christ is a liberty
christ is a liberty of rock n roll
christ is a liberty of hell
christ is christ of liberty
rock n roll is a christ of a crisis
rock n roll is hail as a crisis
rock n roll is hail as hell

a crisis is a crisis of hell
a crisis is a crisis of rock n roll
hell is hail as hell
hell is hail as crisis
a hail of rock n roll is a hail of crisis
liberty is hail as hell
liberty is hail as rock n roll

liberty honor liberty
liberty honor crisis
honor is honoring crisis
honor is honoring liberty

These are lullabies I have written over the years, as poems. Some of my poems have been set to music and thus have become actual songs and lullabies.

For a Ukrainian 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?

These are modern English translations of Urdu poems by Mirza Ghalib. 

Near Sainthood
by Mirza Ghalib
translation by Kanu V. Prajapati and Michael R. Burch

On the subject of mystic philosophy, Ghalib,
your words might have struck us as deeply profound ...
Hell, we might have pronounced you a saint,
if only we hadn't found
you drunk
as a skunk!

***

Ghazal
by Mirza Ghalib
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not the blossomings of song nor the adornments of music:
I am the voice of my own heart breaking.

These are poems of mine that have been turned into songs by composers, plus a few that I would like to become songs.

Indestructible
by Michael R. Burch

for Johnny Cash

What is a mountain, but stone?
Or a spire, but a trinket of steel?
Johnny Cash is gone,
black from his hair to his bootheels.

Can a man out-endure mountains’ stone
if his songs lift us closer to heaven?
Can the steel in his voice vibrate on
till his words are our manna and leaven?

Poems for Posting July 2021

Index

Former President's Revenge Chastushka writing com/fan story
I Will Always Remember Fan story posting
Dental Torture Blues
Changes /Fan Story
The love of my life
Five Doublets About Life. Fan Story
How to Start My Day
Meeting my fate
The world is a strange place
Donald Trump Dreams of revenge
Frank Zappa My Hero, fan story 
Every Day I Wake with Pride/fan story
Sam Adams In Limbo/fan story
Love/Hate/Fan story
Life as a U.S. Diplomat/Fan Story
Coffee, Tea or Me?
I Prefer Hot Coffee

There is beauty in her.
The way she moves,
Like she’s in a perfect rhythm with the earth.
She hums in sweet sixths with the birds,
While I settle in dissonance,
Lost in the sound.

There is wonder in her;
Her eyes gleam with passion,
and the birds sing, now in thirds.
Meanwhile, I remain in dissonance,
Lost in the sound.

There is fiction in her;
the way she smiles,
and time comes to a halt for a single moment.
She stopped singing,
and the birds mourned the emptiness,
While I stayed in dissonance,
Lost in the sound.