Long Briars Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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Was this a bold  endeavour or worst-case high risk plot?
 In one sense I was caught between two poles apart  concerns.
One must never underestimate indeed trivialise a devilish 
difficult decision.
A decision that may...

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Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

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Age defiant was this spruce and spirited citizen slinking blithely past the burgundy red doors of her enigmatic country dwelling.
As her olive skin neatly curved fingers 
slid over an intermittently scratched carbon black handrail she...

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Song from Aella: Under the Willow Tree, or, Minstrel's Song
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17 or younger
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

MYNSTRELLES SONGE ("MINSTREL'S SONG")

O! sing unto my roundelay,
O! drop the briny tear with me,
Dance no more...

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He wears thick gloves when he strings the barbed wire,
fashioning a thorny fence from prickly metal spines,
reminding me that cattle like to know the boundaries,
the edges of a pasture, clever green grass hesitating
on the borders...

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Last Autumn we invested in a 0.5 acre
of Mother Earth's aria,
as sung to Thames River swell and tide,
New England new sprouting this our virgin spring wedding
with this home place,
space of grace.

My urgent first task, now...

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An evanescent bouquet of skewed briars,
is how a tinsel laden tawdry essence wickedly unfolds,
scuppered signpost to my fetid human compost,
faint light pendant on soul crushed quantum migrant,
who might chortle at vivid veil flimsy vacuum,
skirt recklessly...

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Vulture's Of Darkness

Vile thought fangs waiting in vengence etched within

A twilight sun had tainted my inner vision again ?

Shattered fragments torn in desolation vanquished within
Vile degrade filled sweat pouring out in sharp contrast fetched;
Contrast...
In a...

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The heavy metal series of poetry demonstrates an inner ability to speak words of 
kindness; Toward the resolve of the 1980's heavy metal scene; To demonstrate a 
reasonable high calibur of interest; To the average...

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Rich in Spirit.
Rich is to be rich in spirit. To be known in heart, mind, body and soul. To be known to the core can only be known through spirit. With spirit comes love and...

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Walter Branham, a retired teacher, and his wife Victoria went to Applebee’s, the chain restaurant, for lunch one day last week. First time they had gone there. Usually they go to an ethnic restaurant but...

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We all walk on a loose line that leads to debris

Silence 

Etched in the fabrication through the elapse in time,
The Lilley of the valley the bright & morning star/

The illumination in time through degrees of...

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In late Spring when heros scream

A source of sophistication from faint misery
Inside the thwart hidden silence of the pivotal solace of my mind
With mind blowing excursion toward the legally blind inside
Woods in growing habitation &...

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One winter eve I walked out with my dog,
The way was dark, unlit by moon and stars,
My flickering torchlight failing in the fog,
To pick out tree roots,crevices and rocks,
To cause a stumble, and a muffled...

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She really wanted to see a ghost…ecstatically excited.
She heard this place had plenty, and a spooky atmosphere.
She’d have to pinch herself, ready to cheer…elated.
She’d spend a romantic weekend there with a freaking-out spouse.

He’s a scaredy-cat!...

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CAN ONE BE ARRESTED FOR YELLING LIAR IN A CHURCH?

You pious people in your pews
All you reading about the arrival of some wondrously good news
A  new horizon can’t you see?
Well imagine you were with...

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An evanescent bouquet of skewed briars,
is how a  tinsel laden tawdry essence wickedly unfolds ,
scuppered signpost to a fetid  human  compost,
faint light pendant on soul crushed quantum migrant,
who might chortle at vivid...

Read More

CAN ONE BE ARRESTED FOR YELLING LIAR IN A CHURCH?

You pious people in your pews
All you reading about the arrival of some wondrously good news
A  new horizon can’t you see?
Well imagine you were with...

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CAN ONE BE ARRESTED FOR YELLING LIAR IN A CHURCH?

You pious people in your pews
All you reading about the arrival of some wondrously good news
A  new horizon can’t you see?
Well imagine you were with...

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CAN ONE BE ARRESTED FOR SCREAMING "LIAR" IN A CROWDED CHURCH?
You pious people in your pews
All you reading about the arrival of some wondrously good news
A  new  horizon can’t you see?
Well imagine you...

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In battles of our own

A man will live to advance home
Through a variation in a dream
In faulty idol flowing stream
An ellapsed tongue had tainted my inner vision

In battles of our own,

Shattered silence through scattered temperaments...

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these blues carry on a forgotten song                            ...

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A curious outlook was once made in exploration

Shifted in the sand of some newest invasion
A frantic waste in some Payton Place
Through twisted logic one may learn
A swift variation in some dream then sublime

Tainted by the...

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(This time I've quoted my own poem titles. Everything in quotes is a title.)


"Dear reader," again, this monolog persists.
We're no longer "sparring" with figurative fists.

"The blood of an Englishman" is my last token,
"cursive curtsies" for...

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