Long Black and white Poems

A special dedication to Beyoncé's "Drunk in Love" song in her album "Beyoncé", which came out in 2013.
 
{intro}
I took a cat nap...yah put on your classic, clever-mini cap 
drank that sorrow sap, my companion...

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Spiritual Mahjong
Your Move Lord

Is there a God?
A benevolent entity.
An eternal presence presiding over me.
A creator, watching and observing.
All knowing.
Is my end determined and conclusive before it begins, before I begin?
If so, then to what purpose...

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Verse 6: I've given up love countless times 
I needed to pay up for my heartbroken crimes
I already repented for my sins that made my high hopes paper-thin
Don't you feel that envy from deep within?...

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Willy Nilly
by Michael R. Burch

for the Demiurge aka Yahweh and Jehovah 

Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly,
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
 
Isn’t it...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

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...

and show me
once...

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Hi.
We don't have a lot of time,
or, well, I guess you do,
but I don't,
so let's plunge right into the first big question:
Which came first, form or function?

False dichotomy. No such thing as a totally dysfunctional...

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One day not so long ago 
I walked
Never alone
For the world 
Is always my home

It was a late
Spring snow
Yet I felt
Invisible red roses
Offering sweetest perfume
To my nose and soul

There’s such warmth 
In snow-filled winter
No bitterness
No...

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“Now behind the eyes and secrets of the dreamers in the streets rocked to sleep by the sea, see the titbits and topsyturvies, bobs and buttontops, bags and bones, ash and rind and dandruff and...

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I’m stronger than I realize,
I’m not alone
And I’m not a failure

I am focused on the prize -
God’s Kingdom today, though I’m on my own
Feeling like a Jailure

I was brave enough
Life can be quite rough
I was...

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[Well, ShallowMan’s ne’er at a loss
for voicing shallow thoughts that gloss.
With trenchant wit he reaps the dross
when seeking sense in applesauce.

But to his aid flies FactoidMan
who always has a Fact at hand;
with him, who needs...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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Everything here is true
Just as stated
because it's already happened
or - it has yet to occur - 
but it's very soon to occur
and I have such strong feeling
that the future will be as I see it
as...

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Good boy gone bad enters the stage with a spotlight overhead, despite being misunderstood in my ghetto neighborhood

The lonely applause celebrates in my cracked, corrupted, and crazed cranium
I exaggerate too much and so too much,...

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Perhaps infertile
incomplete
unwashed memories
of elder v younger,
Goliath v David,
crusades v communion
critical, yet part of chronic, events
speak extended family disengagement truth
to powerful dirty laundry engagement failures.

That disclaimer said,
I have two incomplete conversations
in mind and heart
and what I...

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Film Noir

By the lampost at night
with the pale moon shining bright
but obscured by the fog
I saw her in the harbor
standing where my boat lay moored
but she knew that
her azure eyes beckoned me to come
smoke from...

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I find multicultural capital investment
socially healthier
politically wealthier
than more win/lose capital competitions.

Sociologists
may call this deep social communication capital,
so why don't natural scientists
discover naturally cooperative capital investments
is a long-winded way
of winding around
recognizing 
and appreciating,
not depreciating,
multiculturing health power?

With...

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Each ego identity,
whether of busy bee
or slacker sloth,
recreates its uniquely sacred eco-Other,
mutually capable of Win-Win intentional experience
and memory
toward appreciating capital investments
in further living, not deadening, artifacts
through each personal life 
both cooperative and competing
so far.

So
every shrinking...

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Rest your weary head my love and let sleep consume your soul, I promise that your secret I’ll never tell, I’ll let your heart and life remain whole
It has been fifteen years since the last...

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I’m stronger than I realize,
I’m not alone
And I’m not a failure

I am focused on the prize -
God’s Kingdom today, though I’m on my own
Feeling like a Jailure

I was brave enough
Life can be quite rough
I was...

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{verse 1} 
Stream of blood drips unto the sink…it’s in a puddle of muddled, bittersweet blood – whisper hope in my ears
My heart pumps…in fear of losing you…uoy…u…
Teeth ache, gums bleed on…I blink…never good enough...

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Film Noir

By the lamppost at night
with the pale moon shining bright
but obscured by the fog
I saw her in the harbor
standing where my boat lay moored
but she knew that
her azure eyes beckoned me to come
smoke from...

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I’m sure of it – we’ll do good enough in the long run
Let the crazy, busy, and sunny day begin and I welcome the sun
Do you welcome the sun?
You’re a lot of fun 
Let’s run...

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The noise aboard the motor boat reminds me that I was not alone
The high perspiration smell from the young couple sitting beside me
caused me to remember the green wood’s in Virginia and the squirrels
chasing each...

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To my sisters,
and narrow-way brothers,
in Jesus Christ
as Supreme U.S. Savior,

I reached U.S. voting age during the 70s.
During this time,
the Religious Right
and Republican Party Center
were about the same place;
not distinguishable,
inscrutable, perhaps.

In strong conserving defense of retail-commodified...

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I have slept but I have not slept
I have not slept but I have slept
For the first time in two years
I slept without a word of care
No codes, no crossroads
No railroads, no shiploads
No lizards no...

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