#sorrows
PURITY OF LOVE
Eyes are like half closed windows,
My soul rest in peace in a dark corner,
Heartbeat bends, emotion turns slow,
I am now absolutely hypnotized by
Another mystic love affair like a dream rare!
All my goodness is ready to shower like rain,
My real aura is a true copy of self ego,
My past is that perished time to reason out
All my melancholic thoughts are now
Hanging in and around my own mind-set,
As my ways are strange than your beauty
All sorrows are in the full heal of purity.
(C) WILLIAMSJI MAVELI
4d ago
May 30, 2026 at 12:23 AM UTC
I ‘ve got my poems no one cares about
Got my soul searching in a shadow of a doubt
I’ve got my blues, my pains, my regrets
Got my mind you couldn’t catch with 50 nets
I can zig and zag, twist and turn, then run away
Can save all those sorrows for the next rainy day
I can cry about it, lie about it, then write all night
Can use my spell check for words not spelled right
I see the world with its good and bad
See the things that make me sad
I see what it’s all done, how it changed me
See what it says, what it means in poetry
5/25/26
May 25
May 25, 2026 at 9:32 PM UTC
I drowned in the sea of melancholy but, I will make sure you reside in my heart eternally
In the summer our love lingered, no thoughts foresaw our future withered.
My eyes blinded me mouth shut my veins cut to bleed my heart out, But your thought in my mind felt like sun’s warmth during wintertime.
Though our hearts, minds and spirits broken I regret the words never spoken, we know our love was never fake.
I cried you wiped the tears of my eyes, the old him ’n’ her died, love molded us every night we spent together
And now I drown in the sea of melancholy my legs caught in sorrow, regret and pain slowly pulled below never to be risen again.
Mar 23, 2025
Mar 23, 2025 at 9:53 AM UTC
In a cathedral of stone, stark and white,
with a lone statue from long before.
It stands in a niche, with a soft spotlight
shining on its medieval decor.
A ****** Mary, with her Mona Lisa smile,
looks down from her pedestal high.
In quiet, I stand and gaze at her for a while.
Did I just hear her audibly sigh?
Her gilded robes are weathered, cracked,
the once bright paint’s faded and spare,
many scars made plain by shadows cast
by a red circle of candles lit by prayers.
What crises has this scarred Mary seen?
Her sighs echo ours: This statue’s hallowed
by the pains the prayerful to her bring.
I hail thee, marred Mary, full of our sorrows.
Jan 19, 2025
Jan 19, 2025 at 11:02 AM UTC
I have titled this collection of ancient Chinese poems SORROWS OF THE WILD GEESE by HUANG E
Sent to My Husband
by Huang E
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The wild geese never fly beyond Hengyang ...
how then can my brocaded words reach Yongchang?
Like wilted willow flowers I am ill-fated indeed;
in that far-off foreign land you feel similar despair.
“Oh, to go home, to go home!” you implore the calendar.
“Oh, if only it would rain, if only it would rain!” I complain to the heavens.
One hears hopeful rumors that you might soon be freed ...
but when will the Golden **** rise in Yelang?
A star called the Golden **** was a symbol of amnesty to the ancient Chinese. Yongchang was a hot, humid region of Yunnan to the south of Hengyang, and was presumably too hot and too far to the south for geese to fly there.
Luo Jiang's Second Complaint
by Huang E
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The green hills vanished,
pedestrians passed by
disappearing beyond curves.
The geese grew silent, the horseshoes timid.
Winter is the most annoying season!
A lone goose vanished into the heavens,
the trees whispered conspiracies in Pingwu,
and people huddling behind buildings shivered.
Bitter Rain, an Aria of the Yellow Oriole
by Huang E
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
These ceaseless rains make the spring shiver:
even the flowers and trees look cold!
The roads turn to mud;
the river's eyes are tired and weep into a few bays;
the mountain clouds accumulate like ***** dishes,
and the end of the world seems imminent, if jejune.
I find it impossible to send books:
the geese are ruthless and refuse to fly south to Yunnan!
Broken-Hearted Poem
by Huang E
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
My tears cascade into the inkwell;
my broken heart remains at a loss for words;
ever since we held hands and said farewell,
I have been too listless to paint my eyebrows;
no medicine can cure my night-sweats,
no wealth repurchase our lost youth;
and how can I persuade that ****** bird singing in the far hills
to tell a traveler south of the Yangtze to return home?
