Long Awhirl Poems

Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

Read More

A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening...

Read More

MODERN SONNETS II

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

Read More

"The Depths"

From the depths
silence.

Where 
are the voices
of other 
women?

In that other place,
the monsters violate, 
they take and take
bloody all, what they want

the dreams of women
are torched, murdered, 
next to them, 
the sweet dreams of lives...

Read More

In a midland Drive-In, ‘neath an August moon. 
The feature was “The Creature from the Black Lagoon”.
Sat two young kids, with young passions hewn.
Young at love, just neophytes,
Just being alone was their pure delight.
She was...

Read More

Therewithal, profluent life ettles it's while.
Thitherward, from Death's bleak campanile
Grim antiphonals serenade.

A capriccio, the slashing swipe of the reaper's scythe
 will serenade.
Stringent Death forthwith anoints the mithridate to
Life's cantankerous and rankling ado

Hither now come, anon...

Read More

My grandmother came from Ireland
from far across the sea.
She had romantic tales to tell
to Sister and to me.
She angered my darling mother 
by filling up our heads
with stories of the little folk
who lived beneath our...

Read More

When two people so choose
To join as one
The primary requirement is
Decide to love the beloved.

Then, as happens in love
Two become one in all things
Exclusive, self giving
especially sexually.

And in so doing
The love grows in togetherness
Open to...

Read More

Here's How It Is:

The atoms dance
While Space expands
And shoals of galaxies race away
Towards every point of no return
And spin and spin
Like Catherine Wheels
And firework flashes
Brilliantly blazing dazzling sparks
Against a night so deep it swallows thought
A...

Read More

"Church St. people of the abyss."

                 A pancake breakfast in Jericho,
        ...

Read More

Gone were the days when the sky fell on the ground
It was on a sunny day
I remember, her voice strung out in my sensitivity
I rushed to her to know what brought out her worry
In her...

Read More

Alone, my two dogs and I step lightly,
Over snow covered stones and ice.
Crisp, pine scented air chills our lungs slightly,
As we eagerly seize a rare trice.
 
With one spirit these times we embrace,
Along a shallow...

Read More

No one ever had a more devoted super patron.
He marveled at every painting and poem I thought up.
He cheered at each of my gaudy crazy color choices,
He toasted all my thoughts with a golden glass...

Read More

Upon this floor I sit, 
huggin' the porcelain bowl;
My stomach's tied in knots, 
Feels like I'm gonna blow!

I should'a used my head,
why didn't I ever think?
Instead I hung around, 
to have another drink!

One led to...

Read More

revelation of revelations!
an ordinary morning til..
discovery of discoveries 
brittle chrysalis
upside down, branching
breathing, pulsing
I pause and
inspect the
pupa’s fortress
tight and hard as 
childhood memories of
milkweed pods 
splaying, splitting, dropping
fragments into the
pungent soil beneath

My birth sac
splits apart
Baptismal waters
run...

Read More

.
					

				When I think of you, my darling,
				I am still that wide-eyed girl
				Who held the whole world in her hands
				As her heart was set awhirl.

				Without a thought or intuition
				Of how short a life can be,
				We promised...

Read More

When I was just eighteen and alone on my own,
My heart was cold and hard as a simple stone.
I thought I knew what love was at that time.
Though what I was feeling was just puppy...

Read More

Saw an old beggar with cup in hand
Pleading for coins ragged old man
Bald and toothless sight all but gone
Dropped him a coin he told his song

Once I was powerful and ruled the land
Anything I desired...

Read More

You wake up one morning,
And what to your surprise?
You look down at the package,
Seems like it shrank in size!

You order this new product,
What else are you to do?
It's guaranteed to give you growth,
Perhaps an inch...

Read More

Want of a princess but not of me
South of ill-proclaimed royalty
A prince in nature, heart, and mind
Blue glass learned between the lines
Glides to the stables cape awhirl
Who knows he’s meant to be my world
All for...

Read More

Wing footed  winter’s dance is of grey skies,
bare branch silhouettes in silver gowns 
dormant magic within icy poses 
brilliant halls bedecked with frosted flowers. 

Into the Grand Ballrooms of springtime
a sweep of pastel ball...

Read More

When I think of you, my darling,
I am still that wide-eyed girl
Who held the whole world in her hands
As her heart was set awhirl.

With no thought nor intuition
Of how short a life can be,
We promised...

Read More

An elitism set awhirl like a spinning top 
Buoyed in hypocritical double standards and flimsy hoax
A nuisance that seems to never stop 
And the world Is stage staggering in its hazards and coax 
In constrained...

Read More

Your grandma's feeling sad today.
You may have seen her cry.
Someone is gone forever
Whom she'd hoped would never die.

She's remembering the long ago
When she was just a girl
And his piercing blue eyes from the screen
Could set...

Read More

Beneath my mother’s watchful eye,
We had been courting for a year
And now I’m traveling all alone,
Excited with a bit of fear.

A thousand miles to the big city,
Unsophisticated country girl,
Seeking among the million faces
The one who...

Read More