Afternoons Poems

Opening my eyes once more,
Seeing the sky.
Once icy blue and numb black
Now burns fiery red and raging orange.
Glancing downwards to see the blazing horizon
And recognizing that same flame within myself.
The heat of the sun burning on my face
In vertical rays...Read More

On these cold bitter bleak afternoons when the sun sets , the sky turns to a dark but mysterious shade of blue .
As I look through my small window I look up to the moon and I'm instantly reminded of...Read More

Morning brews sunrise colors-
yolk yellow seeping over 

edges; light sterling silver 
strung; rubbed linens ironed 

across the rim. The creatural
world-a lime olive, sea blue 

cup- has a view from space:
mottled tints- mud grey, green. Deep.

Sienna red flames bedewed.
Aged worn cotton...Read More

The Garment

You came to me, friend, seeking comfort
From a blustering wind
Clutching in your heart the shreds of a dream
Slashed by a storm of harsh words.

Threads made up of stolen moments
Woven in borrowed afternoons –
Patches of evening with moonlight stitches,
Scraps of...Read More

On sultry humid southern afternoons
we gathered on the old mansion porch,
glasses filled with ice and long-stemmed spoons,
sipping grandma’s home-brewed lemonade 
spiked with grandpa’s finest homemade
white-lightnin’ packing a punch as any
he had for years been brewin’ illegally,
which got us selves lit...Read More

Renewable Radiance

Streams of clearest light,
Born of a star,
Splash across flaxen maize,
Beckoning tall sunflowers to follow
With their skyward gaze
Dashing through newborn dewdrops
Creating playful shadows
In the bouncing, 
  dappling, 
    flashing, 
     flowing
Golden glow...Read More

I've never been one to cuddle, hold hands and hug;
Usually makes me feel uncomfortable.
I usually prefer spending nice time with nice people,
People I care for and who care too, ensemble.

You made me get out of my comfort zone,
Though just by...Read More

I ask myself
what care I for
this world devoid of you
this world which often left you cold
this world which made you blue
what care I for a summers day
for quiet afternoons
what care I for the time of day
I'd spend alone with you
what...Read More

Ode To Survival

As I sit here in this still cemetery facing nomadic west,
Under these ancient oaks with deep green leaves descending,
I see the ghostly dead before me rising up as star zephyrs,
The men and women that once spoke a multitude...Read More

Ode to a Land of Wonder

I walk a journey through shady forests set aside 
Where sunbeams slide to earth on airy pillows 
Where verdant green nestles all about the ferns
In emerald hues to mirror rows of leafy greens
Then turn to...Read More

afternoons Sunday
windows waddles so quiet
enjoying the door

moving back and forth
as the wind laughs blowing forth
a breeze mountains breath

out the window scene
so quiet window waddles
as I peer outside


moving back and forth
thus I witness all of this
whist I peek more


1/9/20
Written words by...Read More

There are gaps in the particleboard;
quince wads fill the breaches.
Nicotine newspapers underlay the linoleum.
It's a rented place, he tiptoes
around its yellow layers.

He has a friend he visits on Sunday afternoons.
The walls of her bedsit are paper thin.
She thinks her neighbors...Read More

reach down beneath
	mustard yellow tank
to the stopcock there
	and opened the flow

to neutral shift
	open the clutch
lightly in leap up
	and kick down hard

blip the throttle
	till the engine settles
click into gear
	engage the clutch

open the throttle
	the engine roars
the bike leaps ahead
	and your smile spreads

in...Read More

Here he smiles and there's such joy again!
Blue balloons and red; faces at the windowpane.
Now a green one, then a brown;
With his orange hair, why, he's a clown!

Sunrise yellows, pinks and purple;
Vivid colors attract little people
Each summer day without rain;
Every...Read More

Away

Friends in the distance, 
we laugh from afar. 
You are on the other side, 
of the world. 

I am humbled by the miles, 
knowing we will never meet, 
but...
I am sure that...
we already, 
have. 

Maybe not at the market or...Read More

winter approaches
 
leaves shiver in swirling wind
trees stripped to bare skeletons
dusk descends sooner in afternoons
 
it's sunny all year long
in Southern California
falling hail the closest to snow
 
I light a candle in my heart
that keeps me bright and warm
even in...Read More

The Peripheries of Love
by Michael R. Burch

Through waning afternoons we glide
the watery peripheries of love.
A silence, a quietude falls.

Above us—the sagging pavilions of clouds.
Below us—rough pebbles slowly worn smooth
grate in the gentle turbulence
of yesterday’s forgotten rains.

Later, the moon like a...Read More

Said the moon to the sun
   I was the first across the sky to run

Said the sun to the moon
   True, but you can have your dark evenings and nights
  
For I've got bright mornings...Read More

It is December!
Chilly-cold air all around
Windy air pluck trees' leaves
With branches bare without coverings
And cramped buds waiting to bloom.

Dark afternoons, soon we see
Early bells, ring aloud!
Playing lads, all agog
"It is bed time....", mumbled, busy lasses.

Cladded gentlemen, from heads to knees
Walking...Read More

In the absence of complication,
trials and tribulations become distant memories.
Above sapphire skies delight sanguine eyes -
inspiring forthcoming musings of the mind,
fantasies that flash with passing moments, 
pink afternoons shades of emotions blossoming.

We weave through the weeds and reeds to 
reach...Read More

Soldier Boy”



He left a boy -
That young man 
Whose face held the last vestiges of freckles
From summers spent tramping about
The countryside on sunny afternoons.

He left a boy -
That proud young soldier
Who brushed away the mother’s desperate grasp
Who bade him promise...Read More

We were sitting in our 60+ sharing circle
on a rainy Tuesday afternoon,
grey and raw and dreary,
listlessly speaking of the need to downsize,
to transition to a more manageable
more safe
more audible habitat.

And wanting to hang onto our independent mobility,
our cars, in most...Read More

Inspiration comes in breaths
Of lilac scented afternoons
Spent sitting on the front porch swing
Talking to Granny about everything

Her heart was always in the right place
Just between mercy and amazing grace
She listened intently to my every thought
Not caring that I was just...Read More

streets
   passageways
   gutters 
   shutters
   roofs
squares
   polished pipes
reveal
     a masquerade of smells
of rooms
that dress
&
cling to memory

silhouettes
   provide a screen
for
hips&thighs
     ...Read More

Lazy bees and honey blossoms bright,
Dance and float in warm sunlight!
Days of golden afternoons;
Birds colored like bright balloons.

Dainty flowers in hair;
Sun rays fall everywhere!
And also on the mountainside,
Where the eagle's nest hides.

On the wire sits crows;
The spring sparkles as it...Read More