These are my modern English translations of poems by the Chinese poet Huang E (1498–1569), also known as Huang Xiumei. She has been called the most outstanding female poet of the Ming Dynasty, and her husband its most outstanding male poet. Were they poetry’s first power couple? Her father Huang Ke was a high-ranking official of the Ming court and she married Yang Shen, the prominent son of Grand Secretary Yang Tinghe. Unfortunately for the young power couple, Yang Shen was exiled by the emperor early in their marriage and they lived largely apart for 30 years. During their long separations they would send each other poems which may belong to a genre of Chinese poetry I have dubbed "sorrows of the wild geese."
Springtime Prayer
by Michael R. Burch
They’ll have to grow like crazy,
the springtime baby geese,
if they’re to fly to balmier climes
when autumn dismembers the leaves ...
And so I toss them loaves of bread,
then whisper an urgent prayer:
“Watch over these, my Angels,
if there’s anyone kind, up there.”
Originally published by Borderless Journal (Singapore)
The Mallard
by Michael R. Burch
The mallard is a fellow
whose lips are long and yellow
with which he, honking, kisses
his ***** boisterous mistress:
my pond’s their loud bordello!
Kindred (II)
by Michael R. Burch
Rise, pale disastrous moon!
What is love, but a heightened effect
of time, light and distance?
Did you burn once,
before you became
so remote, so detached,
so coldly, inhumanly lustrous,
before you were able to assume
the very pallor of love itself?
What is the dawn now, to you or to me?
We are as one,
out of favor with the sun.
We would exhume
the white corpse of love
for a last dance,
and yet we will not.
We will let her be,
let her abide,
for she is nothing now,
to you
or to me.
Hangovers
by Michael R. Burch
We forget that, before we were born,
our parents had “lives” of their own,
ran drunk in the streets, or half-stoned.
Yes, our parents had lives of their own
until we were born; then, undone,
they were buying their parents gravestones
and finding gray hairs of their own
(because we were born lacking some
of their curious habits, but soon
would certainly get them). Half-stoned,
we watched them dig graves of their own.
Their lives would be over too soon
for their curious habits to bloom
in us (though our children were born
nine months from that night on the town
when, punch-drunk in the streets or half-stoned,
we first proved we had lives of our own).
Breakings
by Michael R. Burch
I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.
But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now what can I do for her shattered psyche’s sake?
I did it not to push.
I did it not to shove.
I did it to assist the flight of indiscriminate Love.
But gods, all mad as hatters,
who legislate in all such matters,
ordained that everything irreplaceable shatters.
Habeas Corpus
by Michael R. Burch
from “Songs of the Antinatalist”
I have the results of your DNA analysis.
If you want to have children, this may induce paralysis.
I wish I had good news, but how can I lie?
Any offspring you have are guaranteed to die.
It wouldn’t be fair—I’m sure you’ll agree—
to sentence kids to death, so I’ll waive my fee.
Like Angels, Winged
by Michael R. Burch
Like angels—winged,
shimmering, misunderstood—
they flit beyond our understanding
being neither evil, nor good.
They are as they are ...
and we are their lovers, their prey;
they seek us out when the moon is full
and dream of us by day.
Their eyes—hypnotic, alluring—
trap ours with their strange appeal
till like flame-drawn moths, we gather ...
to see, to touch, to feel.
Held in their arms, enchanted,
we feel their lips, so old!,
till with their gorging kisses
we warm them, growing cold.
Update of "A Litany in Time of Plague"
by Michael R. Burch
THE PLAGUE has come again
To darken lives of men
and women, girls and boys;
Death proves their bodies toys
Too frail to even cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Tycoons, what use is wealth?
You cannot buy good health!
Physicians cannot heal
Themselves, to Death must kneel.
Nuns’ prayers mount to the sky.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Beauty’s brightest flower?
Devoured in an hour.
Kings, Queens and Presidents
Are fearful residents
Of manors boarded high.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
We have no means to save
Our children from the grave.
Though cure-alls line our shelves,
We cannot save ourselves.
"Come, come!" the sad bells cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
faith(less)
by Michael R. Burch
Those who believed
and Those who misled
lie together at last
in the same narrow bed
and if god loved Them more
for Their strange lack of doubt,
he kept it well hidden
till he snuffed Them out.
ah-men!
The Cosmological Constant
by Michael R. Burch
Einstein the frizzy-haired
claimed E equals MC squared.
