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#frail
i think i know that somewhat ulterior suggestion that you crept into my mind like a vivid rainbow across your face light transmissions offering up your words your image is on repeat and our sentiments are all quite something else always on hindsight on turmoil easily not speaking confused about what we want overexposed to death we each smell detached the way we sound in the distance often too frail to reach inside our beautiful loneliness
0
Dec 20, 2021
Dec 20, 2021 at 5:12 PM UTC
The Sound & The Fury
Scorched skin and broken nails This love makes me so **** frail. Inked-on stars and shaking fingers My heart thrives on these lurches and twinges.
0
Apr 26, 2021
Apr 26, 2021 at 12:47 PM UTC
Scorched Skin
I wish for the future to come Just like anyone else I take to the skies As if I could fly Oh world oh world Hello world! Please be gentle with me I’m the precious little flower So delicate, so frail I need all the attention of the world In order to not disassociate I keep grasping to my innocence As if my life depends on it So what is it? to live in complete ignorance Or to realize we’ll never be perfect But it’s all okay Just be you Because at the end of the day Nobody really has this figured out
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Feb 7, 2021
Feb 7, 2021 at 4:17 AM UTC
SoSuperSymmetry
Staring at the sky Pale blue Is there any hope left Wish non of it were true How did I get here? Is there any place left I can call my home The clouds are pouring in Burning me within Missing in a maze Disarrayed and alone Thought I could see After all I was blind All that I've cared Is nothing but frail How fragile was I With nothing left to grasp Just turn it into ash I'm locked in my head With what I've done Maybe there was somebody Who could've rescued me But I didn't let anyone in Now all that's left of me Thoughts consuming me With all that could've been Non-Entity Please someone grab my hand And run far away Just save me from myself
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Nov 12, 2020
Nov 12, 2020 at 5:21 AM UTC
Non-Entity
To trust someone is something frail you give others. They break it with ease, You're left alone to fix.
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Aug 10, 2020
Aug 10, 2020 at 10:49 PM UTC
Trust
It is so hard to watch you leave. Especially, when you turn away without saying a word. It feels as if someone has stabbed through my heart with a sword. I can’t breathe, it is as if someone is breathing the life out of me. I want to break free but I am too weak. I am too frail to even try and fight. This feeling is sickening and it is filling my heart with grief. A grief that I didn’t know existed till I saw you leave. I see your hands touch the door **** and I want to scream your name, but all I can do is sit and watch. No, I can’t watch! I can’t watch you leave because it fills my heart with grief. Instead I will turn my back on you and let you go.
0
May 5, 2020
May 5, 2020 at 1:39 PM UTC
Leave
Frail Envelope of Flesh by Michael R. Burch for the mothers and children of Gaza Frail envelope of flesh, lying cold on the surgeon’s table with anguished eyes like your mother’s eyes and a heartbeat weak, unstable ... Frail crucible of dust, brief flower come to this— your tiny hand in your mother’s hand for a last bewildered kiss ... Brief mayfly of a child, to live two artless years! Now your mother’s lips seal up your lips from the Deluge of her Tears ... Note: The phrase "frail envelope of flesh" was one of my first encounters with the power of poetry, although I read it in a superhero comic book as a young boy (I forget which one). More than thirty years later, the line kept popping into my head, so I wrote this poem. I have dedicated it to the mothers and children of Gaza and the Palestinian Nakba. The word Nakba is Arabic for "Catastrophe." Epitaph for a Palestinian Child by Michael R. Burch I lived as best I could, and then I died. Be careful where you step: the grave is wide. Autumn Conundrum by Michael R. Burch for the mothers and children of Palestine It’s not that every leaf must finally fall, it’s just that we can never catch them all. For a Palestinian 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? Where does the rose hide its bloom when night descends oblique and chill beyond the capacity of moonlight to fill? When the only relief's a banked fire's glow, where does the butterfly go? And where shall the spirit flee when life is harsh, too harsh to face, and hope is lost without a trace? Oh, when the light of life runs low, where does the butterfly go? Such Tenderness by Michael R. Burch for the mothers of Gaza There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as only the dove on her mildest day has, when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing and coos to them softly, unable to sing. What songs long forgotten occur to you now— a babe at each breast? What terrible vow ripped from your throat like the thunder that day can never hold severing lightnings at bay? Time taught you tenderness—time, oh, and love. But love in the end is seldom enough ... and time?—insufficient to life’s brief task. I can only admire, unable to ask— what is the source, whence comes the desire of a woman to love as no God may require? "War" is a poem I wrote in my teens that mentions the Jordan River and wars waged with axes in ancient Palestine. War by Michael R. Burch lysander lies in lauded greece and sleeps and dreams, a stone for a pillow, unseeing as sunset devours limp willows, but War glares on. and joab's sightless gaze is turned beyond the jordan's ravaged shore; his war-ax lies to be taxed no more, but War hacks on. and roland sleeps in poppied fields with flowers flowing at his feet; their fragrance lulls his soul to sleep, but War raves on. and patton sighs an unheard sigh for sorties past and those to come; he does not heed the battle drum, but War rolls on. for now new heroes grab up guns and rush to fight their fathers' wars, as warriors' children must, of course, while War laughs on. 