Long Bordering Poems

“Come on, let's get introduced to my play mate in a palm.
Linda, these are Joshua’s true other selfs.” 
Lelia emitting a peculiar chuckle.
A comic situation arose where I changed my voice for each of my...

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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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It only started as a misconception, a misunderstanding
then like grass fed rain, it grew...grew into this
A eulogy, maybe this could be it
about you? For once, this is about me
How can it be...how can it be?
Dreaming,...

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Invisibly tortured courtesy existential nihilism

Psyche wracked with agony
impossible mission to extricate lovely bones
they wanna remain permanently abed.

I chiefly function to amass knowledge
courtesy assiduously, habitually,
and judiciously reading
an eclectic assortment of written material.

Yours truly woke
with ambition, disposition,
inclination,...

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Captain kuni-lemel graduate strikes again - updated

Steely Dan sing queen (me)
outdid himself on sixtieth anniversary 
after Grahame Wood 
determined to meet 
the evolving needs of the community 
opened the first Wawa Food Market 
in Folsom,...

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NN:
"Gemini, in light of the following assessment of Percy Bysshe's Shelley verbal and/or literary IQ and level of poetic intelligence and giftedness by you (from another conversation), how much higher than 175 IQ is my...

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In a sense
each person capable of understanding these words
and those who speak diverse languages together
are island nations
splitting in two
by love
or fear
or both.

I have been concerned about the U.S. island of fundamentalist Christians,
formerly part of the...

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THE CHIMNEY
The once fine air, refreshens with dust
Between the village horizon and crest
Since the sailing of a death chemical chimney.

Young green plants seedlings growing on slope
Are left to sip these  carcinogenic dusts, sapling
And entwined...

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Oh Mondseer: the muck cob brie muenster saga..., 

crafted when Wallace and Gromit 
returned from their trip to the moon, 
which I can prov-olone huck curd 
(within Trump con feta ration) – 
as cheesy poem...

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She stirs first..restless..looking longingly over..senses awakened.
Their feet shuffle slowly under warm covers. The moonlight shines thru the window catching her face. .illuminating it…her tousled hair frames her face.
She looks up, hopefully for his eyes to...

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Oh Mondseer: the muck cob brie muenster saga..., 
which I can prov-olone huck curd 
(within Trump con feta ration) – as cheesy poem!

Yea of course writing ideas unstoppably
burst asunder at the most inconvenient
opportunities such as...

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I was once something of a pessimist, and that fact did not concern me,
As violet birds are content, to spend their nights in different trees.

Still I had a happy and quiet existence, or at least...

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All my life I had loved music, and rapturous harmonies thrilled my soul,
As the sound of a wild driving beat, causes eager feet to take control.

As a longtime concert pianist, I'd been fortunate to follow...

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Glory to the Ukranian Freedom Fighters
 
Democracy and freedom are under attack
Beaurocracy and greed man,
Don’t let this war criminal come back
Putin is lootin’ the streets of Ukraine
His crimes against humanity are bordering on insane
His unprovoked aggression...

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The Things Never Said
The terror…
The only things ever said about my daddy’s WWII service were that he’d been to New Guinea where he’d ridden on a truck full of soldiers by a river without a...

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I had always adored purple lilacs, and never could get enough,
As wildflowers bloom abundantly, although times may get rough.

They had graced a backyard garden, that I'd known in childhood,
On a tree lined street of birdsong,...

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Against a willowy wailing backdrop of inner chaos,
an indignant incendiary mask stifles the simmering cauldrons,
of a stoic stage clown post lachrymose performance wearily stunning yet stung,
or the surreptitious posture of the laugh it off as...

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Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania circa early 1970'S

(just in time for end of summer reading...
recounting emotionally disastrous campy turbulence)
intended food for thought indulgence. 

A boys' life aborted
miscarried golden opportunity
for adolescent romance to be courted.

Amidst a raft of fellow...

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(Fictional, but based on the real experience of one of my close friends who lost her daughter in an accident)

 As I sat on my desk,
Hurrying with my pent up work,
A scrap of paper, left...

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"Brothers In Arms"

Brothers in Arms are many things

Brothers in Arms are maybe but also
Not what you think

Brothers in Arms are many things

Brothers in Arms are maybe but also
Exactly what you think

Brothers in Arms are many...

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POEMS ABOUT OPHELIA

Ophélie (“Ophelia”)
by Arthur Rimbaud
translation by Michael R. Burch

On pitiless black waves unsinking stars abide
while pale Ophelia, a lethargic lily, drifts by.
Here, tangled in her veils, she floats on the tide.
Far-off, in the woods,...

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A young girl stood at the school hall wall,
Some paper in her hand,
She shuffled her shoes while eyeing the views,
And the news on a notice board.
This space looks so impersonal, the wall so pale and...

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The pro-Hanoi Vietcong many years ago
In the 1950's Diem's government they'd overthrow
All opposition was crushed killed or jailed
These elected ones to their people they failed

This Buddhist country so religious in belief
Now politically torn apart, impending...

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Learning helps us understand who we are 
Our capacity to grasp an idea
Gives us the ability to
Transform our environment
Our know-how used to good effect

To conquer is to try and
Learn the innards of a thing
Knowledge gives...

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Premature irrelevance of Donald Trump?

Heartfelt congratulations
to Raphael Warnock,
now slated to become
first Black senator of Georgia
cuz he defeated Senator
Kelly Loeffler quite a shock
as troopers fuel related headlines
Jon Ossoff also declared victory
over Republican Senator David Perdue

arrows drawn...

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