Thus all mass decreases
as activity ceases?
Not my mass, my *** declared!
Ass-tronomical
by Michael R. Burch
Relativity, the theorists’ creed,
claims mass increases with speed.
My (m)ass grows when I sit it.
Mr. Einstein, get with it;
equate its deflation, I plead!
The Hair Flap
by Michael R. Burch aka "The Loyal Opposition"
The hair flap was truly a scare:
Trump’s bald as a billiard back there!
The whole nation laughed
At the state of his graft;
Now the man’s wigging out, so beware!
Salvation of a Formalist, an Ode to Entropy
by Michael R. Burch
Entropy?
God's universal decree
That I get to be
Disorderly?
Suddenly
My erstwhile boxed-in verse is free?
Wheeeeee!
Keywords/Tags: Chinese poetry, China, sorrow, sorrows, geese, rain, heavens, hills, winter, trees, rivers, mountains, books, birds, spring, springtime, baby, babies, pray, prayer, angels
May 19, 2024
May 19, 2024 at 7:54 AM UTC
At times I wish I didn't care
and didn't feel anything too deep
but if i refused to care at all
I wouldn't be here, I wouldn’t be me.
Many things I see, I find pre-defined
A darkness is left, the kids aren’t alright
Yet within the chaos, the shot of hope gleams
A chance for redemption, before the final dream.
My love unveils both joy and sorrow
A kaleidoscope of emotions for today and tomorrow
Even in depths of despair, resilience rises
Shadows and trials end with silver-lined surprises.
To feel deeply is my way to truly live
A tapestry weaves the stories I have to give
For even in shadows, my light does grow
My heart guides me to what the truth knows.
So I seek to embrace the highs and lows
Through my rivers of tears, a garden grows
In vulnerability, I find a reality
Worthy of bonding with all humanity.
Dec 17, 2023
Dec 17, 2023 at 1:18 AM UTC
Listening to your silence, I heard:
Songs and prayers
Tranquility and music
Tears and smiles
Laughters and cries
Despair and hope
Sorrows and joys
Loathing and longing
Passion and peace
Whispers and loud voices
Hussein Dekmak
Aug 13, 2023
Aug 13, 2023 at 5:44 AM UTC
I see you looking back at me,
but I have no memory of you,
no name or event to link us
as kindred soul.
There's a sun playing
expressionless games
about to fall from the shelf,
my feet may burn, but never my heart.
My mirror is a broken window,
the broken window, a city,
and a man and woman
are crossing into it,
—crossing my mind,
fused together.
Their laughter like
claps of thunder,
bursting forth in a sky
devoid of any signs of me...
Nov 21, 2022
Nov 21, 2022 at 6:40 AM UTC
Sky of sooth broke into rain
Fell upon me
Drowned me deep
Deep into grief
Mar 21, 2021
Mar 21, 2021 at 2:03 PM UTC
In the rain out with an umbrella black,
Standing still with the weights on your shoulder.
Passes by the passengers of time,
Leaving footprints of moments enclosed in your mind.
Traveling and meeting eyes,
With strangers you may never find
Again in this lifetime...
Lost in the sands of time.
Feeling broken and the heart heavy,
Hurt in ways never imagined.
Drifting down the window pane like rain,
In solace you find your stay.
Nov 1, 2020
Nov 1, 2020 at 5:35 AM UTC
_Vellichor (n.): the strange wistfulness of used bookstores._
Oct 20, 2020
Oct 20, 2020 at 5:13 PM UTC
We believed in our own sorrows, and drunk the last sip of relief until the reigns were lost in the forest.
Now, we are deserted to the realm of the ocean’s abyss, left to kiss the lotion smoothing the desert on my skin.
I abandoned all hope, including the ship in the saving grace of preventing my loss of a superficial fantasy.
Shackled, left to roam freely in our thoughts, breathing for freedom is impossible in the last stages of cancer.
When my body gives in to cells eating away my life, I too, will say goodbye to my long-standing dreams that were aboard.
Oct 18, 2020
Oct 18, 2020 at 6:09 AM UTC
When a person is drowning or struggling through life , he doesn't make a sound !
You'll see him laughing his heart out .
A man with great humor .
A man is sweet a suger blend with others just like suger blends with water .
You'll see him shining
Blowing conversations with home's
Cheering other's .
But there always a other side of a coin ,
There always a dark side of the moon .
