Long Aids Poems

For ten months now I’ve brooded over coming second place
in the pickle section deeming, it no less than a disgrace.
It was written plain and simple, so there can be no excuse,
that the pickles in this...

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Pagans Protest the Intolerance of Christianity
by Michael R. Burch

“We have a common sky.” — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

We had a common sky
before the Christians came.

We thought there might be gods
but did not know their names.

The common...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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A Night On A Wharf

The couple decide to walk. The boardwalk still lit at this late hour guides them. They walk hand in hand,..whispering softly with small talk...solemn.,. lonely , yet together. The walk is...

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     by how many badbyes can you measure the length of your day

                 first comes...

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Once again it’s Saturday; the day when footy reigns supreme.
The Dogs are up against the Cats, the premier favoured team,
but I’ve got no doubts the mighty Dogs will surely cope with that.
I couldn’t think of...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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It is so hard to let go of love,
lovingly.

It sharks, 
unpeels more gut more quickly
than reel or reeler ever lost
in all those years of lazy inches
in and out:
casting,
winding in and playing out,
hardly fishing, rarely catching
anything
from...

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Ours was daily mysterious,
sometimes near mystical, 
rapture;
a sensual yet platonic
dorm-mate love affair,
within the only male grad student corridor
at SFSU.

He was the presumably straight Vietnam veteran
southern white good ol' boy,
athletically studying Japanese,
with a gentle passion for...

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On the extremity of  a tall bank 
Of big broken stones in round circle done
We reached up a more cruel clutter flank;

And there, for the horrible and strong stun
Of rotten stench which the deep...

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The inspiration for this partially true piece was my older brother, Joe, and his 2 grandkids (circa 1994) - 


I can clearly see the moon, and feel the sultry breeze
(It was an unforgettable event).
Despite the...

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How interesting. A contest about Afghanistan.
Afghanistan sits landlocked between Pakistan on the East
and Iran on the West with a population of 39 million. It's enemy          ...

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I don't want to start with those cliché things but please believe me when I say I don't know what love is, I'm just trying to get my own opinion through. Credit Love. Funny enough...

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Which are your points for living
if we all die into cold leaky stink or ash anyway?
What's the point of dying
if we could otherwise live continuously?

Heading down the river
on AAA rite of ritual passage.
Six years since...

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My 4 year old was addicted to Band-aids
Every part of his body needed a Band-aid.

'mama mama momy mom mom mama'

"WHAT!!!!!!"

'I have an owie
come see mama'

"Julian, love
mama doesn't have time to look today
I'm getting ready for...

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I may as well concede the obvious. I was an incorrigible workaholic,
Who was always so driven to succeed, that working replaced all frolic.

I was the co-owner of a business, along with my lifelong best friend.
Together...

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This is meant to be a manual, a set of sober instruction
that you can use, once you get past this lengthy introduction,
as a “how to” for learning to feel what it feels like when you...

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Part 1 - A raven alone, ravaging around in the darkness..... 

i.

Ultimately aware, suspense is such, though truly I am sensing,

something dark diverting mind withdrawn, the silence muttered,

since melancholy holds suspicion where to probe now...

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CORRUPTION
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


Now that I’m approaching the final inning
I need to re assess the ideas I had at the beginning
I thought that if you were altruistic and right
That alone was the strength needed to fight
To...

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Do you remember stories about the incensed 60s?

The smoke-filled Beatles,
and acrid flowering Hippies,
and Aquarian Age of Free Love.

It fizzled out.
It wasn't such a Great Transition
as we had hoped.
Exhausted by Foreign and Civil Rights v Wrongs...

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Just suppose – a hierarchy rules this shadowland
Pulls the strings of governments, not walking hand in hand
Amend our constitutions, to suit their future plans
Throw Christians to the lions, as Lucifer demands

Just suppose – this world...

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On a silver moonlit pillow’s blissful patch I dreamt nirvana 
verses for my sister Jay and our magic mutual bond,  that
gem-enhanced treasure chest, that life support as ironclad rampart 
for our twin psyche sparkle,...

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Your kiss-aids on wounds is but an epic fail 

We had the perfect time of our lives
Till unhappiness and sadness arrives
Lost in the perplexity of our fantasies
I have fed the fires of your lust disease

Darkness...

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The human ego, a deadly thing; it convinces we’re better,
more powerful, creators who have no limits and we believe its’ lies.

Greed = ego,
hate - ego
selfishness = ego
self-centeredness,
vanity,
inconsiderateness,
a desire for power,
Germ Warfare = Human Ego
it’s all...

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