Thank you for the air we breathe in
So that we can filter out
Dust and dirt;
Thank you for the water we drink
So that we can water plants, trees,
Green roots and ruts.
Thank you for the food we eat
So that we live to save the canopy
Of man and mankind;
......
Earth,
that fine, pneumatic
piece of gem from space,
bulbous, bluish with
the hand of beauty
adorned with furry clouds,
yet in closer sense lies
senseless to internal
doom.
Dear Earth,
I vouch for your honesty any day
and rebuke strongly this cluster of vices upon you —
bone and teeth, claws and talons, fins and scales
and other forms of skeletal dryness.
Earth my kinsman,
remain steadfast and bury with quicksand these vices —
fingernails and beaks, hoofs and blades
and other instruments of hardness.
......
A three legged crow, one day he shone, brighter than he ever had,
looking as if he gleamed with joy, as if he's never been free before,
He was covered in light, but he slowly lost the life he has ever clad,
In the silence of the vantablack, he whimpered the life he had.
The mistress who had bathed in his warmth was sad to watch him depart,
Slowly she would feel the cold of loneliness breathing down her nape,
Her children would meet death's embrace, tearing the mother and child apart,
Leaving the lonely mother to weep with a veil of snow that she would drape,
The universe would watch her silently, as if in this tragedy he had no part.
......
I empty my pockets and remove my shoes
Becoming weightless in a saturated world.
Floating skyward with no control,
Looking down on the little people
Driving their little cars
Living their little lives.
Everlasting, the little Earth carries on.
A three legged crow, one day he shone, brighter than he ever had,
looking as if he gleamed with joy, as if he's never been free before,
He was covered in light, but he slowly lost the life he has ever clad,
In the silence of the vantablack, he whimpered the life he had.
The mistress who had bathed in his warmth was sad to watch him depart,
Slowly she would feel the cold of loneliness breathing down her nape,
Her children would meet death's embrace, tearing the mother and child apart,
Leaving the lonely mother to weep with a veil of snow that she would drape,
The universe would watch her silently, as if in this tragedy he had no part.
......
Under the vast and silent sky, a young man raised his gaze to the twinkling stars above. He always felt that the stars held a special story for him, a story carved with light in the night sky.
On the other side of the world, there was a girl who also loved to look at the stars. She felt that there was something special every time she looked at the stars, as if they were whispering to her about a love she had yet to find.
One night, under the same blanket of stars, the young man and young woman found themselves thinking about love and hope. Unbeknownst to them, the twinkling stars above were actually forming a pattern that carried a message for the two of them.
The message was "A sincere heart will always find its way." The stars became silent witnesses to their meeting that had yet to happen, but was already written in the night sky. A love story carved in the name of heaven, waiting to be realized.
Sometime later, fate brought them together at an art event. They felt as if they had known each other for a long time, just as the stars told them on that silent night. Their love story begins, with the stars as silent witnesses who always remind them of the story carved in the night sky.
Jakarta, 3 January 2025
“Jessamyn’s Song” was inspired by Claude Monet’s oil painting “The Walk, Woman with a Parasol,” which I first saw around age 14 and interpreted as a walk in a meadow or heather. The woman’s dress and captivating loveliness made me think of an impending wedding, with dances and festivities. The boy made me think of a family. I gave the woman a name, Jessamyn, and wrote her story, thinking along these lines, while in high school. The opening lines were influenced by “Fern Hill” by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, one of my boyhood favorites and still a favorite today. “Jessamyn’s Song” was substantially complete by age 16, my first long poem, although I was not happy with the poem, overall. I have touched it up here and there over the last half century, but it remains substantially the same as the original poem.
Jessamyn's Song (circa age 14-16)
by Michael R. Burch
16
There are meadows heathered with thoughts of you,
where the honeysuckle winds
in fragrant, tangled vines
......
Before the dawn of time’s first breath,
Before the light of morning’s crest,
There was a Presence, pure and grand,
Who shaped the stars with His own hand.
He did not begin where beginnings unfold,
Nor fit within the bounds of old,
For He, the Prime Mover, the Uncaused Cause,
Initiated all with divine laws.
......
Earth,
that fine, pneumatic
piece of gem from space,
bulbous, bluish with
the hand of beauty
adorned with furry clouds,
yet in closer sense lies
senseless to internal
doom.