Long Andromeda Poems

Poems about Poems V

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

There is a small cleanness about her,
as though she has always just been washed,
and there is a dull obedience to convention
in her accommodating slenderness
as she feints at her salad.

She...

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I shall resolve to leave this
Place now...
And steadfastly search out,
Nestling between ridge and bluff
Amidst the folds of a foreign 
Land,
Several acres of unkempt ground
Fallow and rough;
Upon which stands...
Crumbled stone walls
With an exposed slate roof in
Some...

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'Continental Drift' - The Metaphor

In the seventies (1), few people dreamed ‘it’ was true,
guessed by scientists first when rough coastlines compared (2)
matched like parts of a puzzle (a jigsaw), found place
that joined ‘drop-offs’ waves hid...

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These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …



Will There Be Starlight
by Michael R. Burch 

Will there be starlight
tonight
while she gathers
damask
and lilac
and sweet-scented heathers?

And will she find...

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‘ In general, quantum mechanics does not predict a single definite result for an observation. Instead, it predicts a number of  different possible outcomes and tells us how likely each of these is. ‘

...

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“On the Sonnet”
by John Keats

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLVII - Tongue Twisters

If you want to « have » your cake and « eat » it at one and the same time, simple enough, just split it into two equal parts like...

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WOMB OF ALL BEGINNINGS


In the delicious womb of all beginnings 
we learnt to giggle electrons
to bear all things 
without nusturtiums, pink lilies or doughnuts 
warm gurglings of God’s dream for us

Morning glories were waiting 
deep...

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“Look up at the stars,” you say
Its just another night up on the old water tank
Our blanket is spread and here we sit with the universe our theater
Another night of showing me the constellations 
Astronomy…your...

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1010101
                                  ...

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These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…

With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 35, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mother,...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 6: EVOLUTION

Singularity
by Michael R. Burch

Are scientists confounded like the ostrich?
Heads buried in the sand, they shout, *Preposterous!*
This universe, so magical, they say,
proves there’s no God. But let’s look anyway ...

He said, *Let...

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I am just dragging around the town carrying this heavy weight in my body when my normal weight is a hundred and ten pounds and that’s the weight that will take me to where destiny...

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To the successful best ...

I can see the future,
it's been calling me
I'm gonna live my life,
it's how it's gonna be
Some people never listen,
Some people gotta burn
They never hear a single thing,
And they will never learn

I...

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Sappho Translations I

Sappho, fragment 132 (Lobel-Page 132)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
I have a delightful daughter
fairer than the fairest flowers, Cleis,
whom I cherish more than all Lydia and lovely Lesbos.

2.
I have a lovely daughter
with a...

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Beaming brilliant beautiful bright stars.
            These diamonds, twinkling, sparkling. 
            Diamonds hung in...

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they met, once upon a time-
her silky hand melds with his
for but a moment 
an exchanged glance, fleeting
chocolate brown orbs
swimming in pools of milk
ebony hair dancing across her 
backless gown as she walks away
walked away…

swirling...

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IF ever I had a country : XLVI - XLVII

			XLVI

IF ever I had in Andromeda a country
And if ever by rights I were the Chief Collision-Conglomerate Six-Star Plenipotentiary
I'd moot and execute a permanent plan for...

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Wanna know why my verbs hurt, 
I’ve held them in for so long they became cursed words.
The worst of the worst, it hurts ‘cause they’re nursed,
Cradled then derailed into a million who were impaled by...

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I dreamed of a night for many years
Wandering far from home;
When I could stand and stare at the stars
Silently, on my own.
Head uplifted, eyes open wide;
Points of light eternal
Racing through darkness 
Into my eyes.
Desiring nothing
More...

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Remember the children’s book,
“Alexander and the Terrible, 
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”? 
Well, yesterday was mine.
Started off okay, got up late,
Got our breakfasts, dressed, made the beds.
Cleaned the cat litter
And found that SweetiePie, 21...

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Looking beyond the skies, see the stars so far away.
Shining bright through the night, till one of them brings us day.
Rigel, Arcturus, and Sirius too.
Which one a red giant? Which one a massive blue?
Through the...

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I think of you and you alone, when the logan berries bloom, 
the deep surf spoons, its frothy burden to the the shore,
the grip of love's pleasant tune, when sparrows sing, 
unto the moon

my hand...

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IN PRAISE OF BEAUTY

O beauty allure, beauty of the hyacinth
Doused by wailing drops of dew shroud
And pierced by the radiant shaft of heaven,
Through the rituals of purity
To tread the virginal soil of Venus.

O like the...

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II

I am writing this segment in free-form poetry. Structureless rhyme schemes.  

I think lost myself again.
my thoughts spiral.
in the whirlpools of my mind
might seem like a cliché to say
but I really can’t ever unwind.

However...

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