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. But war is obsolete; even the cold robotic drone that flies far overhead has sense enough to moan and shudder at her plight (only men bereft of Light with hearts indurate stone embrace war’s Siberian night). For war is obsolete; man’s tribal “gods,” long dead, have fled his awakening sight while the true Sun, overhead, has pity on her plight. O sweet, precipitate Light! — embrace her, reject the night that leaves gentle fledglings dead. For each brute ancestor lies with his totems and his “gods” in the slavehold of premature night that awaited him in his tomb; while Love, the ancestral womb, still longs to give birth to the Light. So which child shall we ****** tonight, or which Ares condemn to the gloom? Something by Michael R. Burch for the children of the Holocaust and the Palestinian Nakba Something inescapable is lost— lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void. Something uncapturable is gone— gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn, scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass and remembrance. Something unforgettable is past— blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less, which finality has swept into a corner ... where it lies in dust and cobwebs and silence. Keywords/Tags: Frail, envelope, flesh, Nakba, Gaza, Jordan, Palestine, Palestinian, children, mothers, tiny, hand, kiss, mayfly, deluge, tears, epitaph, grave, butterflies The childless woman, how tenderly she caresses homeless dolls ... —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Clinging to the plum tree: one blossom's worth of warmth —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch One leaf falls, enlightenment! Another leaf falls, swept away by the wind ... —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Advice to Young Poets by Nicanor Parra Sandoval loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Youngsters, write however you will in your preferred style. Too much blood flowed under the bridge for me to believe there’s just one acceptable path. In poetry everything’s permitted. Pan by Michael R. Burch ... Among the shadows of the groaning elms, amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves ... ... Once there were paths that led to coracles that clung to piers like loosening barnacles ... ... where we cannot return, because we lost the pebbles and the playthings, and the moss ... ... hangs weeping gently downward, maidens’ hair who never were enchanted, and the stairs ... ... that led up to the Fortress in the trees will not support our weight, but on our knees ... ... we still might fit inside those splendid hours of damsels in distress, of rustic towers ... ... of voices heard in wolves’ tormented howls that died, and live in dreams’ soft, windy vowels ... First Steps by Michael R. Burch for Caitlin Shea Murphy To her a year is like infinity, each day—an adventure never-ending. She has no concept of time, but already has begun the climb— from childhood to womanhood recklessly ascending. I would caution her, "No! Wait! There will be time enough another day ... time to learn the Truth and to slowly shed your youth, but for now, sweet child, go carefully on your way! ..." But her time is not a time for cautious words, nor a time for measured, careful understanding. She is just certain that, by grabbing the curtain, in a moment she will finally be standing! Little does she know that her first few steps will hurtle her on her way through childhood to adolescence, and then, finally, pubescence . . . while, just as swiftly, I’ll be going gray! Everlasting by Michael R. Burch Where the wind goes when the storm dies, there my spirit lives though I close my eyes. Do not weep for me; I am never far. Whisper my name to the last star ... then let me sleep, think of me no more. Still ... By denying death its terminal sting, in my words I remain everlasting. I have the most childlike heart ... —Sappho, fragment 120, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Awed by the moon’s splendor, stars covered their undistinguished faces. Even so, we. —Sappho, fragment 34, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Those I most charm do me the most harm. —Sappho, fragment 12, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Even as their hearts froze, their feathers molted. —Sappho, fragment 42, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Your voice beguiles me. Your laughter lifts my heart’s wings. If I listen to you, even for a moment, I am left speechless. —Sappho, fragment 31, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Sappho, fragment 138, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R. Burch 1. Darling, let me see your face; unleash your eyes' grace. 2. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes' indulgence. 3. Look me in the face,            smile, reveal your eyes' grace ... 4. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes’ acceptance. Sappho, fragment 52 (Voigt 168B / Diehl 94 / *** 48) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1a. Midnight. The hours drone on as I moan here, alone. 1b. Midnight. The hours drone. I moan, alone. 2. The moon has long since set; the Pleiades are gone; now half the night is spent and yet here I lie—alone. Sappho, fragment 24, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R. Burch 1a. Dear, don't you remember how, in days long gone, we did such things, being young? 1b. Dear, don't you remember, in days long gone, how we did such things, being young? 2. Don't you remember, in days bygone, how we did such things, being young? 3. Remember? In our youth we too did such reckless things. Sappho, fragment 154, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1. The moon rose and we women thronged it like an altar. 2. Maidens throng at the altar of Love all night long. Once again I dive into this fathomless ocean, intoxicated by lust. —Sappho, after Anacreon, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Did the epigram above perhaps inspire the legend that Sappho leapt into the sea to her doom, over her despair for her love for the ferryman Phaon? See the following poem ... The Legend of Sappho and Phaon, after Menander loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Some say Sappho was an ardent maiden goaded by wild emotion to fling herself from the white-frothed rocks of Leukas into this raging ocean for love of Phaon ... but others reject that premise and say it was Aphrodite, for love of Adonis. In Menander's play The Leukadia he refers to a legend that Sappho flung herself from the White Rock of Leukas in pursuit of Phaon. We owe the preservation of those verses to Strabo, who cited them. Phaon appears in works by Ovid, Lucian and Aelian. He is also mentioned by Plautus in Miles Gloriosus as being one of only two men in the whole world, who "ever had the luck to be so passionately loved by a woman." You ask me why I've sent you no new verses? There might be reverses. