful's merest air, inspired less
than wrested from you, and which we confess
we only vaguely breathe: the troubled air
that even Sassoon failed to share, because
a man in pieces is not healed by gauze,
and breath's transparent, unless we believe
the words are true despite their lack of weight
and float to us like chlorine—scalding eyes,
and lungs, and hearts. Your words revealed the fate
of boys who retched up life here, gagged on lies.
Originally published by The Chariton Review
No sky,
no land:
just snow eternally falling …
―Kajiwara Hashin, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Because Her Heart Is Tender
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
She scrawled soft words in soap: "Never Forget,"
Dove-white on her car's window, and the wren,
because her heart is tender, might regret
it called the sun to wake her. As I slept,
she heard lost names recounted, one by one.
She wrote in sidewalk chalk: "Never Forget,"
and kept her heart's own counsel. No rain swept
away those words, no tear leaves them undone.
Because her heart is tender with regret,
bruised by razed towers' glass and steel and stone
that shatter on and on and on and on,
she stitches in wet linen: "NEVER FORGET,"
and listens to her heart's emphatic song.
The wren might tilt its head and sing along
because its heart once understood regret
when fledglings fell beyond, beyond, beyond …
its reach, and still the boot-heeled world strode on.
She writes in adamant: "NEVER FORGET"
because her heart is tender with regret.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Along with spring leaves
my child's teeth
take root, blossom
―Nakamura Kusatao, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Passionate One
by Michael R. Burch
Love of my life,
light of my morning―
arise, brightly dawning,
for you are my sun.
Give me of heaven
both manna and leaven―
desirous Presence,
Passionate One.
Just Smile
by Michael R. Burch
We’d like to think some angel smiling down
will watch him as his arm bleeds in the yard,
ripped off by dogs, will guide his tipsy steps,
his doddering progress through the scarlet house
to tell his mommy "boo-boo!," only two.
We’d like to think his reconstructed face
will be as good as new, will often smile,
that baseball’s just as fun with just one arm,
that God is always Just, that girls will smile,
not frown down at his thousand livid scars,
that Life is always Just, that Love is Just.
We do not want to hear that he will shave
at six, to raze the leg hairs from his cheeks,
that lips aren’t easily fashioned, that his smile’s
lopsided, oafish, snaggle-toothed, that each
new operation costs a billion tears,
when tears are out of fashion.
O, beseech
some poet with more skill with words than tears
to find some happy ending, to believe
that God is Just, that Love is Just, that these
are Parables we live, Life’s Mysteries …
Or look inside his courage, as he ties
his shoelaces one-handed, as he throws
no-hitters on the first-place team, and goes
on dates, looks in the mirror undeceived
and smiling says, "It’s me I see. Just me."
He smiles, if life is Just, or lacking cures.
Your pity is the worst cut he endures.
Originally published by Lucid Rhythms
Stillness:
a single chestnut leaf glides
on brilliant water
―Ryuin, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch
How sweet the endeavors of lips—to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is no illusion like love …
Grown childlike, we wish for those storied days,
for those bright sprays of flowers, those primrosed ways
that curled to the towers of Yesterdays
where She braided illusions of love …
"O, let down your hair!"—we might call and call,
to the dark-slatted window, the moonlit wall …
but our love is a shadow; we watch it crawl
like a spidery illusion. For love …
was never as real as that first kiss seemed
when we read by the flashlight and dreamed.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly (USA) and
The Eclectic Muse (Canada)
As thunder recedes
a lone tree stands illuminated in sunlight,
applauded by cicadas
―Masaoka Shiki, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Indestructible, for Johnny Cash
by Michael R. Burch
What is a mountain, but stone?
Or a spire, but a trinket of steel?
Johnny Cash is gone,
black from his hair to his bootheels.
Can a man out-endure mountains’ stone
if his songs lift us closer to heaven?
Can the steel in his voice vibrate on
till his words are our manna and leaven?
Then sing, all you mountains of stone,
with the rasp of his voice, and the gravel.
Let the twang of thumbed steel lead us home
through these weary dark ways all men travel.
For what is a mountain, but stone?
Or a spire, but a trinket of steel?
Johnny Cash lives on—
black from his hair to his bootheels.
Originally published by Strong Verse
The snake slipped away
but his eyes, having held mine,
still stare in the grass
―Kyoshi Takahama, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower springs to life at once,
but joy is an illusion to the expert:
the Bedouin has learned how not to want.
You came to me as riches to a miser
when all is gold, or so his heart believes,
until he dies much thinner and much wiser,
his gleaming bones hauled off by chortling thieves.
You gave your heart too soon, too dear, too vastly;
I could not take it in; it was too much.
I pledged to meet your price, but promised rashly.
I died of thirst, of your bright Midas touch.
I dreamed you gave me water of your lips,
then sealed my tomb with golden hieroglyphs.
Originally published by The Lyric
Murmurs follow the hay cart
this blossoming summer day
―Ippekiro Nakatsuka, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Fountainhead
by Michael R. Burch
I did not delight in love so much
as in a kiss like linnets' wings,
the flutterings of a pulse so soft
the heart remembers, as it sings:
to bathe there was its transport, brushed
by marble lips, or porcelain,—
one liquid kiss, one cool outburst
from pale rosettes. What did it mean …
to float awhirl on minute tides
within the compass of your eyes,
to feel your alabaster bust
grow cold within? Ecstatic sighs
seem hisses now; your eyes, serene,
reflect the sun's pale tourmaline.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly
Oh, dreamlike winter butterfly:
a puff of white snow
cresting mountains …
―Kakio Tomizawa, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Caveat Spender
by Michael R. Burch
It’s better not to speculate
"continually" on who is great.
Though relentless awe’s
a Célèbre Cause,
please reserve some time for the contemplation
of the perils of EXAGGERATION.
I’ve got Jesus’s face on a wallet insert
by Michael R. Burch
for the Religious Right
I’ve got Jesus’s face on a wallet insert
and "Hell is for Queers" on the back of my shirt.
And I uphold the Law,
for Grace has a Flaw:
the Church must have someone to drag through the dirt.
I’ve got ten thousand reasons why Hell must exist,
and you’re at the top of my fast-swelling list!
You’re nothing like me,
so God must agree
and slam down the Hammer with His Loving Fist!
For what are the chances that God has a plan
to save everyone: even Boy George and Wham!?
Eternal fell torture
in Hell’s pressure scorcher
will separate homo from Man.
I’m glad I’m redeemed, ecstatic you’re not.
Did Christ die for sinners? Perish the thought!
The "good news" is this:
soon my Vengeance is His!,
for you’re not the lost sheep He sought.
In this Ordinary Swoon
by Michael R. Burch
In this ordinary swoon
as I pass from life to death,
I feel no heat from the cold, pale moon;
I feel no sympathy for breath.
