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The Best Poems of Michael R. Burch, Part II

The Best Poems of Michael R. Burch, Part II
The Most Popular Poems of Michael R. Burch, Part II

 

She bathes in silver
by Michael R. Burch

She bathes in silver,
~~~~~afloat~~~~~
on her reflections...

 

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

O pale, austere moon,
haughty beauty ...

what do we know of love,
or duty?

 

Styx
by Michael R. Burch, age 16

Black waters,
deep and dark and still . . .
all men have passed this way,
or will.

 

Childless
by Michael R. Burch

Huang E translations of "Sorrows of the Wild Geese"

SORROWS OF THE WILD GEESE by HUANG E

Sent to My Husband
by Huang E
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The wild geese never fly beyond Hengyang ...
how then can my brocaded words reach Yongchang?

Like wilted willow flowers I am ill-fated indeed;
in that far-off foreign land you feel similar despair.

“Oh, to go home, to go home!” you implore the calendar.
“Oh, if only it would rain, if only it would rain!” I complain to the heavens.

One hears hopeful rumors that you might soon be freed ...

The Sorrow and the Pretty, A Proem Upon "The Fallen Chrysanthemums" - Confessions of Nightingale, One Who Did Not Leap

*********

escape to chrysanthemum clouds 

now too too crowded 

for six falling, the sad young
men who leap from bridges: 

Tyler Clementi, Raymond Chase, 
Asher Brown, Billy Lucas, Seth Walsh, 
Justin Aaberg


Chrysanthemums in hand 
clutched for support: 

~Momentary Lapse of Reason~

I am drowning in my pain Spinning faster and faster I closed my eyes to escape From my momentary lapse of reason In my grave reality of my demise But there is nowhere to hide In a world of complete emptiness I am going under faster and faster Feeling nothing but helplessness And everything was still Just as hope seemed to have faded There was shelter in the distance That shelter was you and I felt warm And everything was still Even from the depths of my mind I knew I was trapped frozen in time I was calling out from my dark despair And only music fell from my bloody lips And e

Carlyle

I.

" God does nothing!" sigh'd the Seer,
Sick of playing Prophet:
To his eyes the sun-flames clear
Seem'd the fumes of Tophet;
Off the King he tore his crown,
Stript the Priest of clothing,
Curst the world — then with a frown,
Murmur'd, " God does — nothing! "

II.

Bitter creed, and creedless cry
Of the soul despairing —
He who once on sea and sky
Saw the Portent flaring,
He who chose the thorny road,
Paths of pleasure loathing,
Crying loudly, " Great is God,
Only Man is nothing!"

III.

Many a year the merry world

Psyche

Love came to me one morn in May,
Bringing all glad things on his way,
" Lo, here are Autumn and Summer and Spring,
All three seasons in one I bring. "
He spake me smooth,
And he sware for sooth,
That his gold was good, and his troth was truth.
Alack, the day!
Heigho, Sing Sorrow!
Man sows in vain what he reaps with pain,
And the joy once gone shall be never again
Heigho, Sing Sorrow!
'Tis ever thus
Love deals with us;
Builds his bower for to-day, and then flies away
To-morrow.

I gave him all in my garden's girth,

Translations Dante - Inferno, Canto XXVI

Florence, rejoice! For thou o'er land and sea
So spread'st thy pinions that the fame of thee
Hath reached no less into the depths of Hell.
So noble were the five I found to dwell
Therein -- thy sons -- whence shame accrues to me
And no great praise is thine; but if it be
That truth unveil in dreamings before dawn,
Then is the vengeful hour not far withdrawn
When Prato shall exult within her walls
To see thy suffering. Whate'er befalls,
Let it come soon, since come it must, for later,

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