Long Crickets Poems

Chinese Poets: English Translations II

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


Tzu Yeh (circa...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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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...

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Life as active love 
evolves toward more polycultural communication,
across both species and time,
within Earth’s Solar EcoSystemic Universe.

While this conversation includes human natured communicators,
we suboptimize our ecological balance
if endo-human discourse monopolizes our lifetime learning dialogue.

A life...

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Sonnets XC-XCVII

Artificial Smile
by Michael R. Burch

I’m waiting for my artificial teeth
to stretch belief, to hollow out the cob
of zealous righteousness, to grasp life’s stub
between clenched molars, and yank out the grief.

Mine must be art-official?zenlike Art?
a...

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The sun was rising high in the east over the town of Milton creek
It was the eighteenth day of December, the start of Christmas week
All the store fronts were decorated; it was a colourful sight...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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In these United States of America, there is a little town not very far off the beaten path. Neither gold nor silver has ever been mined in or near this town of fertile delta soil....

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Write a Children's story short Poetry Contest
Sponsor: The Seeker

Once there was this little girl…
She had big doe brown eyes and a beauty mark on her upper right cheek. Her name was Ella Rose. One day...

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"Small Mutinies"



So what if my point of view
is not that which wraps 
you in comfortably warm
fluffed-up silky 
cashmere blankets 
of insecure insincerity
simple scribbles 
bleating from the 
chirping crickets 
and frog croaking
symphonies 
muddying waters
cutting pristine lines...

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There is an author, a creator, a maker of the LIGHT                        ...

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The forest had enjoyed a magical transformation.
Dusk had ushered in the firefly brigade.
They lit up the pond area like tiny LED lights.
I could see they were excitedly motioning to the faeries.
Although I do not speak...

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The sun burst out from underneath the clouds
Ploughing through the merry crowd
The impact of nature is closing in 
sucking the joy  from within
Trucks and cars  littered the streets
Adding more pain to  the...

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Last night I dreamed I was Czarina of Public Health Education,
charged with training co-mentors of health
who traveled from house to house
with a one question survey,
"Which do you experience as healthier
for yourself,
those around you,
for your environment,
to...

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It was tranquil sultry August, and the birds were singing,
The insects were all buzzing, and toad frogs were springing.

And I was deep in the mountains, taking snapshots of nature;
For I felt I was a good...

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I was once something of a pessimist, and that fact did not concern me,
As violet birds are content, to spend their nights in different trees.

Still I had a happy and quiet existence, or at least...

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For years I was an aspiring singer, performing in trendy nightspots,
And I sang my heart out each evening, in all of the local hotspots.

Among the enthusiastic locals, at long last I'd made myself a name,
As...

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When will we gain the wisdom to survive
this disturbing 
degenerate
NegativEnergy
adolescent denialism
of fascist climate-bullying tendencies
toward shrieking violence
at silent displaced victims,
creating rivers of homeless 
multi-degenerating non-thriving refugees?

Where are the all growed up
nurturing regenerate adults
in our capital cities?

On...

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pitty-pit-pat, pitty-pit-pat ...

dark attic, echoing ... tenderly
rain on tin roof above,
her nana's voice, ages hence -
lives ago, really ... calling …

       "Little Tea Pot, Little Tea Pot -
 ...

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Coercion began
as the ground surrounds the seed
baring life and truth
A kingdom of soil
An army of soiled crickets
A pubescent king
Presenting Jo Jo
the leader of the region
and sire to the throne
Forced to lead the masses
basis chases hatred
Bandaged...

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My life was so exciting and busy, but still I was dissatisfied,
For my job was going nowhere, like blooms with noplace to hide.

I had for long had a dream, of becoming a world famous singer,
But...

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It was both a complicated and simpler place and time.
Mostly a quiet place tucked away, but not far off the beaten path.
Occasionally, a noisy and sometimes uncivil place, but very little crime.
A place though legally...

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I love spending nights on the lake.
Once the oven-like sun disappears,
things get suddenly quiet, except for
the occasional hoot of an owl, crickets, frogs
and the soft lapping of the lake on the boat.
When the moon rises...

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It is a lovely Saturday afternoon
The sun is shining the trees are smiling
And fall is closing in
Bright golden leaves hang proudly
from  tall slender trees
They stand at attention on top of the hill
Waiting patiently for...

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It was in the heart of frigid winter, that my car had broken down,
I was frustrated and so cold, so like the snowflakes falling down.

I had called for a mechanic, but I had been waiting...

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