Lullabies

These are lullabies I have written over the years, as poems. Some of my poems have been set to music and thus have become actual songs and lullabies.

For a Ukrainian Child, with Butterflies
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?

Love Poems

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch. Some are poems about love in desert places where Bedouins have learned to do without. The poems include everything from heroic couplets, sonnets and villanelles, to free verse and haiku. 

Sonnet: Once (a confirmed bachelor recants)
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 ...

Epigrams XI

These are epigrams by Michael R. Burch, on subjects such as hearts, heartaches, love, dreams, the grave, the dead and death.

Less Heroic Couplets: Murder Most Fowl!
by Michael R. Burch

“Murder most foul!”
cried the mouse to the owl.

“Friend, I’m no sinner;
you’re merely my dinner.

As you fall on my sword,
take it up with the Lord!”

the wise owl replied
as the tasty snack died.

Published by Lighten Up Online and in Potcake Chapbook #7

Ono no Komachi translations

Ono no Komachi translations

These are my modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.

If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

april 17 to 19 poems

Saturday April 17

You are my Lode Star

in the morning dawning light
you are always there
you are my lode star
my sunshine, my moonshine
the love of my life, my wife
with your endless love
I will face the evil corrupted world
even walk through the shadow of death
as long as you by my side
I will fear no evil for you are with me
and I will love you
until death takes me
from your your loving embrace

another Nigerian spam found poem

april 16 poems

Wednesday April 15, 2020

  the Chaos King is his Element

the Chaos King
is in his element
as he presides
over the chaos verse

the Chaos King
thinks he is supreme
has the ultimate authority
as he is the King

the Chaos King
surveys the land
and likes what he sees
loves the absolute chaos

the chaos king
is prepared
to lead the nation
in the midst of this chaos

and the Chaos king
will not stop
until the chaos stops
that is what he does

cosmos's april12 poems

today's poems (april 12)

April 12, 2020

Life spinning out of control

it seems these days
that life is spinning out of control
everyday the news is grim
more people are dying
as the virus spreads out of control

but in these days
where everything seeks
to be beyond our control

it is best to remember
to worry about
those things
one can control

and the rest
will take care
of it self

you can only control
yourself
and your emotions

Lullaby

our landscape trembles
in a storied web
worn cold with weather
whitewashed for another day
 
          *
 
the door opens and shuts
waiting for her
the immortal one and her music
played under a cloud
of the church organ
a hundred years old
 
          *
 
sun behind a cloud
piercing, transparent
folded in the leaves of grass
in a dream 
of another world

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