#fragment
~for S.S.~
the letters
come disbanded, untied,
offering no kindness,
asking for no understanding
discreet inanimate,
asking for no comprehension; and
giving none
only a word,
only
hat
unfinished.
Mar 17
Mar 17, 2026 at 3:41 PM UTC
Madness is not a fall.
It is a widening.
A crack where the light refuses permission.
A mind untrained enough to kneel.
I saw order begging on the roadside,
and chaos offering water.
Those who remained whole
never crossed.
I broke
and the door learned my name.
Madness is a blessing,
but only to those
who dare not be cured.
Just point the knife.
Jan 8
Jan 8, 2026 at 3:40 PM UTC
He came to the sheikh
not seeking a verdict,
but carrying a wound
that had learned how to speak.
“My heart was taken,” he said,
“and it did not return.”
The sheikh replied:
Hearts are never taken.
They depart
when desire becomes too heavy
to remain human.
You did not come to ask,
except that you buried the fire
deep in your chest
until it split you open.
Be patient.
Patience does not restore the heart
it reforms it.
And perhaps
you will not be healed,
but remade:
no longer a lover asking,
but a sheikh
who knows how to love
without possession
and without return.
Dec 23, 2025
Dec 23, 2025 at 8:36 PM UTC
shred, dash, drop, pinch, soupçon, jot, iota, whit,
atom, smattering, scintilla, hint, suggestion, tinge,
a modicum of good works,
my endeavor, to serve and deliver,
man's bounty of good words
from my kitbag,
fresh, hot, n' crusty
just like me....
Hello Poetry!
Feb 2014
Feb 12, 2014
Feb 12, 2014 at 6:21 PM UTC
This jar is different – each shard and crack tells the story of me.
I slowly piece myself together
Carefully choosing each fragment
Each break
That highlights what I have experienced and endured
Each fragile piece reminds me
That the greatest beauty is not in the unbroken
But in the mended
This is my new jar
My restored essence
In which light flows and reflects all
That I have become.
Nov 8, 2024
Nov 8, 2024 at 3:57 AM UTC
I don't want to
forget any fragment
of your memory
Even when
I don't love you anymore.
I want it to stay as
A wish,
I wanted to be my destiny.
A happiness,
Once I Cherished.
A Pain,
That I overcome,
A path of blighting,
I should never walk in.
Jul 19, 2022
Jul 19, 2022 at 6:27 AM UTC
Shes breaking inside,
Leaving behind shattered fragments of who she used to be.
Hes lost but following,
A trail of something deep with no end that he can see.
Hes closing in on her,
As is her fear.
But she lead him to a destination,
Without knowing it is here.
And now he has arrived,
With the piece
That will transform them
Into a masterpiece.
Aug 2, 2021
Aug 2, 2021 at 3:28 PM UTC
The best pain of today
Is the hope you had yesterday,
Loosing to the regrets
of what is passed;
Now, pick up,
Pick up,
Pick up the shards
And wound yourself;
Wound yourself hard
Mar 10, 2021
Mar 10, 2021 at 1:50 PM UTC
The aquarium is a jar
that crams the bottomless sea,
within a glass bottle.
Like the pool of liquid in my palms
that reflects the starry sky above,
it is a fragment
of what cannot be fractured.
Aug 10, 2020
Aug 10, 2020 at 2:46 PM UTC
Ibykos Fragment 286, circa 564 BCE
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Come spring, the grand
apple trees stand
watered by a gushing river
where the maidens’ uncut flowers shiver
and the blossoming grape vine swells
in the gathering shadows.
Unfortunately
for me
Eros never rests
but like a Thracian tempest
ablaze with lightning
emanates from Aphrodite;
the results are frightening—
black,
bleak,
astonishing,
violently jolting me from my soles
to my soul.
Preposterous Eros
by Michael R. Burch
“Preposterous Eros” – Patricia Falanga
Preposterous Eros shot me in
the buttocks, with a Devilish grin,
spent all my money in a rush
then left my heart effete pink mush.
Keywords/Tags: Ibykos, fragment, translation, Eros, Aphrodite, Thracian, tempest, lightning, jolt, soul, spring, apple, trees, river, flowers, grape, vine, shadows
Apr 7, 2020
Apr 7, 2020 at 6:02 AM UTC
Ibykos Fragment 286, circa 564 BCE
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Come spring, the grand
apple trees stand
watered by a gushing river
where the maidens’ uncut flowers shiver
and the blossoming grape vine swells
in the gathering shadows.
Unfortunately
for me
Eros never rests
but like a Thracian tempest
ablaze with lightning
emanates from Aphrodite;
the results are frightening—
black,
bleak,
astonishing,
violently jolting me from my soles
to my soul.
Keywords/Tags: Ibykos, fragment, translation, Eros, Aphrodite, Thracian, tempest, lightning, jolt, soul, spring, apple, trees, river, flowers, grape, vine, shadows
Preposterous Eros
by Michael R. Burch
“Preposterous Eros” – Patricia Falanga
Preposterous Eros shot me in
the buttocks, with a Devilish grin,
spent all my money in a rush
then left my heart effete pink mush.
Apr 5, 2020
Apr 5, 2020 at 3:39 AM UTC
gathered the storms,
and gathered the winds
of undying suffering.
sufferings of pleasure,
psychedelics of exalted warmth
stalked and stumbled
around the planetary man;
the dying and the undying
the man and the un-man
both together excited to the darkest night.
who lost is unknown to me;
the wall blears the boundary.
unfixed the shape,
darkness deepens the dancing dolphins;
sanity swirls,
words skip the stray lips
as if forgotten bones collapse and crumble.
seaming with flabby fragments
the mouth of Thermopylae.
drawing a stick out of spillikins.
there remains the tongue-tied taciturn;
as if dead and done to bones.
Nov 17, 2019
Nov 17, 2019 at 2:23 PM UTC