Abject Poems

It was once said, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth".
Revenge isn't really sweet, but it is a bit uncouth.
You were fooled by thinking you would win.
In your losing battle, you committed another sin.

It can't be...Read More

When abject fear visits me
Puffs up like Simon Legree
Consciously yet so sweetly
Ignore myself completely


Let the Pens Flow - JUEJU Poetry Contest 
Sponsor: Jenish Somadas
Date: March 14th, 2020


...Read More

One of those days we rarely appreciate until later
I took my paints and walked to Kynance Cove
I had seen it from afar of course, but never up close
It was inspiring to the point of making me cry with hope

Breeze off...Read More

The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand bars. Nothing beyond.
Lithe, swinging with...Read More

Barren and bloody,
    I have dreamed of death ...
      I have stood beneath the sea of suns,
       Heaven's raw wound gaping to swallow me,

  ...Read More

Alms! shouted the beggar, 
as the royal carriage went by,
But just then, an arrow flew past,  
piercing the kings eye,
Killing him instantly, 
it penetrated his brain,
Beggar is still mumbling,
“lucky sod felt no pain.”

Perception can be misleading, 
changes all the...Read More

I stood in awe as she alighted like a bird upon some branch,
Belisha beacon to the abyss bound  clochard.
Bonfire for uncanny scion  adrift,
 ignited by her
incandescent eyes.
Chanteuse  of Arcadia  on song and sound.
Halo at the crossroads,...Read More

While looking for a bridge
to cross over tonight

Connecting time honored values
to internet blight

I thought and I pondered,
as I surfed on the net

But the things that it offered
were sadly abject

Where is the laughter,
the thrill of the chase

Through forest and meadow,
with all...Read More

Your swollen red kissable lips
Abject sadness I see in your
cloud gray eyes

A swirl of energy
Koi spiral around you
keeping you safe

Woman of the pond
What are your secrets?
The pain is yours
To reveal or to keep 
to yourself

I will honor you either way.
...Read More

Glittery snowflakes shining with hope
Glitzy and gleaming, showing off winter’s best
Houses and chimneys crowned with fluffy clouds of white
Nature’s call to beauty in January and February

Jack Frost has made his rounds,
The snow drifts are magnificent, 
There is a silence in...Read More

Pulled the pig to pork, a cannibal delights
Carnage seals the man with death
Final moments marked irrelevant
Flesh defends, abject betrayal dwells

Selfish kills to self-sustain
Sacrifice of squealing swiftly justified
Lacking passion living violence profane
Carry on promoting death inside

Render on without a shame
“Survival takes...Read More

Skip a planet down the line
Where the Martians play within our mind
For carry-outs just call ahead a month or two
However, rest assured that none would answer you

Earth she pulls us close, our living Mater
Not to fly away at once (a...Read More

Hi there new born baby, welcome to your life,
Off to work tomorrow, mother’s got no choice,
Your at the teats, sister’s slung around her back,
Ten hours in the field, gathering god knows what,
She’s pregnant again, another one’s in the pot. 

Oh...Read More

My english teacher, with love and conviction,
did her best to improve our foul diction.
No easy task, we now admit in retrospect;
for it robbed her patience and left her abject.
Her farewell talk was best of all, for once
we understood her clearly,...Read More

Shout


shouts of reason hard to explain...

their pharoah is to blame,


Share to rock asunder;
belly is the beast to stand still nor defeat

rivers run in order




march their swift cowardice...
onto their spineless and their weak


true to be timid
afraid of it's fold

to abject it...Read More

In A Suburban Paradise

I was to spend hours on my bed 
writing short stories in 1967;
with my left leg dangling over the left side, 
I sat on the right leg,
like I was some nosy bird nesting on a log, 
watching...Read More

Every crack you see endangers me…
as time fills it with dread
Shallow wails may swallow me
but straddle flailing pride
and abject design
Restore our hearts we must,
but you say it will pass

Timely words in sequence may yet
result in mine
Unchecked but still censored…
My reply...Read More

Along the ambrosial garden alleyway 
of assorted colors, it appeared we ambled together 
for ages, until an atrocious angst of afflicting storm 
blew away all the flowers abloom for us.

As apathy rent asunder my dreams gone awry
the embrace of the...Read More

Many selfish parents never notice  abject feelings of children....Read More

Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
translation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within, while his composed will
emanates dynamism. Otherwise
the...Read More

A master's son at dusk gibed me, a tragic life
When my toils, he gratify defraying with feed
Was he who culled from abject, a hapless life
An itchy bastard deflating hope with a rod.

O' courage into my blood drip, I must reclaim
Away...Read More

Dwelling in the court
of the inner-sanctum
of contemplation,

sage mind of jurisprudence
charged my heart
with abject neglect;

not of cherished others,
but of myself:
collectively, me and I.

It is written that
we must love others
as we love ourselves;

furthermore, that we
should love each other
as the Author of love...Read More

The tears of a lifetime
I have saved in my heart
Each chamber a well
Calmly doing its part.

Some tears are so happy
First kiss, wedding, births
Those tears feel lighter
Gravity less than earth’s.

They are clear and they sparkle
A biographical snow globe
I swim in their...Read More

One of the worst cases of child murder in Australian history occurred on August 8 1992 in Bargo, New South Wales, when Andrew Garforth seized nine-year-old Ebony Simpson, who was on her way home from school, and shoved her in...Read More

A palate of dreams
To me, so it seems
We are cursed
To ruminate our worth 
Abject discipline
Kill the obsessions
There’s nothing to crave
From the grave

It’s a veritable feast
Or comparable, at least
A potluck of chance
Birthed in circumstance 
Herded primates
The great ingrates 
Damaging, hammering
Glorifying clambering...Read More