Long Accompaniment Poems

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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It had been a hellish week.

On Monday
my lonely and tired AfricanAmerican husband
told me, as gently as possible,
that what I had hoped was a temporary separation
is to be extended into perpetuity.

This separation had been scheduled to...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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Happy Fourth Of July, Or Happy Independence Day

On this day we celebrate and commemorate the birth of our nation, The United States of America's Independence from Great Britain's monarchical hold and liberty's triumph
Congress voting in...

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The Republican congressmen,
and I do mean white privileged straight men,
came to their Democratic opposition
concerned about how depressing
December can be,
and all of winter,
come to think and feel
of dark discerning Advent,

So maybe we could stage
a comedic debate
about...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: L (50) - Tongue-Teasers

The « early bird catches the worm » only because the worm has not woken up yet.

« I don’t love you ! I hated your father ! » - must...

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Increase In Head Size

impossible mission to encapsulate notion 
flitting hither and yon, to and fro
within cranium attached to mine body,
whereby irrefutable proof prevails
predicated when yours truly
scrutinizes other people visibly aware,
I a modest married male 
blessed,...

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The reading of Villon poems at West Berlin’s Free University, Winter Semester 1957-58
                      ...

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I was raised in one of those white nationalist churches,
passing itself off as a Christian evangelical Bible church,
where "evangelical" meant fundamental
and "fundamental" meant we did not interpret scripture
but accepted it as God's literal trans-historical Word
of...

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This story remains unfinished
as do all the best tales told.
Yet I must warn you
it has a happy healthy ending,
not dystopian,
although not a finished
political wealth utopia, 
Ever After LoveLife;
warm accompaniment
trusted energy of democracy

Where this power story...

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I am a right-brain prominent writer
which must not be confused with
a prominent left-brain writer,
which I am almost decidedly not
nor would I aspire
toward such all or nothing thinking
and not at all both/and feeling.

Like most writers,
I feel...

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Our anti-racism, pro-polyculturing health
anti-egopatriarchy, pro-ecofeminist wealth
anti-homophobic, pro-trans-regenerative
anti-injustice Team, pro-restoring peace Organizers

Meet inside a viciously anti-outdoor
windowless
airless
music-less
museless
left-brain oppressively dominant room,
climate,
atmosphere,
attitude of ungratitude.

Two women I passionately admire,
would warmly accompany within any outdoor sacred space,
are doing their best to...

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The range in its majesty gives way to open thoughts of the wild things in taming, I have eaten hard pan and dust as my regular meal to be had.

I to the constant trail beaten...

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I am much more likely to feel like a respectful,
trusting family member
than an entitled warrior,
while outside "property improvements"
rather than inside anthropocentric habitats.

Sometimes
even as I approach my favorite sanctuary,
an AllSouls Unitarian-Universalist built structure,
I feel more sacred...

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Some issues,
some opportunities,
are written across great Western and Eastern cultures,
Northern and Southern economies,
Left and Right hemisphere structured minds,
breathing out- and in-forming lungs,
beating in- and then out-flowing hearts.


Flight toward freedom
and open-air healthy impressions,
and fight against racial...

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I've been seeking to blend,
in with people and at least make a friend.
Most times I use my pen,
To try to get out of my lonely den.
So many times has loneliness pushed me over the brim,
That...

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Had been perfect and free from corruption, a natural singularity
Fractals proceeding from fractals in perfect regularity
Then, all of a sudden – a cataclysm – this pattered had been shattered
Like crystals being diluted by a prankster...

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There was a king once reigning
Who carried a great, big flea—
And far from him complaining,
The flea filled the king with glee!
For to him that flea was dearer
Than even his only son,
And to make his preference...

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One day goes by and you would think my luck sustained from before would carry over
but erupt goes the bad luck and my emotions run amuck
'till it's time to go home
It's simply easier to quit,...

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THE HEALING POWER OF POETRY :
            BIBLIOTHERAPY
 
The word poetry derives from the Greek word 
‘poesis’, -
Which means ‘a making’ of a literary art...

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THE HEALING POWER OF POETRY :
            BIBLIOTHERAPY
 
The word poetry derives from the Greek word 
‘poesis’, -
Which means ‘a making’ of a literary art...

Read More

Born of wombs
for premeditated health
and restoring nutritional wealth,

We might warmly anticipate
a more win/win democratic living Earth communion,
more like an organic gardening womb
than a lose/lose political capital-overinfested swamp,
filling in with unhealthy communities,
filling in with dysfunctional nuclear-ballistic...

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Sun Poem
by Michael R. Burch

I have suffused myself in poetry
as a lizard basks, soaking up sun,
scales nakedly glinting; its glorious light
he understands—when it comes, it comes.

A flood of light leaches down to his bones,
his feral...

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