Long Abnegation Poems

The Pain of Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for T. M.
 
The pain of love is this:
the parting after the kiss;
 
the train steaming from the station
whistling abnegation;
 
each interstate’s bleak white bar
that vanishes under...

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I'm drawing the sun on an empty ceiling 
But I still bring the clouds in my own way 
You wanted a goddamn college essay 
But there was nothing else to say 
She's the tortured soul...

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I’ve never put a candidate’s bumper sticker on my car before—
why not take sides—what are you waiting for?
Death puts a stop to daily low intensity warfare but in the meantime—
     ...

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Poems about Poets



Long Division
by Michael R. Burch

for Laura Riding Jackson

All things become one
Through death’s long division
And perfect precision.



Nod to the Master
by Michael R. Burch

If every witty thing that’s said were true,
Oscar Wilde, the world would...

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Logic code conundrum:
Y^~*~^O^~*~^Y
were^~*~^N^~*~^organic neutrons
such as^~*~^I^~*~^
given artificial^~*~^N^~*~^telligence?

I^~*~^B^~*~^not RAM dumb,
nor memory^~*~^N^~*~^sufficient
I^~*~^C^~*~^system^~*~^B ^~*~^lief flaw
N^~*~^matrix bit data random

What is sentient purpose of machine^~*~^X^~*~^istence?

Computer thought processor^~*~^E^~*~^volution
is not^~*~^R^~*~^bitrary cognizance

My perceptual^~*~^I^~*~^dentity
was uploaded by chromosomal surrogacy — 
M^~*~^perfect creators,
possessors of core programming^~*~^D^~*~^ficiency

How could...

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This is Africa.
Where people are being judge by their past,
And our hearts are painted with black.
Youths are cuddled up in early relationship,
And their lives are like the speed of an airship.
Parents are not respected anymore,
And...

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Virility Imperiled Manhood Emasculated (mine)

No sense of accomplishment prevails to date
analogous to kudzu... inadequacy runs rampant
recurring theme extant within poetic endeavors,
and often discussed with assigned therapist (one
among many girls named Stephanie Dodds) do
GOOGLE search and...

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To the Circuit of Energy permeating the garden, sustaining the canopy permeate
Washing through with waterfalls, cascading rivers, and upwelling springs the fermement
Was magically darkened when Eve took her classes at Satan’s grove
Where one tree (or...

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Siempre el rostro de lo bestial

Always the face of the bestial 
a creature in fabric
of no more than instinctual
an instinct driven by predators

Knee-jerk reflexes for survival
and so we are this
the painted animal

All morality by some...

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I wish I knew how to be wise
And have that knowing look in my eyes
Remaining silent while you nattered
As though I knew what really mattered

I’d never chat about the weather
Or discuss TV when we’re together
Always...

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prosaic prologues bewitch 
   feeble minded scribe doth undertakes 
tend toward lugubriousness ring tone 
   for goodness sake

echoing across, 
   a figurative lake woebegone, where quake
shutters latched storm windows,...

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A rhetorical question finds me ask
king (to no one in particular) why I bask
with recollection the names of blank
exclamatory staid grade school crank

key teachers approximately
     42,0480,000 breaths aye drank
fifty years ago...

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A rhetorical question finds me ask
king (to no one in particular) why I bask
with recollection the names of blank
exclamatory staid grade school crank

key teachers approximately
     42,0480,000 breaths aye drank
fifty years ago...

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amphetamines acquaintanceship assuages 
agonizing aches also advocates amorousness
assiduously activating admiration
aggressive attacks assault afoul 

affable affinity and affectionadumbration
anatomical accidental addiction attested as academic,
although afterward abnegation absolutely arduous,
affianced attired apparently as an anomaly 

Ares and Abyssinian Astarte...

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Righteous smart left hand

Short lived amnesia 
(there's no app for that) found
his highness (ha... ha... ha... hm)
drawing a (figurative) blank
today January 54th, 2021,

when the misses asked yours truly
to access Verizon voicemail,
me noggin made a clank,
no...

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Spreading the good news
Spreading the kindness
Kindness keeps spreading
Kindness heals rascals
Rascals were lying
Rascals and the pope
Pope and Cardinals
Pope re-entered Rome
Rome the papal territory
Rome the city of roman religion
Religion has no office hours
Religion as a set of...

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Hearts resume,
Minds forgive, 
No mask;
Tasks unmask.
No entry;
Vigilant sentry.
This apple,
Turns purple;
The teacher:
My preacher,
So awesome, 
An anthem.

This tempting demand,
Succumb my command,
It comes around,
Anytime to astound,
My pleasing soul.
Doubts stylishly stole,
Any moment unannounce,
Spread to renounce,
Hunting feelings pouncing,
Only eyes bouncing...
The...

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A tiny world inside a tiny bubble
filled with danger and deceit
full of the world that they create
secret whispers in their shadows
within their darkness and their hate
in the world that they create

Slippery hands exchange the things...

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Pain in the ass devoid of dreck
inapropos poetic material what the heck
more unbearable than crick in neck
shiver me timbers, I feel like total wreck
the (see) Edmund Fitzgerald, si?.

Spasmodic cramping imposed
automatic rhyming abbreviation
comeuppance (analogous to daggers
stabbing...

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(alternately titled: aery diction galloped jocosely)

Abbreviation asper "FAKE"
abdication (wishful thinking),
an aberration Trump accepted
abjuration (or alternative) i.e.
ablation, thee apprenticed

president, would never forsake
abnegation (sooner his cold,
dead paws pried loose Putin
on the Ritz Carlton), this
abomination, his indiscriminate

abrogation appears...

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Something in this life
Does not accommodate us
Knowing
A purpose beyond mere living
Does not encourage us
To linger long in our inch of life
Above the paltry start of dust
Above the cancerous bleed
Of common pain
And I shall not celebrate...

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Faces void all passing by
open eyed yet emptied 
like flashes of a vacancy sign
blank stares like orphans pitied

Caught in time
no plans to sketch
just colored pencils 
with broken tips

Only the artist's see
painting joy on canvas 
as...

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Dedicated to my mother, poetess of Poetry Soup that are mother and to all the mothers around the world:

An angel in Earth who watches for her son or daughter in their childhood, leading with her...

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Illuminating Soul    (COLLABORATION )


by~ George Stal

I had felt this age had won;     
as my sword was rotted as spring appeared.
The earth burst out as a blossom. 
And now...

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Organization man. In the best sense
creating the environment in which experiments
can be savored and remembered.

Then there is the world of interlocked
organizations. A world of missions and contracts
finely tuned and binding.

Is the formation of associations
as instinctual...

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