At Caedmon’s Grave
by Michael R. Burch

At the monastery of Whitby,
on a day when the sun sank through the sea,
and the gulls shrieked wildly, jubilant, free,

while the wind and time blew all around,
I paced those dusk-enamored grounds
and thought I heard the steps resound

of Carroll, Stoker and good Bede
who walked there, too, their spirits freed
—perhaps by God, perhaps by need—

to write, and with each line, remember
the glorious light of Cædmon’s ember,
scorched tongues of flame words still engender.

Here, as darkness falls, at last we meet.
I lay this pale garland of words at his feet.

Originally published by The Lyric. “Cædmon’s Hymn,” composed at the Monastery of Whitby (a North Yorkshire fishing village), is one of the oldest known poems written in the English language, dating back to around 680 A.D. According to legend, Cædmon, an illiterate Anglo-Saxon cowherd, received the gift of poetic composition from an angel; he subsequently founded a school of Christian poets. Unfortunately, only nine lines of Cædmon’s verse survive, in the writings of the Venerable Bede. Whitby, tiny as it is, reappears later in the history of English literature, having been visited, in diametric contrast, by Lewis Carroll and Bram Stoker’s ghoulish yet evocative Dracula. Keywords/Tags: Caedmon, hymn, first English poem, Anglo-Saxon, Bede, cowherd, monk



Bede's Death Song (circa 731 AD)
ancient Anglo-Saxon/Old English lyric poem
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Facing Death, that inescapable journey,
who can be wiser than he
who reflects, while breath yet remains,
on whether his life brought others happiness, or pains,
since his soul may yet win delight's or night's way
after his death-day.

Once upon a time there lived this
  monk,
    who traveled far,
       and renounced everything,
           until he came to Vegas.

She is the typesetter’s “e”

The once-rounded uncial script,
Unbroken like the solemn vow of a monk,
His whisper, a shepherd of words under the cowl,
Murmurations of the Holy Mother to the lambswool shroud of candlelight.

His candle-flock of dreams to some hill of penitent towers, war-cowed
And broken open like faith-unfended helmets, littering the ground,
With their unspeaking tassels in babbling pagan sound of wind,
That hill too, once-rounded bare under the glittering apostles of twilight.

In the abbeywork of air, calligraphy was a cipher of souls,
He unwrested demons from an inkwell of sunsets, smothered them in blotting paper,
Freed the incarnate whole to the book of hours, nib-pointed in quills and illuminated in gold,
Line by line, in Carolingian winding sheets, he returned the misshapen to the fold,
To the carpet page of home and the warm ligatures of their waiting women.
So the shutters of the heavenly house could blow light in slanted rays to a wilderness in storm.

But he never tamed the aero-elongated, descender of Troy in a “t,”
He never knew the unholiness of the underscore or fonts as ******,
Or the world unwilling to know itself in serif robes of ancient lore.
His life was a simple rounded-out syllable of one man,
Left in the muddied, unintelligible text of faith and war.

She is the typesetter’s “e” and now belongs to any hand.

One upon a time
In ancient Tibet
There was an evil
Monk
Named
Buddha Tenpa
Who used is tantric mastery
To bring back
His lover
And consort
From the bowls of hell
To be with him
And misused
His enlightenment
And spiritual knowledge
To raise the dead
To take down his
Enemies
Monks
And
The foreigners
Who ****
His love.

"What's your birthstone?  
I don't know, Oh, I know--it's rock."

Black rocks baking in the sun
dot this beach
Like chocolate chips in the dough
They call to us
Come climb,
Come hop on us
Find treasures hidden behind and between
All our dark shadows,

Lying as still as stone
A large rock shape,
Oh, it's grayer
and duller,
and there's sand sprinkled on it,
And it's moving!
It's Living Rock,
The monk seal napping
from its morning meal.

Yes- we watch others walk right by him
caught in their words,
Unaware of the living amongst the rocks,
Living Rock doesn't care
His belly is full

Gray sleek shape
massaged by the wind
with feast in your belly,
So mighty tired!
You taste your sleep for days,
Clouds cover the day's starlight you seek,
Your body begs for light, and yet
Nobody can wake you from your slumber
Not even the high pitched voices
of children playing
nor the fishing lines in and out of the tide

What of your dreams
Oh Large Gray Rock
Do you dream of the ocean tossing
Fish  into your mouth?
Or of the warm sun coming
to bake your skin?

The salt water dances up your nostrils,
You lift your head in mild protest
Then let it rest on your
Ancient bed of coral and shell bones
My feet love to dig into your bed

No insomnia for you sea creatures,
Maybe I should count monk seals
Instead of sheep when I want to sleep,
Your body clock measures time
Not in days or hours
But in meals, in hunts
In fullness, in emptiness
Your sleep is well earned
My friend

We can learn from you.
You bask, dream,
Then awaken renewed
To taste your ocean again,

When the Sogdian king, lost his son
Across the river, hands in hands with step mom
Step mom told the king:
"Big cat fish ate him! King"
Crying to death
Regreting his wealth
No food many days
Tried many ways
Calling out for guards
Searching every yards
Paying the temples
Ignoring gambles
Bending to his knee
Praying to the sea
Asking for a sign
Hope to see a line
Old monk saw him sick
Told him: "go and pick
Best fishing hooks there
Try to saile the river
Find the Big Cat Fish
Get him to a dish
Cut his stomach
Imagine it's cake"
After all of it
Cat fish escaped it
Turning around the boat
Calling out : "You Goat!
You're wife killed your kid
So **** her! Indeed!"
King was deadly shocked
No mercy of God
Rage was his weapon
To **** this dragon....
" wish I was no king
Could have my son under my wing"
That's what Said the king.....

I long to be alone
A modest cabin by the sea
Where the days are quiet
Where no television, radio or phone is permitted
No unnecessary words of explanation
Where the afternoon sun bakes warmly on my cat in the windowsill
A gentle purr of content
By day I will walk along the sandy shore
Cast away my formal shoes
Roll up my pants and place my feet in the crisp waters of the salty ocean
The wind ... The crashing of the waves ... A seagull's cry
A dog and its owner passes by ... An occasional hello
They say people need people ... But I don't know
Natures own form of conversation seems to be a better companion for me
With the competitive world locked outside
Where money is God and the race is fierce
A ray of light catches the colourful bottles in the window
Creating a prism on the floor
I could take a photograph ... Capture the moment
But if I send it to you
Will you feel what I see