These streets that I walk
Are treacherous with every other step
No compass in my hand to guide me
I allow the light of the sky to illuminate my path
There’s no straight and narrow to speak of
Wishful thinking that’s been a forever desire
I have the mental bruises that show the impatience of wait
I have the physical pain in my feet from the many travels
These are poems about war and other calamities such as school shootings and floods...
War is Obsolete
by Michael R. Burch
War is obsolete;
even the strange machinery of dread
weeps for the child in the street
who cannot lift her head
to reprimand the Man
who failed to countermand
her soft defeat.
let there be light
let there be angels
let there be demons
angels becomes angels
let there be dust
let there be mass
dust becomes dust
dust becomes angels
angels becomes mass
light becomes light
mass becomes mass
satan becomes satan
satan becomes light
lucifer becomes god
Hugh MacDiarmid wrote "The Watergaw" in a Scots dialect. I have translated the poem into modern English to make it easier to read and understand. A watergaw is a fragmentary rainbow.
The Watergaw
by Hugh MacDiarmid
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch
Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.
Be one with the buffalo cropping the grass to a safer height.
Seek the composure of the great depths, barely moved by exterior storms.
Lift your face to the dawning light; feel how it warms.
And be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.
Published by Hibiscus (India), Ethos Literary Journal, The Peacemaker, Lullabies Behind My Eyelids, The Episcopal Church of St. Matthew (San Mateo, CA) and Mad Hatter
This is a love poem I wrote for my wife Beth.
Passionate One
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
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.
Keywords/Tags: poem, poetry, love, life, passion, desire, dawn, light, sun, heaven, manna, leaven
***
The Celtic Cross at Île Grosse
by Michael R. Burch
This is a love poem I wrote for my wife Beth.
Passionate One
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
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.
Keywords/Tags: poem, poetry, love, life, passion, desire, dawn, light, sun, heaven, manna, leaven
This is my modern English translation of a poem by the Palestinian poet Walid Khazindar.
This Distant Light
by Walid Khazindar
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Bitterly cold,
winter clings to the naked trees.
If only you would free
the bright sparrows
from your fingertips
and unleash a smile— that shy, tentative smile—
from the imprisoned anguish I see.
Sing! Can we not sing
as if we were warm, hand-in-hand,
sheltered by shade from a sweltering sun?
These are villanelles by Michael R. Burch.
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.
These are apocalyptic poems about possible dark futures for mankind and the planet he depends on for life and sustenance. Are we condemning our children and grandchildren to live underground, like moles, if they live at all?
Is there any Light left?
by Michael R. Burch
Is there any light left?
Must we die bereft
of love and a reason for being?
Blind and unseeing,
rejecting and fleeing
our humanity, goat-hooved and cleft?
