Best Crossly Poems

Limericks VI - Religion

Pell-Mell for Hell Mel
by Michael R. Burch

There once was a Baptist named Mel
who condemned all non-Christians to hell.
When he stood before God
he felt like a clod
to discover His Love couldn’t fail!



Why I Left the Religious Right
by Michael R. Burch

He's got Jesus's name...

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Who's that girl by the ancient tree...
She's the daughter of a butcher, quiet and pouty...
She's always there, contemplating unspoken prophecy...
She scribbles poetry,
they say her Mother is a sibyl raving...
Solitude serves her like the aroma of rain on young chaos calming...
She's bad magic bro, leave it...

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few fly up and down
                                   few widen wings crossly fly
 ...

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The Whisper of Love
The mild spring wind whispered: I love you and stroked 
my face… but then it clouded over the wind hoarsely 
shouted: I love you. I fled indoors but it howled nonstop 
by the French window: I love you, and I held my...

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You rock me wildly
 To the black rhythms of juju music from the radio;
 Drinking horn in hand.
 Not too drunk to tread
 The course of blue, warmth
 And moaning shadows behind batiste curtain.
 Waves crashing beneath your waist beads
 Ripples tickling the reeds of...

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there's method to the madness
and a method to incivility
there's a vastness of redress 
and an obvious instability

bodies and anti-bodies
in constant fight for dominion
decades, in fact, many centuries
enforcing perceived God's opinion

crossing oceans, crossing hearts
cross ways and walks and words
crossly notion to tear it apart
peace seems abstract,...

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Doggerel I or Nonsense Verse

A$$tronomical
by Michael R. Burch

Einstein, the frizzy-haired,
proved E equals MC squared.
Thus, all mass decreases
as activity ceases?
Not my mass, my a$$ declared!



Bible Libel
by Michael R. Burch

If God
is good,
half the Bible
is libel.

I came up with this epigram after reading the Bible from cover to...

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Senryu 

As sun pales 
The old town looks haggard 
Till dawn 


Senryu 
Streetlamps sadly knows
They only play stand-in roles   
The sun is the star. 

Senryu 
When sun takes a break 
Crossly hides behind a cloud 
The day is murky...

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The State of the Art (I)
by Michael R. Burch

Has rhyme lost all its reason
and rhythm, renascence?
Are sonnets out of season
and poems but poor pretense?

Are poets lacking fire,
their words too trite and forced?
What happened to desire?
Has passion been coerced?

Shall poetry fade slowly,
like Latin, to past tense?
Are...

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The Making of a Poet
by Michael R. Burch

While I don’t consider “Poetry” to be my best poem—I wrote the first version in my teens—it’s a poem that holds special meaning for me; I call it my ars poetica. I also consider the poems that follow...

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Limericks I - Relatives and Relativity

The Cosmological Constant
by Michael R. Burch

Einstein, the frizzy-haired,
said E equals MC squared.
Thus all mass decreases
as activity ceases?
Not my mass, my a$$ declared!


A$$-tronomical
by Michael R. Burch

Relativity, the theorists’ creed,
says mass increases with speed.
My (m)a$$ grows when I sit it.
Mr. Einstein, get...

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Poems about Poems (I)



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer
~~~underwater~~~
watching the shoreline blur
sees through his breath’s weightless bubbles...
Both worlds grow obscure.



Muse/Goddess
by Michael R. Burch

“What will you conceive in me?”
I asked her. But she
only smiled.

“Naked, I bore your child
when...

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Poems about Poets I


The Wonder Boys
by Michael R. Burch

for Leslie Mellichamp

The stars were always there, too-bright cliches:
scintillant truths the jaded world outgrew
as baffled poets winged keyed kites—amazed,
in dream of shocks that suddenly came true ...

but came almost as static—background noise,
a song out of the cosmos...

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Epigrams VI

These are humorous epigrams including a form I call "Less Heroic Couplets." 



Less Heroic Couplets: Mini-Ode to Stamina
by Michael R. Burch
 
When you’ve given so much
that I can’t bear your touch,
then from a safe distance
let me admire your persistence.



Less Heroic Couplets: Less than Impressed
by...

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I wait crossly
To get picked up straightaway
I wait optimistically
To step into the murky bowels of my car

I can’t advance…
When you’re dragging me to your feet
I can’t progress…
When you’re motivating me to be incomplete

I wait at ease
To get a ride home
I wait with heaps of crotchetiness
To...

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