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me to recite my poems to you? I know how you'll "recite" them, if I do. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me why I choose to live elsewhere? You're not there. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me why I love fresh country air? You're not befouling it, mon frère. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You never wrote a poem, yet criticize mine? Stop abusing me or write something fine of your own! —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch He starts everything but finishes nothing; thus I suspect there's no end to his f---ing. —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch You alone own prime land, dandy! Gold, money, the finest porcelain—you alone! The best wines of the most famous vintages—you alone! Discrimination and wit—you alone! You have it all—who can deny that you alone are set for life? But everyone has had your wife—she is never alone! —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch You dine in great magnificence while offering guests a pittance. Sextus, did you invite friends to dinner tonight to impress us with your enormous appetite? —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1. To you, my departed parents, dear mother and father, I commend my little lost angel, Erotion, love’s daughter. who died six days short of completing her sixth frigid winter. Protect her now, I pray, should the chilling dark shades appear; muzzle hell’s three-headed hound, less her heart be dismayed! Lead her to romp in some sunny Elysian glade, her devoted patrons. Watch her play childish games as she excitedly babbles and lisps my name. Let no hard turf smother her softening bones; and do rest lightly upon her, earth, she was surely no burden to you! —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 2. To you, my departed parents, with much emotion, I commend my little lost darling, my much-kissed Erotion, who died six days short of completing her sixth bitter winter. Protect her, I pray, from hell’s hound and its dark shades a-flitter; and please don’t let fiends leave her maiden heart dismayed! But lead her to romp in some happy Elysian glade with her cherished friends, excitedly lispingly my name. Let no hard turf smother her softening bones; and do rest lightly upon her, earth, she was such a slight burden to you! —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Martial wrote this touching elegy for a little slave girl, Erotion, who died six days before her sixth birthday. The poem has been nominated as Martial’s masterpiece by L. J. Lloyd and others. Erotion means “little love” and may correspond to our term “love child.” It has been suggested that Erotion may have been Martial’s child by a female slave. That could explain why Martial is asking  his parents’ spirits to welcome, guide and watch over her  spirit. Martial uses the terms patronos (patrons) and commendo (commend); in Rome a freed slave would be commended to a patron. A girl freed from slavery by death might need patrons as protectors on the “other side,” according to Roman views of the afterlife, since the afterworld houses evil shades and is guarded by a monstrous three-headed dog, Cerberus. Martial is apparently asking his parents to guide the girl’s spirit away from Cerberus and the dark spirits to the heavenly Elysian fields where she can play and laugh without fear. If I am correct, Martial’s poem is not just an elegy, but a prayer-poem for protection, perhaps of his own daughter. Albert A. Bell supports this hypothesis with the following arguments: (1) Martial had Erotion cremated, a practice preferred by the upper classes, (2) “he buried her with the full rites befitting the child of a Roman citizen,” (3) he entrusted her [poetically] to his parents, and (4) he maintained her grave for years. Catullus I (“cui dono lepidum novum libellum”) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch To whom do I dedicate this novel book polished drily with a pumice stone? To you, Cornelius, for you would look content, as if my scribblings took the cake, when in truth you alone unfolded Italian history in three scrolls, as learned as Jupiter and acing the course. Therefore, this little book is yours, whatever it is, which, O patron Maiden, I pray will last more than my lifetime! Catullus LXXXV: “Odi et Amo” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I hate. I love. How can that be, turtledove? I wish I could explain. I can’t, but feel the pain. Catullus CVI: “That Boy” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch See that young boy, by the auctioneer? He’s so pretty he sells himself, I fear! Catullus LI: “That Man” This is Catullus’s translation of a poem by Sappho of ****** loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I’d call that man the equal of the gods, or, could it be forgiven in heaven, their superior, because to him space is given to bask in your divine presence, to gaze upon you, smile, and listen to your ambrosial laughter which leaves men senseless here and hereafter. Meanwhile, in my misery, I’m left speechless. Lesbia, there is nothing left of me but a voiceless tongue grown thick in my mouth and a thin flame running south... My limbs tingle, my ears ring, my eyes water till they swim in darkness. Call it leisure, Catullus, or call it idleness, whatever it is that incapacitates you. By any other name it’s the nemesis fallen kings, empires and cities rue. Catullus XLIX: “A Toast to Cicero” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Cicero, please confess: You’re drunk on your success! All men of good taste attest That you’re the very best— At making speeches, first class! While I’m the dregs of the glass. The famous Roman orator Cicero employed “tail rhyme” in this pun: O Fortunatam natam me