apollo

"Finally to Burn" is a poem about the Fall and Resurrection of Icarus, with the assistance of Tom o’Bedlam.

Finally to Burn
by Michael R. Burch

Athena takes me
sometimes by the hand

and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands

where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting

and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting

and all I remember
,upon awaking,

is: to Love sometimes
is like forsaking

one’s Being—to drift
heroically beyond thought,

forsaking the here
for the There and the Not.

Herbsttag (“Autumn Day”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

i was born at sunrise
hence, i am named 
after the sun
i am the servant
i give light
i give love
i light the path 
for those around me
i am fierce in my burning
but cold in my ashes