Long Football Poems

For ten months now I’ve brooded over coming second place
in the pickle section deeming, it no less than a disgrace.
It was written plain and simple, so there can be no excuse,
that the pickles in this...

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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

It's not that every leaf must finally...

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Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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March  2026
The final weeks of the CCC plan:
Damian and Polly planned the
Copy Cat Club convergence with
Molly and Dolly. The meet was postponed 
A few times until everything was set.
Damian and Dolly knew one another...

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Molly and Dolly were in their 
New getaway room on the top 
Floor listening to music.
While Damian spent time with 
The kids in the backyard. He
Wanted to install a pool for the
Youngest children, then switch...

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Rejection Slips

With over 5,700 publications if I count poems that have gone viral, I suppose I shouldn’t complain … but I do have some poems that have never been accepted for publication. Here are a...

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Who hasn't this nightmare of forgetting an inspirational word or phrase happened to?
                      ...

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Unquotable quotes: Tale-Carriers, Gossip-Mongers, Courrier-Pigeon Caretakers, Smoke-Signal Puffers and Tom-Tom Thumpers – XXVI

Could there be such things as political shenanigans or inter-continental warfares, even catastrophes, natural disasters, tsunamis, irruptions, conflagrations, inundations, landslides, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes,...

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It was 1968 we'd gathered again in the school auditorium my tiny hands sweating only five years old while my name was called in all of this cold  
civil rights riots plagued my little...

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I remember feeling so empty the abuse had escalated after four hurricanes witnessing a murder horrific traumatic brain injury I was now uprooted leaving my beautiful home in Fort Myers Florida at the behest of...

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After witnessing a murder meant for me after surviving a car bomb igniting my skull crushed my face bruising my brain i received threatening calls from my husbands mistress I'd reported break ins strange behavior...

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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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Remember when you were very young,                             ...

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~  Life,  God  Gave ~ 
( Octa- Tri ) 
 




~O~




God's Love glow 
From our hearts let it flow 
My Lord, You're my Light, Hope, Joy and Guide. 



~o~ 


You heal heart,...

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Oh how I want a doggy, 
a bundle of love and fur.                       ...

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We were off,                                ...

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Face to the sky,
Breath of the Caribbean
Woven with earthy Autumn,
Saturates the alveoli of my lungs,
Pouring raw impulses into the neurons of
My pleasure centers, so triggering a myriad of
Memories ... the demurring requiem to summer tide...

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I remember my cherished Wolf Cub pack, 
How I loved those Wednesday evenings, 
The games, the pomp and seriousness of the camps, 
The different coloured scarves, sweaters and hair 
During the mass meetings, 
The solemnity...

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Date. August  2023 

Damian turned 22 and Moved  from his
 family's estate Into his own
 duplex apartment, 5 bedrooms.
One master bedroom and 
1 and a half bathrooms. 
Down town West Virginia. One night...

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When we set out on a road trip
We didn’t stick to the old script
And were gladly amazed
And rarely unfazed
Hitting strange towns though some were skipped

We started from Thatsnot, OK
Which was more or less ok
But then...

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Here's the scoop, friends...like a bunch of my pieces now posted - and coming soon - this is, as indicated, the 1st HALF of this fairly lengthy poem. The 2nd half had to be posted...

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One seat back from where I sat in almost every class was where this wimpy, red-haired nerd, I’d hated from the start,
Made a point of sitting, thinking - if he played it right - because...

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Come look come see,                               ...

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I. The Love of Minds

The volume on the desk,
The one not claimed by dust or burned
By light, will follow her to bed tonight.
Its pages will be turned and smothered,
Each in turn, so as not to...

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