consule Romam. O fortunate natal Rome, to be hatched by me! —Cicero, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch The Latin hymn "Dies Irae" employs end rhyme: Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla ***** David *** Sybilla The day of wrath, that day which will leave the world ash-gray, was foretold by David and the Sybil fey. —attributed to Thomas of Celano, St. Gregory the Great, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Bonaventure; loose translation by Michael R. Burch I must admit I’m partial to Martial. — Michael R. Burch Did Sappho write the world's first "make love, not war" poem, more than 2,500 years ago? This poem has been variously titled “The Anactoria Poem,” “Helen’s Eidolon” and “Some People Say.” Some Say Sappho, fragment 16 (Lobel-Page 16) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Warriors on rearing chargers, columns of infantry, fleets of warships: some call these the dark earth's redeeming visions. But I say— the one I desire. And this makes sense because she who so vastly surpassed all other mortals in beauty —Helen— seduced by Aphrodite, led astray by desire, lightly set sail for distant Troy, abandoning her celebrated husband, leaving behind her parents and child! Her story reminds me of Anactoria, who has also departed, and whose lively dancing and lovely face I would rather see than all the horsemen and war-chariots of the Lydians, or all their infantry parading in flashing armor.
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Mar 28, 2020
Mar 28, 2020 at 3:39 AM UTC
Frail Envelope of Flesh
Frail Envelope of Flesh by Michael R. Burch for the mothers and children of Gaza Frail envelope of flesh, lying cold on the surgeon’s table with anguished eyes like your mother’s eyes and a heartbeat weak, unstable ... Frail crucible of dust, brief flower come to this— your tiny hand in your mother’s hand for a last bewildered kiss ... Brief mayfly of a child, to live two artless years! Now your mother’s lips seal up your lips from the Deluge of her Tears ... Note: The phrase "frail envelope of flesh" was one of my first encounters with the power of poetry, although I read it in a superhero comic book as a young boy (I forget which one). More than thirty years later, the line kept popping into my head, so I wrote this poem. I have dedicated it to the mothers and children of Gaza and the Palestinian Nakba. The word Nakba is Arabic for "Catastrophe." Epitaph for a Palestinian Child by Michael R. Burch I lived as best I could, and then I died. Be careful where you step: the grave is wide. Autumn Conundrum by Michael R. Burch for the mothers and children of Palestine It’s not that every leaf must finally fall, it’s just that we can never catch them all. For a Palestinian 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? Where does the rose hide its bloom when night descends oblique and chill beyond the capacity of moonlight to fill? When the only relief's a banked fire's glow, where does the butterfly go? And where shall the spirit flee when life is harsh, too harsh to face, and hope is lost without a trace? Oh, when the light of life runs low, where does the butterfly go? Such Tenderness by Michael R. Burch for the mothers of Gaza There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as only the dove on her mildest day has, when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing and coos to them softly, unable to sing. What songs long forgotten occur to you now— a babe at each breast? What terrible vow ripped from your throat like the thunder that day can never hold severing lightnings at bay? Time taught you tenderness—time, oh, and love. But love in the end is seldom enough ... and time?—insufficient to life’s brief task. I can only admire, unable to ask— what is the source, whence comes the desire of a woman to love as no God may require? "War" is a poem I wrote in my teens that mentions the Jordan River and wars waged with axes in ancient Palestine. War by Michael R. Burch lysander lies in lauded greece and sleeps and dreams, a stone for a pillow, unseeing as sunset devours limp willows, but War glares on. and joab's sightless gaze is turned beyond the jordan's ravaged shore; his war-ax lies to be taxed no more, but War hacks on. and roland sleeps in poppied fields with flowers flowing at his feet; their fragrance lulls his soul to sleep, but War raves on. and patton sighs an unheard sigh for sorties past and those to come; he does not heed the battle drum, but War rolls on. for now new heroes grab up guns and rush to fight their fathers' wars, as warriors' children must, of course, while War laughs on. 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. But war is obsolete; even the cold robotic drone that flies far overhead has sense enough to moan and shudder at her plight (only men bereft of Light with hearts indurate stone embrace war’s Siberian night). For war is obsolete; man’s tribal “gods,” long dead, have fled his awakening sight while the true Sun, overhead, has pity on her plight. O sweet, precipitate Light! — embrace her, reject the night that leaves gentle fledglings dead. For each brute ancestor lies with his totems and his “gods” in the slavehold of premature night that awaited him in his tomb; while Love, the ancestral womb, still longs to give birth to the Light. So which child shall we ****** tonight, or which Ares condemn to the gloom? Something by Michael R. Burch for the children of the Holocaust and the Palestinian Nakba Something inescapable is lost— lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void. Something uncapturable is gone— gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn, scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass and remembrance. Something unforgettable is past— blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less, which finality has swept into a corner ... where it lies in dust and cobwebs and silence. Keywords/Tags: Frail, envelope, flesh, Nakba, Gaza, Jordan, Palestine, Palestinian, children, mothers, tiny, hand, kiss, mayfly, deluge, tears, epitaph, grave, butterflies The childless woman, how tenderly she caresses homeless dolls ... —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Clinging to the plum tree: one blossom's worth of warmth —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch One leaf falls, enlightenment! Another leaf falls, swept away by the wind ... —Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Advice to Young Poets by Nicanor Parra Sandoval loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Youngsters, write however you will in your preferred style. Too much blood flowed under the bridge for me to believe there’s just one acceptable path. In poetry everything’s permitted. Pan by Michael R. Burch ... Among the shadows of the groaning elms, amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves ... ... Once there were paths that led to coracles that clung to piers like loosening barnacles ... ... where we cannot return, because we lost the pebbles and the playthings, and the moss ... ... hangs weeping gently downward, maidens’ hair who never were enchanted, and the stairs ... ... that led up to the Fortress in the trees will not support our weight, but on our knees ... ... we still might fit inside those splendid hours of damsels in distress, of rustic towers ... ... of voices heard in wolves’ tormented howls that died, and live in dreams’ soft, windy vowels ... First Steps by Michael R. Burch for Caitlin Shea Murphy To her a year is like infinity, each day—an adventure never-ending. She has no concept of time, but already has begun the climb— from childhood to womanhood recklessly ascending. I would caution her, "No! Wait! There will be time enough another day ... time to learn the Truth and to slowly shed your youth, but for now, sweet child, go carefully on your way! ..." But her time is not a time for cautious words, nor a time for measured, careful understanding. She is just certain that, by grabbing the curtain, in a moment she will finally be standing! Little does she know that her first few steps will hurtle her on her way through childhood to adolescence, and then, finally, pubescence . . . while, just as swiftly, I’ll be going gray! Everlasting by Michael R. Burch Where the wind goes when the storm dies, there my spirit lives though I close my eyes. Do not weep for me; I am never far. Whisper my name to the last star ... then let me sleep, think of me no more. Still ... By denying death its terminal sting, in my words I remain everlasting. I have the most childlike heart ... —Sappho, fragment 120, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Awed by the moon’s splendor, stars covered their undistinguished faces. Even so, we. —Sappho, fragment 34, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Those I most charm do me the most harm. —Sappho, fragment 12, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Even as their hearts froze, their feathers molted. —Sappho, fragment 42, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Your voice beguiles me. Your laughter lifts my heart’s wings. If I listen to you, even for a moment, I am left speechless. —Sappho, fragment 31, loose translation by Michael R. Burch Sappho, fragment 138, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R. Burch 1. Darling, let me see your face; unleash your eyes' grace. 2. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes' indulgence. 3. Look me in the face,            smile, reveal your eyes' grace ... 4. Turn to me, favor me with your eyes’ acceptance. Sappho, fragment 52 (Voigt 168B / Diehl 94 / *** 48) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1a. Midnight. The hours drone on as I moan here, alone. 1b. Midnight. The hours drone. I moan, alone. 2. The moon has long since set; the Pleiades are gone; now half the night is spent and yet here I lie—alone. Sappho, fragment 24, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R. Burch 1a. Dear, don't you remember how, in days long gone, we did such things, being young? 1b. Dear, don't you remember, in days long gone, how we did such things, being young? 2. Don't you remember, in days bygone, how we did such things, being young? 3. Remember? In our youth we too did such reckless things. Sappho, fragment 154, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1. The moon rose and we women thronged it like an altar. 2. Maidens throng at the altar of Love all night long. Once again I dive into this fathomless ocean, intoxicated by lust. —Sappho, after Anacreon, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Did the epigram above perhaps inspire the legend that Sappho leapt into the sea to her doom, over her despair for her love for the ferryman Phaon? See the following poem ... The Legend of Sappho and Phaon, after Menander loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Some say Sappho was an ardent maiden goaded by wild emotion to fling herself from the white-frothed rocks of Leukas into this raging ocean for love of Phaon ... but others reject that premise and say it was Aphrodite, for love of Adonis. In Menander's play The Leukadia he refers to a legend that Sappho flung herself from the White Rock of Leukas in pursuit of Phaon. We owe the preservation of those verses to Strabo, who cited them. Phaon appears in works by Ovid, Lucian and Aelian. He is also mentioned by Plautus in Miles Gloriosus as being one of only two men in the whole world, who "ever had the luck to be so passionately loved by a woman." You ask me why I've sent you no new verses? There might be reverses. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me to recite my poems to you? I know how you'll "recite" them, if I do. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me why I choose to live elsewhere? You're not there. