Best In Fine Fettle Poems

Fate someday will determine when our days are concluded,
And those who think otherwise are sadly deluded!
Plans were made to ease my crossing with little compunction,
When...

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in quietness divine
   the xanthous zephyr balm
      a citrusy ascent
        ...

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More things can happen or could have happened,
From a cold metal,
Sharpened in fine fettle,
Making skin nettled,
Damaging the mettles,
To keep minds unsettled,
Provoking to ask, if this...

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Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any...

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State of the Art (II)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What...

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The shock that I felt was enormous,
as the tab on the cat food I pulled,
a fountain of biscuits shot out of the top-
the box, it...

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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...

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Upon the spirits of love, and bliss
The powers of peace, and harmony
The soil I plant my feet within,
And the Goddess; I do humbly serve thee…
Grant...

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Sonnets XXXIII-XLI

The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch

She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must...

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The sword, 
buried deep in its' scabbard, 
tempered by fire, 
strength it holds, 
I desire 

Metal fashioned by human hands, 
skill from distant lands. 
Beauty...

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Abide
by Michael R. Burch

after Philip Larkin's "Aubade"

It is hard to understand or accept mortality—
such an alien concept: not to be.
Perhaps unsettling enough to spawn religion,
or...

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The sword, 
buried deep in its' scabbard, 
tempered by fire, 
strength it holds, 
I desire 

Metal fashioned by human hands, 
skill from distant lands. 
Beauty...

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I am a little archangel,
please let me in your garden dwell,
when there,I will spread out so well;
Later,you won't let me settle
but I'll keep you in...

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Soft skin like a petal, long after butterflies settle,
a shoulder against my lip,
in such fine fettle, and testing my mettle,
my palm naturally finding your hip.

My...

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L-et the dust settle, 
I-nstead of making it gray; 
E-vade the rugged wind, 
Z-ealously take trouble
A-way.

G-ive time till things get calmer, 
O-bliterate the devil's way;...

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