Long Baste Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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Awaiting a growth spurt that never happened

When a boy,
I wanted to be as tall as my father
(he passed away October seventh
two thousand and twenty
linkedin to congestive heart failure),
who stood at his prime
about six feet and...

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Hypothetically, what if I (a born again atheist)...
tentatively took page from playbook of devout believers...

Allowing, enabling, and providing
cautious optimism to abound
thus easing grief instead
reason to rejoice found
once corpse cremated
or buried underground.

Whereby reincarnation will eventually...
mitigate grief...

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Finally to Burn: Icarus, Resurrected
by Michael R. Burch

Athena takes me
sometimes by the hand

and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands

where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting

and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting

and all I remember
upon awaking

is: to Love sometimes
is...

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this culinary humble verboten pie eating older mwm 
   in sore want of coital aid
with no intent to rile nor up braid
certainly not prompt ye to call military enfilade
nor cause nerves to get...

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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace
you climb, skittish kite ...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there
so that all that remains is to

fall?

Only...

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There’s a party tonight so I bouffe up my hair
Pamper and powder my sweet derrière,
Arrive at the door, all done up to impress.....
Oh man, I forgot! Invite said “fancy dress”!

Pete and Sue are here, seems...

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this own lee bro' thar of yars 
   dashed analogously graced
on par how a marathon runner raced
to Macbook Pro laptop computer post haste 

soon as he goat back 
   to his...

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One individual called "she" stepped into the sheets of a life story
Sheets that used to be occupied
She walked back and stopped at a chapter which tell the story of an obsolete chamber
A space which stands...

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PoetrySoup …

I Was Heartily Welcomed… As I Sat At Your Table
By:  Carol, Sara, Carolyn, Dane Anne,  Moses, and Abel
              ...

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Thanksgiving gobbledygook

The following anecdote baste
upon overactive imagination of mine
in sync with being married
and monogamously living socially chaste
life as a scrupulous anchorite,
whose weather beaten corporeal flesh
plus sabotaged, riddled,
and tuckered psyche effaced
after becoming adequately stuffed,
this turkey (in...

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After all these many carnivore years
You can call it guilt or you can call it fear
I've made up my mind to decide
I'm going vegan this November time

So I broke down hard and read some books
Heard...

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Little known holidays occurring on February fifteenth...,
awaiting commercial sponsors to become...
what else...,but hand over fist money makers?
(http://www.holidays-and-
observances.com/february-15.html)

Excess Valentine's surplus sweet treats
and assorted paraphernalia
need not go to waste
said sappy accouterments
can be repurposed

quickly without haste
less pronounced celebrated...

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After all these many carnivore years
You can call it guilt or you can call it fear
I've made up my mind to decide
I'm going vegan this November time

So I broke down hard and read some books
Heard...

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After all these many carnivore years
You can call it guilt or you can call it fear
I've made up my mind to decide
I'm going vegan this November time

So I broke down hard and read some books
Heard...

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My friends say this magnificent rose
Gives off the most wonderful aroma of spring
I am catching a scent somewhat obscure
As yet no recognizable thing
For I'm losing the sense 
Of smell in my nose
Perhaps what I'm smelling...

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Let us discuss the circus alive in the theater of your conflicts,
the Master of Ceremonies cremates caution
in the center of curiosity's conciet
where birds bleed songs of azure agony,
madness remembers the melody of a midnight march
to...

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Yes, 
I'd like to progress;
skillfully open your chest,
As I do best, 
But halt when I hear you're depressed, And just like the rest, 
life's beaten you to lifeless.
Now I digress,
Back those breasts, 
I run my...

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Athena takes me
sometimes by both hands

and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands

where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting

and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting

and all I remember
,upon awaking,

is: to Love sometimes
is like forsaking

one’s Being—to drift
far beyond any thought,

forsaking...

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Buried beneath blood-shot baby doll eyes
 where drowns dark truths dwelling empty despair,
 finds five fraught faces from false idol lies
 clinging cold-coffins caused by cruel affair;
Saddled by sorrow seen in mother’s stare,
 washed while...

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Icy zephyrs slice through my cloak, a spectral wind,
Exhale of dread, shudder and hasten, tremors awaken,
Sensation of unseen gazes, pivot, yet no soul in sight.
Hehe, narrow escape, her beauty, a tantalizing treat,
morsel I yearn to...

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Ah, luminous white she blooms a deceptive ghost  
lover of dark arts ripe in charisma and night
moon seducer  logic diffuser  defense reducer  
user of dreams  abuser of romance
tempter-serpent twines and...

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What kind of gobbledegulp, 
holiday mess,
are you stuffing down your jaw giblets — 
one day early ...
you human turkey

Cubicle farm-raised patsy policies
is what your top executive, tinfoil hat fool handlers
are serving you 
lower oven rack...

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