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You ask me why I love fresh country air? You're not befouling it, mon frère. —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch You never wrote a poem, yet criticize mine? Stop abusing me or write something fine of your own! —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch He starts everything but finishes nothing; thus I suspect there's no end to his f---ing. —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch You alone own prime land, dandy! Gold, money, the finest porcelain—you alone! The best wines of the most famous vintages—you alone! Discrimination and wit—you alone! You have it all—who can deny that you alone are set for life? But everyone has had your wife—she is never alone! —Martial, loose translation by Michael R. Burch You dine in great magnificence while offering guests a pittance. Sextus, did you invite friends to dinner tonight to impress us with your enormous appetite? —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 1. To you, my departed parents, dear mother and father, I commend my little lost angel, Erotion, love’s daughter. who died six days short of completing her sixth frigid winter. Protect her now, I pray, should the chilling dark shades appear; muzzle hell’s three-headed hound, less her heart be dismayed! Lead her to romp in some sunny Elysian glade, her devoted patrons. Watch her play childish games as she excitedly babbles and lisps my name. Let no hard turf smother her softening bones; and do rest lightly upon her, earth, she was surely no burden to you! —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 2. To you, my departed parents, with much emotion, I commend my little lost darling, my much-kissed Erotion, who died six days short of completing her sixth bitter winter. Protect her, I pray, from hell’s hound and its dark shades a-flitter; and please don’t let fiends leave her maiden heart dismayed! But lead her to romp in some happy Elysian glade with her cherished friends, excitedly lispingly my name. Let no hard turf smother her softening bones; and do rest lightly upon her, earth, she was such a slight burden to you! —Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Martial wrote this touching elegy for a little slave girl, Erotion, who died six days before her sixth birthday. The poem has been nominated as Martial’s masterpiece by L. J. Lloyd and others. Erotion means “little love” and may correspond to our term “love child.” It has been suggested that Erotion may have been Martial’s child by a female slave. That could explain why Martial is asking  his parents’ spirits to welcome, guide and watch over her  spirit. Martial uses the terms patronos (patrons) and commendo (commend); in Rome a freed slave would be commended to a patron. A girl freed from slavery by death might need patrons as protectors on the “other side,” according to Roman views of the afterlife, since the afterworld houses evil shades and is guarded by a monstrous three-headed dog, Cerberus. Martial is apparently asking his parents to guide the girl’s spirit away from Cerberus and the dark spirits to the heavenly Elysian fields where she can play and laugh without fear. If I am correct, Martial’s poem is not just an elegy, but a prayer-poem for protection, perhaps of his own daughter. Albert A. Bell supports this hypothesis with the following arguments: (1) Martial had Erotion cremated, a practice preferred by the upper classes, (2) “he buried her with the full rites befitting the child of a Roman citizen,” (3) he entrusted her [poetically] to his parents, and (4) he maintained her grave for years. Catullus I (“cui dono lepidum novum libellum”) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch To whom do I dedicate this novel book polished drily with a pumice stone? To you, Cornelius, for you would look content, as if my scribblings took the cake, when in truth you alone unfolded Italian history in three scrolls, as learned as Jupiter and acing the course. Therefore, this little book is yours, whatever it is, which, O patron Maiden, I pray will last more than my lifetime! Catullus LXXXV: “Odi et Amo” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I hate. I love. How can that be, turtledove? I wish I could explain. I can’t, but feel the pain. Catullus CVI: “That Boy” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch See that young boy, by the auctioneer? He’s so pretty he sells himself, I fear! Catullus LI: “That Man” This is Catullus’s translation of a poem by Sappho of ****** loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch I’d call that man the equal of the gods, or, could it be forgiven in heaven, their superior, because to him space is given to bask in your divine presence, to gaze upon you, smile, and listen to your ambrosial laughter which leaves men senseless here and hereafter. Meanwhile, in my misery, I’m left speechless. Lesbia, there is nothing left of me but a voiceless tongue grown thick in my mouth and a thin flame running south... My limbs tingle, my ears ring, my eyes water till they swim in darkness. Call it leisure, Catullus, or call it idleness, whatever it is that incapacitates you. By any other name it’s the nemesis fallen kings, empires and cities rue. Catullus XLIX: “A Toast to Cicero” loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Cicero, please confess: You’re drunk on your success! All men of good taste attest That you’re the very best— At making speeches, first class! While I’m the dregs of the glass. The famous Roman orator Cicero employed “tail rhyme” in this pun: O Fortunatam natam me consule Romam. O fortunate natal Rome, to be hatched by me! —Cicero, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch The Latin hymn "Dies Irae" employs end rhyme: Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla ***** David *** Sybilla The day of wrath, that day which will leave the world ash-gray, was foretold by David and the Sybil fey. —attributed to Thomas of Celano, St. Gregory the Great, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Bonaventure; loose translation by Michael R. Burch I must admit I’m partial to Martial. — Michael R. Burch Did Sappho write the world's first "make love, not war" poem, more than 2,500 years ago? This poem has been variously titled “The Anactoria Poem,” “Helen’s Eidolon” and “Some People Say.” Some Say Sappho, fragment 16 (Lobel-Page 16) loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Warriors on rearing chargers, columns of infantry, fleets of warships: some call these the dark earth's redeeming visions. But I say— the one I desire. And this makes sense because she who so vastly surpassed all other mortals in beauty —Helen— seduced by Aphrodite, led astray by desire, lightly set sail for distant Troy, abandoning her celebrated husband, leaving behind her parents and child! Her story reminds me of Anactoria, who has also departed, and whose lively dancing and lovely face I would rather see than all the horsemen and war-chariots of the Lydians, or all their infantry parading in flashing armor.