Who I am and why I came,
I do not know; nor does it matter.
The end of every man’s the same
and every god’s as mad as a hatter.
I do not fear the letting go;
I only fear the clinging on
to hope when there’s no hope, although
I lift my face to the blazing sun
and feel the greater intensity
of the wilder inferno within me.
Second Sight
by Michael R. Burch
I never touched you—
that was my mistake.
Deep within,
I still feel the ache.
Can an unformed thing
eternally break?
Now, from a great distance,
I see you again
not as you are now,
but as you were then—
eternally present
and Sovereign.
Mirror
by Kajal Ahmad, a Kurdish poet
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The obscuring mirror of my era
broke
because it magnified the small
and made the great seem insignificant.
Dictators and monsters monopolized its maze.
Now when I breathe
its jagged shards pierce my heart
and instead of sweat
I exude glass.
The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch
She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must bend down to her to understand.
But she only smiles, and takes my hand.
We are walking somewhere that her feet know to go,
so I smile, and I follow …
And the years are dark creatures concealed in bright leaves
that flutter above us, and what she believes—
I can almost remember—goes something like this:
the prince is a horned toad, awaiting her kiss.
She wiggles and giggles, and all will be well
if only we find him! The woodpecker’s knell
as he hammers the coffin of some dying tree
that once was a fortress to someone like me
rings wildly above us. Some things that we know
we are meant to forget. Life is a bloodletting, maple-syrup-slow.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly
Pan
by Michael R. Burch
… Among the shadows of the groaning elms,
amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves …
… Once there were paths that led to coracles
that clung to piers like loosening barnacles …
… where we cannot return, because we lost
the pebbles and the playthings, and the moss …
… hangs weeping gently downward, maidens’ hair
who never were enchanted, and the stairs …
… that led up to the Fortress in the trees
will not support our weight, but on our knees …
… we still might fit inside those splendid hours
of damsels in distress, of rustic towers …
… of voices of the wolves’ tormented howls
that died, and live in dreams’ soft, windy vowels …
Originally published by Sonnet Scroll
The Peripheries of Love
by Michael R. Burch
Through waning afternoons we glide
the watery peripheries of love.
A silence, a quietude falls.
Above us—the sagging pavilions of clouds.
Below us—rough pebbles slowly worn smooth
grate in the gentle turbulence
of yesterday’s forgotten rains.
Later, the moon like a virgin
lifts her stricken white face
and the waters rise
toward some unfathomable shore.
We sway gently in the wake
of what stirs beneath us,
yet leaves us unmoved …
curiously motionless,
as though twilight might blur
the effects of proximity and distance,
as though love might be near—
as near
as a single cupped tear of resilient dew
or a long-awaited face.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly
The City Is a Garment
by Michael R. Burch
A rhinestone skein, a jeweled brocade of light,—
the city is a garment stretched so thin
her festive colors bleed into the night,
and everywhere bright seams, unraveling,
cascade their brilliant contents out like coins
on motorways and esplanades; bead cars
come tumbling down long highways; at her groin
a railtrack like a zipper flashes sparks;
her hills are haired with brush like cashmere wool
and from their cleavage winking lights enlarge
and travel, slender fingers … softly pull
themselves into the semblance of a barge.
When night becomes too chill, she softly dons
great overcoats of warmest-colored dawn.
Originally published by The Lyric
Discrimination
by Michael R. Burch
The meter I had sought to find, perplexed,
was ripped from books of "verse" that read like prose.
I found it in sheet music, in long rows
of hologramic CDs, in sad wrecks
of long-forgotten volumes undisturbed
half-centuries by archivists, unscanned.
I read their fading numbers, frowned, perturbed—
why should such tattered artistry be banned?
I heard the sleigh bells’ jingles, vampish ads,
the supermodels’ babble, Seuss’s books
extolled in major movies, blurbs for abs …
A few poor thinnish journals crammed in nooks
are all I’ve found this late to sell to those
who’d classify free verse "expensive prose."
Originally published by The Chariton Review
The Harvest of Roses
by Michael R. Burch
I have not come for the harvest of roses—
the poets' mad visions,
their railing at rhyme …
for I have discerned what their writing discloses:
weak words wanting meaning,
beat torsioning time.
Nor have I come for the reaping of gossamer—
images weak,
too forced not to fail;
gathered by poets who worship their luster,
they shimmer, impendent,
resplendently pale.
The Forge
by Michael R. Burch
To at last be indestructible, a poem
must first glow, almost flammable, upon
a thing inert, as gray, as dull as stone,
then bend this way and that, and slowly cool
at arms-length, something irreducible
drawn out with caution, toughened in a pool
of water so contrary just a hiss
escapes it—water instantly a mist.
It writhes, a thing of senseless shapelessness …
And then the driven hammer falls and falls.
The horses prick their ears in nearby stalls.
A soldier on his cot leans back and smiles.
A sound of ancient import, with the ring
of honest labor, sings of fashioning.
Originally published by The Chariton Review
Goddess
by Michael R. Burch
"What will you conceive in me?"
I asked her. But she
only smiled.
"Naked, I bore your child
when the wolf wind howled,
when the cold moon scowled …
naked, and gladly."
"What will become of me?"
I asked her, as she
absently stroked my hand.
Centuries later, I understand;
she whispered, "I Am."
Originally published by Unlikely Stories
Abide
by Michael R. Burch
after Philip Larkin's "Aubade"
It is hard to understand or accept mortality—
such an alien concept: not to be.
Perhaps unsettling enough to spawn religion,
or to scare mutant fish out of a primordial sea
boiling like goopy green tea in a kettle.
Perhaps a man should exhibit more mettle
than to admit such fear, denying Nirvana exists
simply because we are stuck here in such a fine fettle.
And so we abide …
even in life, staring out across that dark brink.
And if the thought of death makes your questioning heart sink,
it is best not to drink
(or, drinking, certainly not to think).
Originally published by Light Quarterly
Kin
by Michael R. Burch
for Richard Moore
1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss—
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here …
2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves you famished;
earthly tides
soon call you back—
one long, descending glide …
3.
Disgruntledly you grope dirt shores for orts
you pull like mucous ropes
from shells’ bright forts …
You eye the teeming world
with nervous darts—
this way and that …
Contentious, shrewd, you scan—
the sky, in hope,
the earth, distrusting man.
Originally published by Able Muse
Ali’s Song
by Michael R. Burch
They say that gold don’t tarnish. It ain’t so.
They say it has a wild, unearthly glow.
A man can be more beautiful, more wild.
I flung their medal to the river, child.
I flung their medal to the river, child.
They hung their coin around my neck; they made
my name a bridle, “called a spade a spade.”
They say their gold is pure. I say defiled.
I flung their slave’s name to the river, child.
I flung their slave’s name to the river, child.