Let's forget about his hidden depression , sorrows his tears...
What about the little things we miss out ??
When he asks i need you ?
When he left the party after everyone's left ?
When he talks deeply to cheer other , where is this comes from ?
When he Post's something sad online and everyone mocks him around .
When he spend hours in bed , sleepless ..?
Have you noticed his playlists '" where the light in your deep dark room '"......
Have anyone noticed his health shrinking ?
Have anyone notices he's offline for days ?
Please notice . Please be there
Sep 8, 2020
Sep 8, 2020 at 12:01 PM UTC
I tried existing truthfully;
I made one and a thousand mistakes
Some of them alike white lies,
Yet most of them are tragic.
I asked for forgiveness, I beg.
I lay down on my knees ahead
My heart, I heard— screaming, praying
Devouring for merciful hands.
To seek the face of God,
I no longer wanted to suffer for
They see me brave, but nothing of a dolor
And I ask Him, hear me out once more
In the midst of midnight confusion,
I no longer wanted to fight anymore;
I wanted to end the pain in galore—
And for people to find my name buried in store.
May 22, 2020
May 22, 2020 at 8:51 AM UTC
In the bed the thorns out
Piercing through my skin
The red liquid flowing, peeling
My body hollow.
I want it, I need it
I don't want to stay so I'm going
Save the blessings for your sins
You don't owe me nothing.
Escaping the purgatory
As the heart bleeds out
Bones shed the skin
Overcoming the impending doom.
Slowly the world fades
As my eyes turns black
My soul subtly rise
To reach the depths of hell.
The last time I breathe in
To fulfil my last wishes
Grant myself death
As it offers me in its cold palm.
Aug 3, 2020
Aug 3, 2020 at 6:25 AM UTC
I have been listening to you. To all your worries and pain, your sorrows and tears, your brokenness and shame. I've witnessed everything, held you heart and loved you all the same.
But when my time came and all of me became broken, why did you throw me away?
Jul 29, 2020
Jul 29, 2020 at 11:10 AM UTC
my nightstand is full of unread books, lavender candles and leather journals.
i like to keep books beside my bed because i would like to read someone else's outlook on life instead of writing about my sorrows.
Jul 13, 2020
Jul 13, 2020 at 11:22 AM UTC
Broken mirrors
Broken hearts
Broken minds
Like shards of glass
The patterns forming a work of art
Shrouded by demons of the past
The black cat saunters over
Tipping salt as he alludes
To the bad luck I can’t dispose of
Rubbing salt into my wounds.
I see an Orthodox priest
A ***** blonde with blue eyes
The people murmur as he passes by
Garlic, they cry,
To fight the psychotic presence
In order to eliminate
This demonic essence.
He blessed an expectant mother
In flat #43
He doesn’t recognise her folly
And leaves her in glee.
A young soldier
One among 3
Died after his cigarette was lit
From the same matchstick
As the clock struck 4
A constant reminder
Of its incessant tick-tock
In spite of the woe
The woman- pregnant no more
Comes to the cemetery threshold
Wishing her late husband
And stillborn boy cheerio.
I look at the sky
There they glide, the harbingers of evil
Thick billed ravens and crows
A symbol of one’s sorrows
Flying over the dead
In search of a feast of despair.
Leaving my new shoes on the table
I kiss my love’s forehead
And point at the rainbow outside
While thinking I’m the luckiest woman alive.
May 24, 2020
May 24, 2020 at 2:55 PM UTC
You are forever gone,
leaving me to do nothing but mourn
the death of someone held so dear,
made by the world
to seem so mere.
As if you were just another statistic,
By the next day, they'd forget
And be having a picnic.
Whilst my mind struggled to comprehend,
how to deal with the loss
of such a close friend.
How to honour your name,
in a way it would feel you were here,
just the same.
People die every day,
bringing more pain
than words can say.
Every day, people are forgotten,
as their corpses rotten,
by their loved ones like the world taught 'em,
to grieve and forget,
forget they ever met.
Your death becomes another story,
Even though you meant much more to me.
Your memory fades,
by the passing of the days.
I worry that I will forget your face,
I worry someone will steal your place.
As the days pass by,
they expect be to accept your death
and be okay.
But my heart still aches for you
in every way.
I vow to grieve for you
every day.
For acceptance would mean saying goodbye.
Acceptance would mean taking away
what's left of your life.
May 11, 2020
May 11, 2020 at 11:12 AM UTC