Long Aegean Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

Read More

Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

Read More

Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

Read More

Stood upright, between two roads,
On a thin metal rail,
A solitary, brown coloured bottle 
Of beer,                    ...

Read More

Often times I wonder if I may have missed 
a greater calling or purpose in my life.
As a young man I was frivolous and non-sensical
when it came to asking the most important questions:
“Why am I...

Read More

O Aphrodite,
Grecian fertility goddess
Matriarch idol of the womb,
your wise children love not reproducing
— Ancient Zion chant
heard in the echo chambers
of the caverns along the Aegean sea

Dwindling cries, dashed on the rocks
in luxurious maternity wards,
are slowly...

Read More

A little girl approached her mother and said to her one day
"Santa Claus is not real, that's what all my friends say"
 Her tears began to well up and she started to cry
And said "Mommy,...

Read More

You have travelled a very long way, looking for some where to stay all the streets are crowded and the buildings are filled; there is no room to spare but my friend has a sofa...

Read More

PLATO EPIGRAM TRANSLATIONS

These epitaphs and other epigrams have been ascribed to Plato...

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
But go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

We left...

Read More

Brutus Iulius Trois Page 06

The defeated Pandrasus spoke out
his weary words weighted with wisdom. 
Linus is as Greek as I am Greek and as a Greek
let him inherit the crown, I'll name no other heir.
take...

Read More

(Dedication: For Michael Zachary, my son)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Sense this knowing: can the blind see?
Homer still sings fond tragedy.


Troy was a thought where siege was laid,
A war well fought as heroes paid.


Love and hate doomed to mortal rage,
Ten...

Read More

You,*

                               Hard-of-hearing,

   ...

Read More

Brutust Iulius Trois Page 07
Brutus called his captains into conference
we are done with creeping along the shorelines 
prepare now to sail out across the Aegean
the winds are with us and Troy awaits! 
Imogen seeing Hesione,...

Read More

.One Summer Long ago  
	The wind played idly with white puffy clouds
 The sun shining brightly against the loud blue sky 
The horizon shimmered and danced . Islands of white ,dotted the Aegean Stretching...

Read More

A little girl said to her mother one day
"Santa's not real, that's what my friends say"
Her tears welled up and she started to cry
And said" Is he real or is it a lie ?".

Her mom...

Read More

Granny hit you with it you fly across the room
she was a 5th generation hep cat 
a finger popping bebopster with double elbows
you can have your two bit Buddha garden
and your silly Jesus candles
Granny created...

Read More

I can hear Thermopylae beckoning me upon my return
Leonidas’ voice calls me forward to battle with hardened pride

Time’s grains shifting bellowing out the past I have lived
And I am of that past…I can touch the...

Read More

      The atmosphere was alive and palpable,
 surreal really
as the aegean blue of electrons after a 
summer downpour, where the crickets take a short reprieve to zen the petrichor.

 ...

Read More

United Colours: BLUE CONTEST
Sponsor: Silent One

Her primary color was blue. It could not be made from a combination of any other color. It was hers and hers alone. She had a pure aura surrounding her,...

Read More

Pytheas was a Greek who journeyed to Britain in the Fourth Century BC and 
discovered the link between the tides and the phases of the moon.

At first I followed the setting sun
To the mouth of...

Read More

MAP   OF   EUROPE    -   OBJECTUM  SEXUAL  *

O coastline with cool expanse of blue Atlantic
Your  curves and indentations drive me frantic.
Sometimes thrust out peninsularly;
Sometimes...

Read More

MOONBEAMS, MERRIMENT, ME AND YOU

Your eyes were a surprise
Your grin a gift granted by grace
We syncopated our sighs
As I became fixated on your lovely face

My breathing became belabored
My heart hardly ever felt that way
Just when...

Read More

^

Moonlight and Plankton in the Aegean



Near a beach in Amorgos
Kycladic moonlight
	lilting off
Aegean 
	waters illuminate 
the breasts of two young girls and
Plankton playing off back-lit silhouettes...

Our ketch undulates according to
The laws of Poseidon
While youthful want-to-be mermaids
Frolic...

Read More

Genetics and freaky things.
Reptilians and hybrid humans’ DNA.
A demonic blending of the past and the future present.
I say “future present” because it is here now and it is here to stay.
Forever. 
Forever until Armageddon when...

Read More

IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY - LXXI

		LXXI	

IF ever I had a country targeted by no refugee
And if ever I were appointed by the Inter-Planetary Committee KING of this territory by Inter-Galactic Royal Decree
I'd build...

Read More