Ain’t got no quarrel with no Viet Cong
that never called me nigger, did me wrong.
A man can’t be lukewarm, ’cause God hates mild.
I flung their notice to the river, child.
I flung their notice to the river, child.
They said, “Now here’s your bullet and your gun,
and there’s your cell: we’re waiting, you choose one.”
At first I groaned aloud, but then I smiled.
I gave their “future” to the river, child.
I gave their “future” to the river, child.
My face reflected up, dark bronze like gold,
a coin God stamped in His own image—Bold.
My blood boiled like that river—strange and wild.
I died to hate in that dark river, child,
Come, be reborn in this bright river, child.
Note: Cassius Clay, who converted to Islam and changed his “slave name” to
Muhammad Ali, said that he threw his Olympic boxing gold medal into the Ohio
River. Confirming his account, the medal was recovered by Robert Bradbury and
his wife Pattie in 2014 during the Annual Ohio River Sweep, and the Ali family
paid them $200,000 to regain possession of the medal. When drafted during the Vietnamese War, Ali refused to serve, reputedly
saying: “I ain't got no quarrel with those Viet Cong; no Vietnamese ever called
me a nigger.” The notice mentioned in my poem is Ali's draft notice, which
metaphorically gets tossed into the river along with his slave name. I was told through the grapevine that this poem appeared in Farsi
in an Iranian publication called Bashgah. The poem was originally published by
the literary journal Black Medina.―Michael
R. Burch
Sex Hex
by Michael R. Burch
Love’s full of cute paradoxes
(and highly acute poxes).
hey pete
by Michael R. Burch
for Pete Rose
hey pete,
it's baseball season
and the sun ascends the sky,
encouraging a schoolboy's dreams
of winter whizzing by;
go out, go out and catch it,
put it in a jar,
set it on a shelf
and then you'll be a Superstar.
When I was a boy,
Pete Rose was my favorite baseball player; this poem is not a slam
at him, but rather an ironic jab at the term "superstar."
Infatuate, or Sweet Centerless Sixteen
by Michael R. Burch
Inconsolable as “love” had left your heart,
you woke this morning eager to pursue
warm lips again, or something “really cool”
on which to press your lips and leave their mark.
As breath upon a windowpane at dawn
soon glows, a spreading halo full of sun,
your thought of love blinks wildly—on and on …
then fizzles at the center, and is gone.
Originally published by Shot Glass Journal
Charon 2001
by Michael R. Burch
I, too, have stood—paralyzed at the helm
watching onrushing, inevitable disaster.
I too have felt sweat (or ecstatic tears) plaster
damp hair to my eyes, as a slug’s dense film
becomes mucous-insulate. Always, thereafter
living in darkness, bright things overwhelm.
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
in-flight convergence
by Michael R. Burch
serene, almost angelic,
the lights of the city extend
over lumbering behemoths
shrilly screeching displeasure;
they say
that nothing is certain,
that nothing man dreams or ordains
long endures his command
here the streetlights that flicker
and those blazing steadfast
seem one: from a distance;
descend,
they abruptly
part ways,
so that nothing is one
which at times does not suddenly blend
into garish insignificance
in the familiar alleyways,
in the white neon flash
and the billboards of Convenience
and man seems the afterthought of his own Brilliance
as we thunder down the enlightened runways.
Originally published by The Aurorean then subsequently nominated for the
Pushcart Prize
Davenport Tomorrow
by Michael R. Burch
Davenport tomorrow …
all the trees stand stark-naked in the sun.
Now it is always summer
and the bees buzz in cesspools,
adapted to a new life.
There are no flowers,
but the weeds, being hardier,
have survived.
The small town has become
a city of millions;
there is no longer a sea,
only a huge sewer,
but the children don't mind.
They still study
rocks and stars,
but biology is a forgotten science …
after all, what is life?
Davenport tomorrow …
all the children murmur through vein-streaked gills
whispered wonders of long-ago.
Happily Never After (the Second Curse of the Horny Toad)
by Michael R. Burch
He did not think of love of Her at all
frog-plangent nights, as moons engoldened roads
through crumbling stonewalled provinces, where toads
(nee princes) ruled in chinks and grew so small
at last to be invisible. He smiled
(the fables erred so curiously), and thought
bemusedly of being reconciled
to human flesh, because his heart was not
incapable of love, but, being cursed
a second time, could only love a toad’s …
and listened as inflated frogs rehearsed
cheekbulging tales of anguish from green moats …
and thought of her soft croak, her skin fine-warted,
his anemic flesh, and how true love was thwarted.
Enough!
by Michael R. Burch
It’s not that I don’t want to die;
I shall be glad to go.
Enough of diabetes pie,
and eating sickly crow!
Enough of win and place and show.
Enough of endless woe!
Enough of suffering and vice!
I’ve said it once;
I’ll say it twice:
I shall be glad to go.
But why the hell should I be nice
when no one asked for my advice?
So grumpily I’ll go …
although
(most probably) below.
Polish
by Michael R. Burch
Your fingers end in talons—
the ones you trim to hide
the predator inside.
Ten thousand creatures sacrificed;
but really, what’s the loss?
Apply a splash of gloss.
You picked the perfect color
to mirror nature’s law:
red, like tooth and claw.
Breakings
by Michael R. Burch
I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.
But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now what can I do for her shattered psyche’s sake?
I did it not to push.
I did it not to shove.
I did it to assist the flight of indiscriminate Love.
But gods, all mad as hatters,
who legislate in all such matters,
ordained that everything irreplaceable shatters.
Winter
by Michael R. Burch
The rose of love's bright promise
lies torn by her own thorn;
her scent was sweet
but at her feet
the pallid aphids mourn.
The lilac of devotion
has felt the winter hoar
and shed her dress;
companionless,
she shivers—nude, forlorn.
Spring Was Delayed
by Michael R. Burch
Winter came early:
the driving snows,
the delicate frosts
that crystallize
all we forget
or refuse to know,
all we regret
that makes us wise.
Spring was delayed:
the nubile rose,
the tentative sun,
the wind’s soft sighs,
all we omit
or refuse to show,
whatever we shield
behind guarded eyes.
Originally published by Borderless Journal
Death
by Michael R. Burch
Death is the finality
of reality.
Playmates
by Michael R. Burch
WHEN you were my playmate and I was yours,
we spent endless hours with simple toys,
and the sorrows and cares of our indentured days
were uncomprehended … far, far away …
for the temptations and trials we had yet to face
were lost in the shadows of an unventured maze.
Then simple pleasures were easy to find
and if they cost us a little, we didn't mind;
for even a penny in a pocket back then
was one penny too many, a penny to spend.
Then feelings were feelings and love was just love,
not a strange, complex mystery to be understood;
while "sin" and "damnation" meant little to us,
since forbidden cookies were our only lusts!
Then we never worried about what we had,
and we were both sure—what was good, what was bad.
