Long Beaded Poems

Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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These 2 different versions are separated by nine years

Part 1

MUST BE SPRING

Small speckles of wild grass 
Looking like tiny green drops 
That had fallen to the earth 
Were the very first sign 

Waving in the...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Summer magic, Winter delight, Spring fresh, and beautiful Fall.
The diverseness of the assorted seasons tends to delight us.
Each has its own ambiance and nuances, after all.
Some years they arrive with less fuss and muss.
Summer is...

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Coffee or tea?

Fragmented frogs frolicking fruitlessly freeing flavoursome fairy freckles,
But what of the speckled hound in the bin?
Well he growled,
He snarled,
The sole paw pilot pivoting,
How interesting was it to note though that the frogs although...

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As the sun shone in southern skies, I was finally on my vacation,
And I turned the pages of a magazine, with new fashion creations.

I lounged beside the resort pool, in a straw hat and sunglasses,
Sipping...

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slang..
up-dogged = when you chip in to keep a conversation trend going
fit = gorgeous
buje = unexplainable glamor
football minute = a minute, that with time-outs, that lasts a half an hour.
crute = cute but cringy
women's-rights =...

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Lisa and I went to a reception, yesterday evening, for students who’d landed summer fellowships at a particular hospital in Boston. (Yeah us!) It wasn’t formal, so I wore a crimson cropped sweater, a beige...

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My twilight Dream Catcher.

Sweet melodies tug at my heart strings.
The waves roll in as the blue whale sings.
As empty moonbeams fade,
In the cosmos evenly laid.
Layers of complexity.
Clouds meandering are a formality.
A tonic of love, a...

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he came to us on a woven beaded hamoc as a flower bedded excursion taunt to the sun
there was a man among men who would deliver a specific message to the masses with lashes
planted as...

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You came into her house through the kitchen. 
The big door in from the front porch
Hadn't been used for years;
Furniture stood hard against it.
A knock at the front door meant a stranger.

Aunt Celesta makes a...

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A queue for the loo? is it nine minutes past two?
A windmill dashing to the sea. Ice cold waters in a monticule drip. Laced with the prevalent winds and sands. But sands are not sanding...

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My heart is empty, Jeffrey.
I’m standing here transfixed 
within the threshold 
of a vacant bedroom.
The air is still
but the delicate scent 
of your passing soul 
invades my nostrils. 
The aroma travels deep 
inside the tunnels...

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This is the end of my love,
It turns out that it wasn't enough.

I didn't know that there was something missing between us,
At first i couldn't realize what was all the fuss.

I always used to forget...

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She’d not heard the horses approach her village in the plains,
had known nothing or war of death until their arrows rained,
fiery streak against the night, set flame to thatch and straw,
scrambling from her father’s hut,...

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Impeachment is neither a peach, a pullover nor is it a purple plum. And a sanctimonious swan is neither a swamp spinning yarn nor a spotty sporty spade. Ok then. Paste and post but not...

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Under the sighing sky I stood within the swaying grass
With the rain pelting me like tears of heaven fallen just for us, we the two
And where were you when open these arms did I to...

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Toy collector:

He holds the bear gently in his old wrinkled hands as he gazes into its kind beaded eyes. The toy collector sees love lined in its double stitches and his childhood in the busted...

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uniting farcical flocks all over the world,
gregarious garments, talismans & 
little good luck charms required by religions
to ward off “evil spirits,” to separate man
from “god,” or to just protect the fuzzy sheep
from the rest of...

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In a royal antibacterial waste machine one must wait for the willing vibrancy of the whistling seal. Dressed neatly in a three piece suit he sits on a rock and calls to the breezes on...

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As a young woman Lucy had dressed up for work every day putting on her business suit, high heel shoes, and a strand of pearls. But as the
years went by, now all of that had...

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Night of the full moon

Whale fish are most adept at swimming around in a shot glass but glass goblets are preferred by dolphins whose long dorsal fin opts for wide open rimmed spaces. Stingrays desire...

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