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See by Michael R. Burch See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem like hair at all, but like the airy moult of emus who outraced the wind and left soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs, and deepens on itself, as though mirth took some comfort there, then burrowed deeply in, outlasting winter. See how very thin her features are—that time has made more spare, so that each bone shows, elegant and rare. For life remains undimmed in her grave eyes, and courage in her still-delighted looks: each face presented like a picture book’s. Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes. Keywords/Tags: Elderly, woman, grandmother, thin, thinning, hair, airy, emu, moult, soft, plumage, wrinkles, laugh lines, frail, gaunt, bones, winter, grave, eyes, courage, laughter, family, gathered, bedside, kisses, hugs, goodbyes, farewells, life, death, photo album, pictures, photos, photographs Published by The Eclectic Muse, Love Me Knots (an anthology of the top 100 contemporary love poems), Nutty Stories (South Africa), Black Medina, The New Formalist, Better Than Starbucks, Potcake Chapbooks, Strange Roads, Sonnetto Poesia, Litera (UK), Poems About, Poetry Life & Times, MahMag (in a Farsi translation by Dr. Mahnaz Badihian), Somewhere Along The Beaten Path (Anthology), Freshet, Life & Legends, Famous Poets & Poems, Short Quotes & Poems (listed in the top 10 short poems) and Victorian Violet Press. “See” won 3rd place in the 2003 Writer’s Digest Rhyming Poetry contest, out of over 18,000 overall entries, and was published in Writer’s Digest’s The Year’s Best Writing.
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Mar 6, 2020
Mar 6, 2020 at 4:44 AM UTC
See
See by Michael R. Burch See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem like hair at all, but like the airy moult of emus who outraced the wind and left soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs, and deepens on itself, as though mirth took some comfort there, then burrowed deeply in, outlasting winter. See how very thin her features are—that time has made more spare, so that each bone shows, elegant and rare. For life remains undimmed in her grave eyes, and courage in her still-delighted looks: each face presented like a picture book’s. Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes. Keywords/Tags: Elderly, woman, grandmother, thin, thinning, hair, airy, emu, moult, soft, plumage, wrinkles, laugh lines, frail, gaunt, bones, winter, grave, eyes, courage, laughter, family, gathered, bedside, kisses, hugs, goodbyes, farewells, life, death, photo album, pictures, photos, photographs Published by The Eclectic Muse, Love Me Knots (an anthology of the top 100 contemporary love poems), Nutty Stories (South Africa), Black Medina, The New Formalist, Better Than Starbucks, Potcake Chapbooks, Strange Roads, Sonnetto Poesia, Litera (UK), Poems About, Poetry Life & Times, MahMag (in a Farsi translation by Dr. Mahnaz Badihian), Somewhere Along The Beaten Path (Anthology), Freshet, Life & Legends, Famous Poets & Poems, Short Quotes & Poems (listed in the top 10 short poems) and Victorian Violet Press. “See” won 3rd place in the 2003 Writer’s Digest Rhyming Poetry contest, out of over 18,000 overall entries, and was published in Writer’s Digest’s The Year’s Best Writing.
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Pfennig Postcard, Wrong Address by Michael R. Burch (for the victims and survivors of the Holocaust) We saw their pictures: tortured out of our imaginations like golems. We could not believe in their frail extremities or their gaunt faces, pallid as our disbelief. They are not with us now ... We have: huddled them into the backroomsofconscience, consigned them to the ovensofsilence, buried them in the mass graves of circumstancesbeyondourcontrol. We have so little left of them now to remind us ... It was my honor to work with survivors of the Holocaust as we translated their poems and prose accounts into English as a way of preserving them and making them available to larger audiences. Unfortunately, time waits for no one and the Holocaust survivors I worked with are no longer with us. But their words and testimonies remain, if we will only take the time to read and consider them. Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, victims, survivors, mass graves, pictures, images, tortured, frail, gaunt, skeletal, emaciated, thin, malnourished, golemic, horror, terror, inhumanity, madness, racism, antisemitism, slave labor, slavery, death camps, concentration camps, gas chambers, ethnic cleansing, genocide, memory, remembrance, memorial, tribute
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Feb 29, 2020
Feb 29, 2020 at 4:16 AM UTC
Pfennig Postcard, Wrong Address
Take solace in my blistered heart a disarray of bleeding memories for I will rise from the ashes unharmed and unscathed a moment of equilibrium glances of ambition shattered photos of weathered faces it would appear that I've been reborn Bask upon the decline the memories once again fade becoming decadent once more for I am frail.