And we sometimes quarreled, but we didn't hate;
we seldom gave thought to the uncertainties of fate.
Hell, we seldom thought about the next day,
when tomorrow seemed hidden—adventures away.
Though sometimes we dreamed of adventures past,
and wondered, at times, why things couldn't last.
Still, we never worried about getting by,
and we didn't know that we were to die …
when we spent endless hours with simple toys,
and I was your playmate, and we were boys.
This is probably the poem that "made" me, because my high
school English teacher called it "beautiful" and I took that to mean I was
surely the Second Coming of Percy Bysshe Shelley! "Playmates" is the second poem
I remember writing; I believe I was around 13 or 14 at the time. It was
originally published by The Lyric.
NEWER POEMS
Once distantly I wondered
by Michael R. Burch
Once distantly I wondered, but lately have discerned
why love is given freely and yet must still be earned;
why my passion burns like fire, your chastity like ice;
why this pagan longs for freedom from your icy Christ’s bleak vice.
The Divide (II)
by Michael R. Burch
The days bleed into weeks;
the months bleed into years;
the gods remain aloof,
untouched by human tears.
The pretty boys are dangerous,
the pretty girls as well.
Sharks glide beneath the surface;
the tides retreat and swell.
Nature’s red in tooth and claw
beneath the pretty cover.
Dispute her ways? It’s useless.
Quick, go find a lover!
Nature’s red in tooth and claw.
Life devours life.
The tide remains relentless.
Quick, go take a wife!
To R.I.P or not to R.I.P., a rhetorical question
by Michael R. Burch
I’m really starting to feel my age.
There’s no danger, Dylan, that I’m gonna rage.
Give me a nice, long sleep in an underground cage.
It’s nice to have a wife who’s handy,
but never hand her a carving knife!
Have you ever seen such a sight in your life
as a carved-up wife?
—Michael R. Burch
He cleaned up nicely
if rather device-ly
with an IA razor and a smart toothbrush.
Now he cleans up nicely, in a terrible rush,
before making love to his robot’s tush.
—Michael R. Burch
Chariots Afire
by Michael R. Burch
“He was too gentle for this earth.” — Elizabeth Harris Burch, who asked me to
write this poem
Elijah Jovan McCain was a young, slight black man who weighed just 140 pounds
and had never been arrested or charged with any crime. Friends and family
described him as a “spiritual seeker, pacifist, oddball, vegetarian, athlete,
and peacemaker who was exceedingly gentle.”
There was always a surfeit of light in your presence.
You stood distinctly apart, not of the humdrum world —
a chariot of gold in a procession of plywood.
Elijah had taught himself to play violin and guitar. During lunch breaks from
his job as a massage therapist, Elijah took his instruments to animal shelters
and played for the abandoned animals, believing his music helped put them at
ease. Friends said Elijah’s gentleness with animals extended to his fellow human
beings. One of his clients recalled Elijah as “the sweetest, purest person I
have ever met. He was definitely a light in a whole lot of darkness.”
We were all pioneers of the modern expedient race,
raising the ante: Home Depot to Lowe’s.
Yours was an antique grace —Thrace’s or Mesopotamia’s.
On August 24, 2019, in the Denver suburb of Aurora, a 911 caller reported
that someone who turned out to be Elijah was wearing a ski mask, flailing his
arms, and looked “sketchy.” (Elijah was dressed warmly and wearing a ski mask
because he had a blood circulation disorder that caused him to chill easily. His
family believes the “arm flailing” was dancing and the transcript below confirms
that Elijah was listening to music as he walked home.) After being accosted by
three police officers, Elijah was pinned down, placed in a choke hold, and given
an overdose of 500 mg of the sedative ketamine. He then went into cardiac arrest
and died six days later. All three officers said their body cameras were knocked
off during the incident.
where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails
when thunder howls
when hailstones scream
when winter scowls
when nights compound dark frosts with snow …
where does the butterfly go?
Jurors would later convict one officer of third-degree assault and criminally
negligent homicide, while acquitting two other officers of all charges. Two
paramedics who administered the overdose were found guilty of negligent
homicide.
where does the rose hide its bloom
when night descends oblique and chill,
beyond the capacity of moonlight to fill?
when the only relief’s a banked fire’s glow
where does the butterfly go?
and where shall the spirit flee
when life is harsh, too harsh to face,
and hope is lost without a trace?
oh, when the light of life runs low,
where does the butterfly go?
THE TRANSCRIPT
Officer: Do me a favor. Stop right there. Hey, stop right there. Stop. Stop.
Elijah: I have a right (crosstalk).
Officer: Stop. Stop. I have a right to stop you, because you’re being
suspicious.
Elijah: Well, okay.
Officer: Turn around. Turn around.
Elijah: I see your (inaudible).
Officer: Turn around. Stop. Stop tensing up, dude.
Elijah: Let go of me.
Officer: Stop tensing up, bro. Stop tensing up.
Elijah: Let go of me.
Officer: Stop tensing up.
Elijah: Let me go.
Officer: Stop tensing up.
Elijah: No, let go of me.
Elijah: No. I am an introvert!
Officer: Stop tensing up.
Elijah: Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.
Officer: Stop tensing up.
Elijah: Stop. Stop!
Officer: Relax.
Elijah: I’m going home!
Officer: Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation.
Elijah: Leave me alone!
Officer: Stop.
THE OFFICERS TAKE ELIJAH TO THE GROUND
Elijah: You guys started to arrest me and I was stopping my music to listen.
Now let go of me.
Officer: (inaudible) Let’s get over to grass there. Lay you down (inaudible).
Elijah: I intend to take my power back because I intend to be (inaudible). I
get to be (inaudible).
Officer: (crosstalk) He just grabbed your gun, dude.
Officer: (crosstalk) Stop, dude! (inaudible). Get us some more units. We’re
fighting him.
ELIJAH IS PINNED DOWN
Elijah: I can’t breathe!
Officer 1: Get him on back, he’s getting cuffs.
Officer 2: (Inaudible) In a bar-hammer.
Officer 1: Stop!
Officer 2: Stop!
Elijah: I can’t breathe, please stop!
Elijah: My name is Elijah McClain!
Officer: We had to use carotid.
Elijah: That’s all I was doing, I was just going home! (inaudible). I’m an
introvert, and I’m different!
Officer: I heard some snoring.
Elijah: (Inaudible) I’m just different! I’m just different. That’s all!
That’s all I was doing!
Officer: It was actually Rosenblatt’s. He reached for your gun, dude.
Officer: When we showed him up. When we showed up, he was wearing a ski mask.
Elijah: (crosstalk) Forgive me! All I was trying to do was become better.
Officer: We started it because he reached for Rosie’s gun.
