Long Belligerently Poems

"The Sleeper and The Supernaturalist"


The Sleeper
shone as she walked 
through the Woods

shining alive 
like nothing
natural could

caught 
in the moonlight 
unaware

the innocent
red-caped roses stared
the trees whispered,

"beware, beware"

barefoot softly 
the Supernaturalist 
transfigures instead

from under shine 
she bares...

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Am I really this old,
so many ghosts
beckoning?
—Michael R. Burch

Sleepyheads!
I recite my haiku
to the inattentive lilies.
—Michael R. Burch

Stillness:
the sound of petals
drifting down softly together...
—Miura Chora, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The sky tries to assume
your eyes’...

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These are original haiku by Michael R. Burch and his translations of haiku by the Japanese masters Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Masaoka Shiki, and others. 

Am I really this old,
so many ghosts
beckoning?
—Michael R. Burch

Sleepyheads!
I recite...

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Wordless worries wander wearily working wayward,
    Towards thoughts transgressing truth’s textured tide.
As always acknowledging agnosticism’s appeal,
    Essence easily evaporates, exeunt Emile. 
Very virtuous violent vowels vociferously validate,
  ...

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I established a rapport 
with the Sacred Cow
and it stepped all over my toes
the oil of anointment in my crankcase
I was limping worthy of an asterisk
an army of monks couldn't keep me pure
laughing all the...

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Dark, punishing days lie ahead.
       Winter has crept up once again and I'm deep 
      in sad contemplation, saying a silent prayer 
 ...

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In this body
in which I healthy live

And, in this economic class
in which I study comparative social investments,
some more belligerently competitive,
others reassuringly warm culture cooperative,

We use these health v pathology discernment tools, 
experiences,
memories,
images,
predictions,
investment histories,
to understand how...

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Musty boxes
Resting belligerently in forgotten corners
Gathering dust
Waiting to be dissected
Eviscerated
Purged of their jumbled bits and bobs
The oddments of a family of lives
Muscled arms heft them in a tanned sweaty embrace
A bumping scuffling journey ensues
The same...

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The shoelaces untie,
they've been caught by the kitten's eye.

She touches, hesitantly, with her paw,
the lace that rests long on the slope, raw,

to the cool breeze of Mid-January; 
next to a window that reveals Her sanctuary.

The...

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Adolescent apparitions aquiring apathy.
Beaten bloody, broken, battered belligerently.
Crystal clear causes craving compassion consistantly.
Domimating demons drive desire diligently.
Even emitting echos escape everyones empathy.
Forgeting fatalities frantically follow fiends.
Generally generating graditude gracegully.
Halos hover hypcritical heads hypothetically.
Insolence, ignorance, imbecilic...

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Unidentified my world
this push and shove battalion
take from them and leave them broken

Crassly ridiculed by viral industries
black blood automaton
the throwaway plagues of economy

Enemies arduous in pestilence promise
digital demons disposable to pay the fist
take from my...

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For old time’s sake

The night was cold and devilish too	
You pushed me said I’m leaving you
Belligerently you slammed the door
Crushing my heart some beastly claw

I hear the poet who said loved and lost
So much pain...

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This agonizing pain I feel, seems to have placed itself permanently in my life.
Such Anguish, Indestructible distress; somewhat like a wife petrified for her life, battered 
My brain is disorderly disfused, rather scattered
Optistically I envision uncondensed...

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On the last evening of a wonderful weathered 

                        summer, flitting between...

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AUTUMN  AMIABLY AMBLES in, SENDING SUMMER SLIDING.
MODESTLY FLAUNTING her brilliant bright wear,
While SAD SUMMER SLOWLY SLIPS away.
Thus it is often the seasons collide.
One is too eager to put on her show,
The other reluctant to...

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An acquaintance asks me ‘how am I doing.’
I tell him I don’t like the color purple
and move on.
I am in Costco; a crowd is jostling,
carts nudging me 
into places I don’t need to go to.

Outside,...

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