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Feb 17, 2020
Feb 17, 2020 at 12:29 PM UTC
The Decline
I was the nail in a coffin of hardship. But just because I was a nail didn't disconnect me from the ideology of my use. I held it together, for many this was to much, brittle and frail they never dug down deep. Where I held this all together, I wasn't about to let life pull me out,. I was a nail, holding my life together, a coffin of hardships that 'll bury one day.. but for now I'm in deep enough to keep it together.
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Feb 7, 2020
Feb 7, 2020 at 9:11 AM UTC
Nail In A Coffin
i am. like an old porcelain doll cracked. i don't want to be dropped I'll shatter, pieces all over the floor. on a shelf i sit next to others sitting pretty in dresses and makeup looking like people they aren't. i am quiet but honest because i need protecting. i know where i've been recently i've been covered in dust sitting alone in a room with no one to hold me. pushing myself off the shelf, allowing the cracks to move across my body.
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Jan 20, 2020
Jan 20, 2020 at 11:55 PM UTC
fragile
There were warning signs to beware, great walls you had to climb, more parcels inside, sealed with labeled reminders to handle with care. That a wrong cut of a wire could trigger explosives, that the place wasn't just fragile, it was also volatile. There's a reason why from miles away you'd been told to keep your own distance. Why this wasn't just something you could happen to stumble upon, but a shipwreck, a paper town, a lost city you needed to find. When it dawned upon you that this was not paradise, but a haunted cemetery of some kind, you snuck your way back to the hole you fell into; burning the place to the ground, like the ones who came before you.
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Oct 8, 2019
Oct 8, 2019 at 8:59 AM UTC
Frail
Flutter of an evening chill the black rain, bores into me Another diamond engulfs me Opaque Tarnished Branded Announces a failing flickering candle then smoke The lower breeds Lust Consumes
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Jun 4, 2019
Jun 4, 2019 at 11:38 AM UTC
Weak
All I see Are our frail memories...
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May 13, 2019
May 13, 2019 at 7:21 PM UTC
frail
Head placed upon the middle of your pillow, leaving a circular dent surrounding it- Your pigtails on the side, tied in pink and red bows. An attire of frilly, cotton, pyjamas, tainted with dainty flowers- a total of 32 spastically placed. Memories Filled with frills and pixie dust, along with the shards of glass -lined with blood. Thinking back, On the beauty of the moments, Of the innocence that once filled your mind- gently placed upon the pillow lined with delicate lace, beneath your frail, fazed face.
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Apr 26, 2019
Apr 26, 2019 at 12:50 PM UTC
Frail Frills
I leave a trail of shattered hearts.. so frail.. Clumsy I am...
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Mar 18, 2019
Mar 18, 2019 at 3:14 PM UTC
Shattered
Do not say, what you feel I'm not here To listen Do not remember me I'm not the one Who cares Do not dream of me I'm not the one You deserve I can't be there, where You want me to be Then ***** felt Nothing left No dreams No wishes No voices Nothing at all Stayed silent with A fragile heart A heavy head A dead soul Since then
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Mar 16, 2019
Mar 16, 2019 at 12:02 AM UTC
Numb
She has taken Times test And stood till she was 80 The skin is thin on those old bones now She shivers And for the first time feels old and frail
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Mar 15, 2019
Mar 15, 2019 at 8:26 PM UTC
Old and Frail
even love, a faded meaning the uneven skill; bludgeoning the compass a longing, a thirst for fortress in the prodigal past always seems to swim so shallow an even meaning when roses die a shadow walking ground, a skeleton in the earth leaning on its symbiotic ecstasy; frail and ephemeral dipped in a sea of ash   when paradise keel's over in sea awake in this lucid dream let loose of the pipe lest you breath as love a silent lips for astrologers, even a tombstone for gazers blood streaming down the crown; never to grow rose love is the soil.
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Dec 5, 2018
Dec 5, 2018 at 5:15 AM UTC
The name of love
You keep on running back to me, You sneak into my skin, Banging on my frail bones, shouting “Please let me come in!” I try to keep the blinds closed And pretend that I’m not here, But you wait until I yield to you Before you disappear.
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Nov 13, 2018
Nov 13, 2018 at 9:06 AM UTC
When Anxiety Comes Knocking
Ramshackled dream Held together with glue and string And prayers Floating as a feather Yet easily the heaviest of things What tapestries you inspire Yet not strong enough the exit my mind Keeping you hidden Incubating long term Until you’re almost over cooked Make I take a glimpse of you Never to touch, in fear of the break Complexly understated A warming flame Flickering in this empty cold world Ramshackled dream Pretty to most, breathtaking to me Sitting ever fervent Waiting to shine Wait to breathe the air
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Sep 28, 2018
Sep 28, 2018 at 8:08 AM UTC
Ramshackled Dream