These were Elijah’s last words:
I can't breathe. I have my ID right here. My name is Elijah McClain. That's
my house. I was just going home. I'm an introvert. I'm just different. That's
all. I'm so sorry. I have no gun. I don't do that stuff. I don't do any
fighting. Why are you attacking me? I don't even kill flies! I don't eat meat!
But I don't judge people, I don't judge people who do eat meat. Forgive me. All
I was trying to do was become better. I will do it. I will do anything.
Sacrifice my identity, I'll do it. You all are phenomenal. You are beautiful and
I love you. Try to forgive me. I'm a mood Gemini. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Ow,
that really hurt! You are all very strong. Teamwork makes the dream work. [after
vomiting] Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to do that. I just can't breathe
correctly.
THE END
I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
Elijah would cling to life for six days before his soul left his body
forever…
Something inescapable is lost—
lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight,
vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars
immeasurable and void.
Something uncapturable is gone—
gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,
scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass
and remembrance.
Something unforgettable is past—
blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less,
and finality has swept into a corner where it lies
in dust and cobwebs and silence.
Since he’s not had his rabies shots,
The Donald’s infecting the naughts.
As the manias spread
The prospect I dread
Is being ruled by his lewd “thoughts.”
—Michael R. Burch
Since he’s not had his rabies shots,
The Donald’s infecting the naughts.
As the mania leaps higher
The prospects seem dire
That we’ll be ruled once again by his “thoughts.”
—Michael R. Burch
My religion consists of your body's curves and crevasses.—attributed to
Sappho, translation by Michael R. Burch
I found the Goddess in your body's curves and crevasses.—attributed to
Sappho, translation by Michael R. Burch
convict-shun
by michael r. burch
it’s better to die than to suffer.
i’ve so much more wisdom than GAUD, the duffer,
the huffer and puffer, the cemetery stuffer.
for declining “GAUD’s gift” is the best wee can do…
though it’s hard to act with convict-shun…
let’s sue!
convict-shun (n): conviction that leads to shunning when one’s beliefs run
con-trary to those of a con and convict.
Mindless stupidity
Graft and cupidity
Icy hearts of such rigid frigidity
Brains in a slump
Worshiping Trump
ICE-ing children with such acidity
—Michael R. Burch
Epitaph of a Refugee Child
by Michael R. Burch
What was I made for?
To be shot at the border
by an alleged “Christian” hoarder
of God’s blessings.
Who made the sunshine?
Who made the rain?
Who gave the harvests?
What are they confessing,
who would murder Christ once again?
“Do everything the way dad did,
from hating queers to praying.”
They’re building walls: like dad, like kid.
They can’t go beyond their father’s saying.
—Michael R. Burch
Whatsoever you do unto the least of these…
by Kim Cherub, an alias of Michael R. Burch
They traded in their Savior for a raving jack’lish Beast;
forgot that Jesus clearly said he sided with the least;
forgot that Christ was born a child for whom there was no room;
forgot the manger meant his Mother slept in straw, and gloom;
forgot how to feel pity; forgot how to feel shame;
forgot that Daniel’s “little horn” revealed Trump’s evil name;
forgot the Trump of Doom that sounded, followed by a plague;
forgot the fruit of the Spirit is tenderness, not rage;
forgot the face of decency; embraced the jackal’s wrath;
forgot the goats will be rejected by the Shepherd’s staff;
forgot the theme of the Bible is: “Go, help the sick and the poor!”;
forgot the Savior stands and waits beside the bolted door,
hearing his cruel “disciples” calling his mother a whore,
demanding her death at the border, and he in her arms, once more:
“Whatsoever you do unto the least of these…”
Scop on the Fritz
by Michael R. Burch
There once was a Keystone Scop
who had hoped to come out on top
in a battle of wits
with a cat named Fritz,
but, alas, Sue was fated to flop.
Sue was quite the Holy Terror,
but Fritz pointed out each error.
Sue grew madder and madder;
she hissed like an adder,
till, all in a Fritz, she stopped.
Lemming Cliff
by Michael R. Burch
for the Keystone Scops
Science is a scam!
We trust the Great I Am
who never once led us wrong.
(Such is our simple song.)
God told us, “Stone your kids!”
Our brains can’t handle the skids.
We’re nearing the cliff, sakes alive!
(Why not shift into overdrive?)
With Jesus, our hero, Rambo,
and Yahweh, our Papa Shambo,
the dull put their faith in voodoo.
(And so, of course, that’s what we do.)
Covid was a scam!
We trust the Great I Am
who murdered our mother Eve!
(And so, of course, we believe.)
Doctors are out to get us!
Shambo’s the one we trust:
who told us, “Stone girls and boys!”
(The source of our Christian joys.)
Their Father’s Saying
by Michael R. Burch
The Keystone Scops keep braying, braying, braying.
“We know Eve petted dinosaurs. It’s true!”
They can’t go beyond their Father’s saying.
Although the Bible’s “truths” are hopelessly fraying
they embrace bald lies because that’s what cults do.
The Keystone Scops keep braying, braying, braying.
They’ll stick to poeticizing and essaying
because to think would sink both ship and crew.
They can’t go beyond their Father’s saying.
They bow to evil “gods” and keep on praying
because they fear hell’s fairytale rack and screw.
The Keystone Scops keep braying, braying, braying.
When science speaks they parrot dull naysaying:
“The earth is flat! The Bible proves it’s true!”
They can’t go beyond their Father’s saying.
When it comes to ignorance there’s no belaying:
they insist on being wrong, without a clue.
The Keystone Scops keep braying, braying, braying.
They can’t go beyond their Father’s saying.
They’re proud of the ignorance they’re not belaying.
They’re proud of Trump:
his treason and betraying
They worship the Little Horn good Christians rue.
The Keystone Scops keep braying, braying, braying.
They can’t go beyond their Father’s saying.
of late
by michael r. burch
i feel a lot of hate
of late
i feel a lot of hate
trump screams dire
things; i ire:
liar! liar!
pants on fire!
stop ur preaching to the choir!
stop blind-ditching fools to the mire!
yes, i feel a lot of hate
of late
i feel a lot of HATE
who made u so damn stupid?
ur GAUD is no cupid!
he gave u small brains
such as thinking abstains
from entering, unless diluted.
—Michael R. Burch
who made u so damn stupid?
ur GAUD is no cupid!
The problem with maga
is an age-old saga:
buyers of snake oil get looted.
The Donald’s a major annoyance
To soldiers engaged in deployance:
The childish cadet
Insults every vet,
Insists his parades need flamBOYance.
—Michael R. Burch
The Donald is on the attack
and the KKK’s clowns have his back:
“Our Aryan genes
make us Lords, Kings and Queens,
meant to rule over reds, browns and blacks!”
