Long Encircle Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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'Continental Drift' - The Metaphor

In the seventies (1), few people dreamed ‘it’ was true,
guessed by scientists first when rough coastlines compared (2)
matched like parts of a puzzle (a jigsaw), found place
that joined ‘drop-offs’ waves hid...

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I.	Imagine a stack
Of razor blades
Bolted together
Polished edges
Forming a blunt mass…
Who would guess the 
Blackness of that face? 
	
II.	Picture Pandoran box
Harboring atom pulse; 
No less a voyeur
The scientist peering
Through revealing keyhole
Finds an interior
Darker than any light.
	
III.	Such...

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15.7
“You are That in which the universe appears 
like waves appearing in the ocean
You are Consciousness itself
No need to worry”


The concept being that the world is nothing but thought
Transient and therefore necessarily unreal like a...

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Into the woods we ventured, where darkness began to encircle us,
Their ancient murmurs mingling with the forest’s ominous chorus.
A chilling breeze, as if the very breath of the woods sighed,
Veiled in tempestuous clouds, the stars...

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He’s called the Eulogizer
He reluctantly accepts this moniker as our elder
A name for which he feels disdain 
Since it conjures memories of unspeakable pain
 
He's lost a father, mother, sister and son
His nights sleepless realizing...

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Through storms, the sea of the bridge shivers,
Silken curves of titanium on pillars of ancient stone,
Dust gathers in my fists like onyx under veils of rusted gold,
And in the cosmic silence, my thoughts float like...

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1.	Abolish Mints
2.	Abut Mints
3.	Accomplish Mints
4.	Accouter Mints
5.	Acknowledge Mints
6.	Ada Mints
7.	Adjust Mints
8.	Admonish Mints
9.	Adorn Mints
10.	Advance Mints
11.	Advertise Mints
12.	Agree Mints
13.	Ail Mints
14.	Align Mints
15.	Announce Mints
16.	Annul Mints
17.	Apart Mints
18.	Appease Mints 
19.	Appoint Mints
20.	Arma Mints
21.	Argu Mints
22.	Arrange Mints
23.	Assess Mints
24.	Astonish Mints
25.	Atone Mints
26.	Attain Mints
27.	Banish Mints
28.	Battle Mints
29.	Befuddle Mints
30.	Bereve Mints
31.	Better Mints
32.	Bewilder Mints
33.	Blandish Mints
34.	Command...

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ZEN DEATH HAIKU XII

These are my modern English translations of Japanese Zen Death Haiku. 

Both victor and vanquished are dewdrops:
flashes of light
briefly illuminating the void.
—Ouchi Yoaka, loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael...

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"50 Words for Poe: Temporal"



"Labyrinthine mind 
within chalked 
bones of cranium
lies the vestibule 
and shrine of
broken sacraments -
absent Advent,
Pentecost and
an "epiphany" 
solely lacking 
The All Divine.
There She lays like
Iseult waiting for 
Dragon's tongue
Black night eternal
immersed...

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She's pouring from a pot of tea
    as we relax on the quiet porch
Honeysuckle vines encircle the posts,
   and webs of daddy long-legs
      glisten in...

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At the breaking of the new dawn
Where the hopeful golden glow melts the dew
A sleepy world awakens to the brightened new dawn of life
But at the striking of that aged light
Where the anguished reddened heat...

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These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…

With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 35, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mother,...

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Lorca Translations III

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright and theater director. He was assassinated by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and his body was never found.

Paisaje (“Landscape”)
by...

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A wall need separate reality from fantasy is how you are taught in
Of fantasy being the mystical realm where one’s deepest desire is ever imagine
Yet, where there is reality one cannot ignore fantasy to exist
Bearing...

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( Song of Solomon 4: 16 )



We Walked In The Garden At Midnight
We Walked Thru The Garden In Moonlight

Among Azealeas & Verbenas & Blue Jonquils
Sweet Honeysuckle, Yellow Primroses & Daffodils
Among White Phlox & Orchids &...

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Lorca Translations II

Canción del jinete (“Song of the Rider”)
by Federico Garcia Lorca
translation by Michael R. Burch

Cordoba. Distant and lone.
Black pony, big moon,
olives in my saddlebag.
Although my pony knows the way,
I never will reach Cordoba.

High plains,...

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The Befallen Angel Of Dreams

There was this balance atween the light and the dark
Beyond all knowledge permit-able to comprehend
An inborn illusion never too far apart
Some place no one ever already begin to understand

Amidst this aging...

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Through the piercing silence of the night
Echoes the soul grasping sound
Of the ethereal howling of a pack of wolves
Their song is carried across the air
Over the tree tops to a place of forever

The full moon...

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I saw you standing there with a strange look on your face. You did not utter a word around but your eyes and mouth  kept moving around the world.
  
I wasn’t sure what...

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We are one flesh.
Our souls are intertwined.
Pounding in sync, our hearts beat as one at the very same time.

Your thoughts are my thoughts 
The desires of your heart are my desires too.
And with every single...

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The gods’ privilege is never to die,
the men’s tragedy is most die 
at some point in time of their life’s cycle.

The gods’ tragedy is gods can never die,
the men’s privilege is to die when time...

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Hues of a darker shade, cascading across skies of illusion....

Evaporating waterfalls, of lustful desires and want

Brought forth amid fairytale words, from within fantastical thoughts

And I thought, shall I sell my soul, for their very own,...

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Why do flowers have such color and charm,  
The sky is blue: the woolly clouds march past
Au revoir to the day.  To memories of unconquered
Problems and market struggles that avail us naught. 
We...

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Raven walks upon death’s door beautifully adorned.
Silky skin, pale and white entombs her heart that mourns.
The black of death stole her joy now she lives life scorned.
Gracefully her energy calls to those whom she forewarns....

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