Long Assaults Poems

Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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After my traumatic brain injury witnessing a murder I didn’t think the world could even get any worse my children and I survived 4 major hurricanes I decided to move north to his home town...

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Moby Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne....

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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After serving six long hard years at Methacton State penitentiary...

as mini reunion number 
XLV fast approaches 
Saturday, April 30th, 7:00 pm 
until 10:00 pm
at The Trappe Tavern, 416 West 
Main Street, Trappe, PA 19426
regarding graduating...

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The Lay of The Best Man - Part Five


Have you heard about the bespectacled man who wore his glasses to bed?
Because when he awoke mornings his dreams were all blurry in his head.
And what about...

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Part of my soul severed by their ruthless oppression, demoralization and exploitation of a frightened and abandoned child.

Part of me drowning in detrimental sorrow as a 10 yr. old coerced by the evilness on the...

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As I pivot to confront my offspring, I anticipate the sight of terror etched in their innocent eyes, a reflected horror that would mirror the abyssal darkness that has long resided within me.

Instead, I am...

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Eminent domain, manifest destiny, usurpation...

Maternal grandfather of mine
long since passed among the living;
He left his Motherland 
before onset of Holodomor,
a policy of the Soviet Union 
aimed at the destruction 
of the Ukrainian nation,
the 1932–1933 genocide...

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Sometimes,
not often enough,
I stop my morning routine
to watch the feeding drama breathe feathered flurries in and out,
on, 
and under,
my side-yard bird feeder

Outside my kitchen windows
over this morning's sudsy sink,
looking across a twinkling white field
of early...

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The Great Falls of the northern Plains is actually a chain of five seperate waterfalls
varying in height and majesty extending over 12 miles,
they also confirm that the right river was chosen,
we had hoped that the...

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The music more or less acts as a sequel to the poem. 
Please click onto the music when cued in the poem and continue enjoying it. 

The Girl
She looks down at her shoes, they’re nice
An...

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Dear America.

I still believe in you.
No, I'm not saying that I always believe in the people that make up America.               ...

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The wails that disturb very few in their bed
Reach only the ears of the psychic… or dead

                  ...

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Sharpened pens were brutal swords; a war was forged
Blow after blow was struck, with blood rage engorged
Not one single word between them had been spoken
No flag of truce waved, or friendship offered as token

Nothing was...

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It caters to an arrogance of hate
when war becomes a method of despite.
Through vile contempt, he seeks to cultivate
a dogma that defines inhuman blight.
The devil’s plan has given due consent
to let annihilation be the goal.
Let...

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The music video is more or less a continuation to the poem. So please play it when cued in the poem text and continue enjoying the music and lyrics. 

Another bar unceremoniously has ‘asked’ him...

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And all the world would change forevermore,
for solitude’s content has come undone.
Its island bliss could harbor it no more  
as destiny unleased the rising Sun.
The sleeping giant woke to see its rays
unfurl their wrath...

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As swift assaults endeavored to prevail,
the magnitude of death was asinine.
‘Twas such a toll above a measured scale
that no explicit value could define.
As battles raged, no exploit could surmount
the endless waves that fell within the...

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When all the stars from Heaven fell to Earth,
a light was quelled beneath the mantled dawn.
The aftermath lent anger in rebirth
when apathy was scorched by Nippon brawn.
A swift emergence reckoned in retort
by orchestrating strength to...

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Inside A ‘72 Econoline

This old green van has a musty smell to it,
Like a pair of sweaty rancid socks
Mixed with half-empty beer cans.
It’s a banged up thing, this ’72 Econoline.
Scratches and mysterious dents 
Cover its...

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#1 Apr 21, 2015
I felt nearly dead but I was alive as I remember sitting in a room labelled "CityU of Seattle Library, looking at rows of White Cubes with my books in them and...

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TRUE ...

You know not those dark
Places, mine, the dull, black
Chasms that hold a mind
When it's bare - stark and

Keen and cold ... when it's
Left with itself for time
Unquenchable, out of the
Streams of consciousness

And normality, scraped...

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Fragrance of Life  ©

Cool rain drums on blistering 
asphalt, the scent streams into 
the nostrils--hot, grassy smell of 
summer, freshly cut-smoky 
cedar lingers on the air 

Fresh popcorn drenched in 
butter, I sit in...

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