—Michael R. Burch
who created lust (and also the bust),
wasn’t it GAUD, in whom wee all trust?
didn’t GAUD make all wee wees tres horny?
then why the hell’s HEE so scorny?
who created likewise the lethal apple
and the Snake with whom wee now grapple?
who created the Flood and drowned ur mamas
along with all the innocent lamas?
ur Religion tells us this GAUD is “good”
but could HEE be misunderstood (and a HOOD)?
—michael r. burch
We cannot hope to build a better world without improving individuals. Toward
that end, we must work on self-improvement, while, at the same time, sharing a
general responsibility for all humanity, with our primary duty being to those we
can help the most. — Marie Curie, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R.
Burch
Easter Son-Day
by Michael R. Burch
Shilly Graham?
Hawking Bibles,
creating mayhem,
spewing libels.
The Chosen One
of God and MAGA,
the Perfect Son
of this Christlike saga.
Though “persecuted”
and “crucified,”
in his mind and disciples’,
deified.
Trump’s back to playing God,
though he’s less about love than the “rod.”
While preaching the Bible,
Shilly Graham is libel
To slip in a grope, then a “prod.”
—Michael R. Burch
Although it sucks not to be named to the Interstellar Legions of the Sky,
having flown so high,
still surely
they’ll induct me, those air-brained professors so flying-squirrel squirrely,
by and by.
—Michael R. Burch
ever after
by michael r. burch
to give birth
is to predestine a sad end—
and who are wee, so flawed,
to play GAUD?
and who is GAUD, for that matter,
mad as any hatter?
ill-usions shatter
when wee abandon chitter-chatter-pitter-patter
to admit that to live is to suffer.
but apparently no one ever told the Duffer,
nor did “loving” parents ever get the message.
how deftly wee massage the mess-age,
evade the obvious Answer
(delivered in various forms of Cancer),
each a dancer cautiously skirting the Truth,
skating on the thin(nest) ice of irreality
—“life is good!”—
while praying fervently to escape its hell for heaven,
nun of us knowing whether such a p(a)lace exists,
nor how wee could ever(after) be happy there.
thus, what right are wee left
to give birth,
knowing wee can offer only suffering
followed by, most like-ly, Night,
but possibly an endless cycle,
the Duffer’s debacle?
for who was ever less wise than a GAUD
so flawed
as to birth life?
ur GAUD so wee?
All’s Well that Swells in the End
by Michael R. Burch
Joey, ah, Joey,
Mr. Eenie-My-Mo-ey,
spectacular bachelor,
lover-ly and foe-y,
breaking girls’ hearts
and maybe their mothers’,
what can viewers make
of the Hamlet of lovers?
All’s swell in the end,
or so one assumes,
but how long can love last
on such exhausting fumes?
Yet whatever happens,
and wherever you are,
hold onto this thought:
you made Daisy a star!
The Seas Have Their Pearls
by Heinrich Heine
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The seas have their pearls,
The heavens their stars;
But my heart, my heart,
My heart has its love!
The seas and the sky are immense;
Yet far greater still is my heart,
And fairer than pearls and stars
Are the radiant beams of my love.
As for you, tender maiden,
Come steal into my great heart;
My heart, and the sea, and the heavens
Are all melting away with love!
Prometheus
by Goethe
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
obscure Your heavens, Zeus, with a nebulous haze!
and, like boys beheading thistles, decapitate oaks and alps.
yet leave me the earth with its rude dwellings
and my hut You didn’t build.
also my hearth, whose cheerful glow You envy.
i know nothing more pitiful under the sun than these vampiric godlings!
undernourished with insufficient sacrifices and airy prayers!
my poor Majesty, if not for a few fools' hopes,
those of children and beggars,
You would starve!
when i was a child, i didn't know up from down,
and my eye strayed erratically toward the sun strobing high above,
as if the heavens had ears to hear my lamentations,
and a heart like mine, to feel pity for the oppressed.
who assisted me when i stood alone against the Titans' insolence?
who saved me from slavery, or, otherwise, from death?
didn’t you handle everything yourself, my radiant heart?
how you shone then, so innocent and holy,
even though deceived and expressing thanks to a listless Entity above.
revere you, zeus? for what?
when did u ever ease my afflictions, or those of the oppressed?
when did u ever stanch the tears of the anguished, the fears of the frightened?
didn’t omnipotent Time and eternal Fate forge my manhood?
my masters and urs likewise?
u were deluded if u thought I would hate life
or flee into faraway deserts,
just because so few of my boyish dreams blossomed.
now here I sit, fashioning Humans in My own Image,
creating a Race like Myself,
who, for all Their suffering and weeping,
for all Their happiness and rejoicing,
in the end shall pay u no heed,
like Me!
In Hock to Porlock
by Michael R. Burch
These people from Porlock—
the daggers they twist.
I want to write poems;
“Write checks!” they insist.
These people for Porlock
are at it again:
I plop out pure gold,
they want cash from the hen!
Prufrock Retires to Porlock
by Michael R. Burch
He’s dashed from Porlock, rudely interrupting
new Kubla Khans to tell me his cool bike,
sans training wheels, is not a baby’s trike,
but Harley-like. Hell’s Angels’ bells. Tring! Tring!
I trudge him up the common hill; below,
Porlockian huts’ strict-ruled conformity,
dear-mortgaged but still interest-less to me,
winks knowingly: one dull, low-wattage glow.
The dishes done, “It’s time for bed.” Pout. Pout.
The poem—long fled, a distant prospect lost.
Ten cents per line, it’s not the market cost.
I hug him—gently, briefly—then, “Lights out.”
My son’s from Porlock; Porlock’s where he’ll marry,
raise children of his own, say one-point-three,
feign interest when I ring him constantly,
grudge me up the hill when I’m weightless enough to carry.
Don’t be a person from Porlock!
by Michael R. Burch
Lines in which the Poet, intent on Art in the form of a Mushy Poem, asks
his lovely wife Beth for a special favor on their seventeenth Wedding
Anniversary.
Don’t be a person from Porlock!
I’m doing the best that I can
to write you a Mushy Poem!
Relax there, on the divan!
My Muse is ostensibly balky:
I’ll soon change her “s” to an “l”!
I’m hitting, it seems, every false key,
and each interruption’s sheer hell.
A “Genius at Work” sign’s been posted.
Now here in this hell I implore
that all interrupters get roasted,
till I am soon toasted, and more!
I’m working on ART, heaven’s sake!
Immortality soon will be yours:
a Mushy Poem for the Ages,
if only you’ll honor my doors.
that Preacher from porlock
by Michael R. Burch
that Preacher from porlock
is at it again—
He calls Himself “God,”
the “Creator of men!”
He plagues me with stories
about His great plagues
then calls Himself “good”
(though the evidence seems vague).
He send emissaries—
witchdoctors called priests;
they claim He’s the Tops
while men are vain beasts …
it’s all unconvincing
and seems really squirrely:
how can He be God
if He needs faith and money?
