Who knows
what wonder grows
waiting to explode
from those who show
no signs outward?

Who knows what pains
burn from within,
what sick shames
stirs her or him
to inflict suffering
on themselves
or cause ****
for others who
never deserved it?

Who can read
beneath the flesh
that they see
and find depths
of ****** reds,
of wretched raw
tears that claw
at the surface,
raging for revenge
against those who
hurt us?

Who knows?

Eyes are so simple
Yet so mysterious

A quick glance can tell you
What they're conveying
But the longer you look
The more depths
You discover

Unfit Gifts
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

At sunrise, I cast my nets into the sea,
dredging up the strangest and most beautiful objects from the depths ...
some radiant like smiles, some glittering like tears, others flushed like brides’ cheeks.
When I returned, staggering under their weight, my love was relaxing in her garden, idly tearing leaves from flowers.
Hesitant, I placed all I had produced at her feet, silently awaiting her verdict.
She glanced down disdainfully, then pouted: "What are these bizarre things? I have no use for them!"
I bowed my head, humiliated, and thought:
"Truly, I did not contend for them; I did not purchase them in the marketplace; they are unfit gifts for her!"
That night I flung them, one by one, into the street, like refuse.
The next morning travelers came, picked them up and carted them off to exotic countries.

Keywords/Tags: Tagore, translation, Hindi, unfit, gifts, sunrise, nets, sea, depths, objects, smiles, tears, cheeks, love, lover, mistress, flowers, verdict, bizarre, refuse, trash, garbage, travelers, exotic, mrburdu

Tides and waves
Eroding groans from shells on stones
The tip from depths
A finite breath
Darker swells where stars dwell
Dwarfs or suns to midnight runs
Nothing is here to stay

God be with you
when in need
Broken hearts bleed
but the depths of pain are temporary
We feel, grieve and retrieve
some semblance of our former selves
Until we meet again

I feel it.
Everything.
I feel it.
Deep inside.
I hear the shadows,
And taste the light.
I feel it.
The crushing weight
And the transcendence
Of existence.
My skin, my flesh
Cannot contain this
Velcroed spirit.
I feel it all.

I’ve been to such depths

(with you)

That the shallows are forever ruined.
The sand is covered in shells that crack underfoot
And do not sing.

I hold them gently to my ear
But the whales are crying in the trenches of the sea
And their songs cannot find me here.

Melodies weep through the mantles of the earth;

Liturgy seeps through the dirt.

I’ve been to such depths

(alone)

Falling backwards into the stars
From the rock strewn ridges of Medicine Bow Peak,

Forever haunted in the shallows,
I am pulled to the deep.

Let me sleep beneath the blood moon tides.
The starlight glints off the crashing seas,

And there are fathoms in your eyes.

Can we ever win this war, baby?

The front lines explode and they are closing in,
Riddled with bullet holes and rough with the wreckage of darkness.
Each blast makes me jump out of my skin
And maybe I should run,
But the sun is dripping tendrils of fire
And the only place I can ever really hide
Is somewhere in the depths between us.

It is a dangerous game and there are enemies outside and within;
Galaxies colliding
In the spaces where you end and I begin.

I like how it feels to break apart in your hands,
Limb by limb, vein by vein,
Spreading out like the fires of battle that can’t be tamed.

I don’t know if I can withstand the flames that

Gently lick my neck.

Lie down beside me in these dark trenches.
I’m not ready to surrender yet.