Ode to an Immigrant who should be Illegal
by Michael R. Burch
Ms. Bryant has written a peeve.
Ignore it, she’s out of her league.
No native Anita,
this pale senorita
is a migrant herself. Make her leave!
A limerick written in the over-alliterative style of Susan Jarvis Bryant, who
specializes in unintentional doggerel.
Skip, scop, skip to my loo
by Michael R. Burch
A skippered scuppered scop
longed to lounge straight to the top;
thus Ms. Bryant en brief
flung away her fig leaf,
then, sans clothes, snoozed and schmoozed in pig slop.
Skippered, because Ms. Bryant’s brain has evidently been captained by
right-wing brainwashing.
Scuppered, because Ms. Bryant has sunk her own ship by abandoning art for
self-parody. Thus a fig leaf has replaced the true poet’s laurel and even that
has been cast aside to wallow in the mire.
I'm not just another fuddy-duddy formalist.
I'm an ENORMALIST.
—Michael R. Burch
All the Rage
by Michael R. Burch
Trump wildly insists there’ll be carnage
then brings it about with his blarnage.
His cultists agree,
make it happen, as we
mildly indulge in our scornage.
Less Heroic Couplets: Granpappy Love
by Michael R. Burch
Granpappy love’s such a saggy affair,
especially Trump’s with that mess he calls “hair,”
a waist care of Big Mac,
a brain on the fritz …
but those extra-large diapers still make him the Shitz!
The poems that follow are dedicated to my wife Beth, my
son Jeremy, and my mother, Christine Ena Burch. The final poem is
dedicated to my first true love and mistress to this day, Poetry.
She Gathered Lilacs
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
She gathered lilacs
and arrayed them in her hair;
tonight, she taught the wind to be free.
She kept her secrets
in a silver locket;
her companions were starlight and mystery.
She danced all night
to the beat of her heart;
with her tears she imbued the sea.
She hid her despair
in a crystal jar,
and never revealed it to me.
She kept her distance
as though it were armor;
gauntlet thorns guard her heart like the rose.
Love!—awaken, awaken
to see what you’ve taken
is still less than the due my heart owes!
Originally published by The Neovictorian/Cochlea
Warming Her Pearls
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Warming her pearls, her breasts
gleam like constellations.
Her belly is a bit rotund …
she might have stepped out of a Rubens.
Originally published by Erosha
Are You the Thief
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
When I touch you now,
O sweet lover,
full of fire,
melting like ice
in my embrace,
when I part the delicate white lace,
baring pale flesh,
and your face
is so close
that I breathe your breath
and your hair surrounds me like a wreath …
tell me now,
O sweet, sweet lover,
in good faith:
are you the thief
who has stolen my heart?
Originally published as "Baring Pale Flesh" by Poetic License/Monumental Moments
She Spoke
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
She spoke
and her words
were like a ringing echo dying
or like smoke
rising and drifting
while the earth below is spinning.
She awoke
with a cry
from a dream that had no ending,
without hope
or strength to rise,
into hopelessness descending.
And an ache
in her heart
toward that dream, retreating,
left a wake
of small waves
in circles never completing.
Originally published by Romantics Quarterly
Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Let me give her diamonds
for my heart’s
sharp edges.
Let me give her roses
for my soul’s
thorn.
Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.
Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.
Let me give her books
for all my lack
of reason.
Let me give her candles
for my lack
of fire.
Let me kindle incense,
for our hearts
require
the breath-fanned
flaming perfume
of desire.
Once
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Once when her kisses were fire incarnate
and left in their imprint bright lipstick, and flame,
when her breath rose and fell over smoldering dunes,
leaving me listlessly sighing her name …
Once when her breasts were as pale, as beguiling,
as wan rivers of sand shedding heat like a mist,
when her words would at times softly, mildly rebuke me
all the while as her lips did more wildly insist …
Once when the thought of her echoed and whispered
through vast wastelands of need like a Bedouin chant,
I ached for the touch of her lips with such longing
that I vowed all my former vows to recant …
Once, only once, something bloomed, of a desiccate seed—
this implausible blossom her wild rains of kisses decreed.
Originally published by The Lyric
At Once
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Though she was fair,
though she sent me the epistle of her love at once
and inscribed therein love’s antique prayer,
I did not love her at once.
Though she would dare
pain’s pale, clinging shadows, to approach me at once,
the dark, haggard keeper of the lair,
I did not love her at once.
Though she would share
the all of her being, to heal me at once,
yet more than her touch I was unable bear.
I did not love her at once.
And yet she would care,
and pour out her essence …
and yet—there was more!
I awoke from long darkness,
and yet—she was there.
I loved her the longer;
I loved her the more
because I did not love her at once.
Originally published by The Lyric
Mother’s Smile
by Michael R. Burch
for my mother, Christine Ena
Burch, and my wife, Elizabeth Harris Burch
There never was a fonder smile
than mother’s smile, no softer touch
than mother’s touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than “much.”
So more than “much,” much more than “all.”
Though tender words, these do not speak
of love at all, nor how we fall
and mother’s there, nor how we reach
from nightmares in the ticking night
and she is there to hold us tight.
There never was a stronger back
than father’s back, that held our weight
and lifted us, when we were small,
and bore us till we reached the gate,
then held our hands that first bright mile
till we could run, and did, and flew.
But, oh, a mother’s tender smile
will leap and follow after you!
Originally published by TALESetc
Remembering Not to Call
by Michael R. Burch
a villanelle permitting mourning, for my mother, Christine Ena Burch
The hardest thing of all,
after telling her everything,
is remembering not to call.
Now the phone hanging on the wall
will never announce her ring:
the hardest thing of all
for children, however tall.
And the hardest thing this spring
will be remembering not to call
the one who was everything.
That the songbirds will nevermore sing
is the hardest thing of all
for those who once listened, in thrall,
and welcomed the message they bring,
since they won’t remember to call.
And the hardest thing this fall
will be a number with no one to ring.
No, the hardest thing of all
is remembering not to call.
i’m running out of leaven.
c’mon,
Mom,
pull some strings in Heaven!
—michael r. burch
The Desk
by Michael R. Burch
for Jeremy
There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes. I wonder how
he learned at all …
He saw T-Rexes down the hall
and dreamed of trains and cars and wrecks.
He dribbled phantom basketballs,
shot spitwads at his schoolmates’ necks.
He played with pasty Elmer’s glue
(and sometimes got the glue on you!).
He earned the nickname “teacher’s PEST.”
His mother had to come to school
because he broke the golden rule.
He dreaded each and every test.
But something happened in the fall—
he grew up big and straight and tall,
and now his desk is far too small;
so you can have it.
One thing, though—
one swirling autumn, one bright snow,
one gooey tube of Elmer’s glue …
and you’ll outgrow this old desk, too.
Originally published by TALESetc
A True Story
by Michael R. Burch
for Jeremy
Jeremy hit the ball today,
over the fence and far away.
So very, very far away
a neighbor had to toss it back.
(She thought it was an air attack!)
Jeremy hit the ball so hard
it flew across his neighbor’s yard.
So very hard across her yard
the bat that boomed a mighty “THWACK!”
now shows an eensy-teensy crack.
Originally published by TALESetc
Picturebook Princess
by Michael R. Burch
for Keira
We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter!
With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her crown to the tips of her toes!
The Aery Faery Princess
by Michael R. Burch
for Keira
There once was a princess lighter than fluff
made of such gossamer stuff—
the down of a thistle, butterflies’ wings,
the faintest high note the hummingbird sings,
moonbeams on garlands, strands of bright hair …
I think she’s just you when you’re floating on air!
Tallen the Mighty Thrower
by Michael R. Burch
Tallen the Mighty Thrower
is a hero to turtles, geese, ducks …
they splash and they cheer
when he tosses bread near
because, you know, eating grass sucks!
Be that Rock
by Michael R. Burch
for George Edwin Hurt Sr.
When I was a child
I never considered man’s impermanence,
for you were a mountain of adamant stone:
a man steadfast, immense,
and your words rang.
And when you were gone,
I still heard your voice, which never betrayed,
"Be strong and of a good courage,
neither be afraid …"
as the angels sang.
And, O!, I believed
for your words were my truth, and I tried to be brave
though the years slipped away
with so little to save
of that talk.
Now I'm a man—
a man … and yet Grandpa … I'm still the same child
who sat at your feet
and learned as you smiled.
Be that rock.
I don't remember when I wrote this poem, but I will guess around age 18 in 1976.
The verse quoted is from an old, well-worn King James Bible my grandfather gave
me after his only visit to the United States, as he prepared to return to
England with my grandmother. I was around eight at the time and didn't know if I
would ever see my grandparents again, so I was heartbroken—destitute,
really. Fortunately my father was later stationed at an Air Force base in
Germany and we were able to spend four entire summer vacations with my
grandparents. I was also able to visit them in England several times as an
adult. But the years of separation were very difficult for me and I came to
detest things that separated me from my family and friends: the departure
platforms of train stations, airport runways, even the white dividing lines on
lonely highways and interstates as they disappeared behind my car. My idea of
heaven became a place where we are never again separated from our loved ones.
And that puts hell here on earth.
In the Whispering Night
by Michael R. Burch
for George King
In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
as the lilies sigh in their beds, for shame,
we must steal our souls, as they once were stolen,
and gather our vigor, and all our intent.
We must heave our husks into some savage ocean
and laugh as they shatter, and never repent.
We must dance in the darkness as stars dance before us,
soar, Soar! through the night on a butterfly's breeze:
blown high, upward-yearning, twin spirits returning
to the heights of awareness from which we were seized.
Published in Songs of Innocence,
Romantics Quarterly and Poetry Life & Times. This is a poem I
wrote for my favorite college English teacher, George King, about poetic
kinship, brotherhood and romantic flights of fancy.
In the Whispering Night (II)
by Michael R. Burch
for George King
In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
as the lilies sigh in their beds, for shame,
we must steal our souls, as they once were stolen,
and gather our vigor, and all our intent.
We must heave our husks into some savage ocean
and laugh as they shatter, and never repent.
We must dance in the darkness as stars dance before us,
soar, Soar! through the night on a butterfly's breeze,
blown high, upward yearning,
twin spirits returning
to the heights of awareness from which we were seized.
In the whispering night, when the mockingbird calls
while denuded vines barely cling to stone walls,
as the red-rocked rivers rush on to the sea,
like a bright Goddess calling
a meteor falling
may flare like desire through skeletal trees.
If you look to the east, you will see a reminder
of days that broke warmer and nights that fell kinder;
but you and I were not meant for this life,
a life of illusions
and painful delusions:
a life without meaning—unless it is life.
So turn from the east and look to the west,
to the stars—argent fire ablaze at God's breast—
but there you'll find nothing but dreams of lost days:
days lost forever,
departed, and never,
oh never, oh never shall they be regained.
So turn from those heavens—night’s pale host of stars—
to these scarred pitted mountains, these wild grotesque tors
which—looming in darkness—obscure lustrous seas …
We are men, we must sing
till enchanted vales ring;
we are men; though we wither, our spirits soar free.
This is the original version of "In the Whispering Night" and one of my most
Romantic poems, if not the most Romantic. I wrote the poem my freshman
year of college for my favorite English teacher, George King, who was also a
poet.
Poetry
by Michael R. Burch
Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.
They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both your eyes
which, once cerulean as Gogh's skies,
had leapt at dawn to wild surmise
of what was waiting there.
Your back was bent with untold care;
there savage whips had left cruel scars
as though the wounds of countless wars;
your bones were broken with the force
with which they'd lashed your flesh so fair.
You once were loveliest of all.
So many nights you held in thrall
a scrawny lad who heard your call
from where dawn’s milling showers fall—
pale meteors through sapphire air.
I learned the eagerness of youth
to temper for a lover’s touch;
I felt you, tremulant, reprove
each time I fumbled over-much.
Your merest word became my prayer.
You took me gently by the hand
and led my steps from child to man;
now I look back, remember when
you shone, and cannot understand
why now, tonight, you bear their brand.
***
I will take and cradle you in my arms,
remindful of the gentle charms
you showed me once, of yore;
and I will lead you from your cell tonight
back into that incandescent light
which flows out of the core
of a sun whose robes you wore.
And I will wash your feet with tears
for all those blissful years …
my love, whom I adore.
Originally published by The Lyric
NOTE: I consider "Poetry" to be my Ars Poetica.
Related Pages by Michael R. Burch:
Holocaust Poems,
Trail of Tears Poems,
Darfur Poems,
Gaza Poems,
Nakba Poems,
Haiti Poems,
Hiroshima Poems,
911 Poems,
Parkland Poems,
Sandy Hook Poems,
Aurora Poems,
Columbine Poems,
What is Poetry?,
Early Poems,
Epigrams and Quotes,
The Best Rock Lyrics,
Rock Jukebox,
"Ordinary Love"
Analysis and Meaning,
"Something" Analysis and Meaning,
"Neglect" Analysis and Meaning,
"Passionate One" Analysis and Meaning, "Epitaph"
Analysis and Meaning,
Libelous
Blasphemies of the Lord of Hosts (unless they're true),
Heretical Poetry,
Early Poems,
Rejection Slips,
Epigrams and Quotes,
Free Verse,
Love Poems,
Romantic Poems,
Poems for Children,
Animal Poems,
Limericks,
Epitaphs,
Criticism,
Time and Death,
Translations,
Medieval Poetry Translations,
Did Lord Bryon inspire the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley?
The HyperTexts