Long Broke Poems

AFTER THE KARCHER FIRE LOUD SILENCE FBI AGENTS WERE GETTING CLOSER CIRO GARGANO WAS NERVOUS UNRAVELING THE CREW STORED THE CONTENTS OF THE TAILOR SHOP IN THE GARAGE AT LAKE COUNTY MUSIC COMPANY THE GARAGE...

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2003 TAMPA FLORIDA I CRIED OUT TO THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ILLINOIS JAMAICAN THIEVES BROKE INTO MY HOME RIPPING PAGES IN JOURNAL ARSON MURDER DYNAMITE CIRO GARGANO MY EX ABUSIVE HUSBANDS TORCHED...

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BEING AN FBI INFORMANT WEARING WIRES PREGNANT BUYING WEAPONS AND DRUGS FOR THE FBI ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ILLINOIS CHICAGO HAD BEGUN TO TRIGGER UNWANTED EMOTIONS AS I SAT BEHIND MAROON DRAPES PANTING CIRO GARGANO ARSON MURDERER...

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I GAVE AN OATH WEARING WIRES PREGNANT FOR THE FBI ARLINGTON HEIGHTS CHICAGO FIELD OFFICE TIMES WERE VERY HARD BACK THEN I WAS SO YOUNG WITH SMALL CHILDREN RETURNING FROM GERMANY MILITARY WIFE WHEN THE...

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Let me take a little sip
Of your blessed, breathtaking brilliance that will numb...
This pain I have in this heart of stone
The voices in my head won't leave me alone
I thought I was on my own,...

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Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis, high bred poiet?s of mine

     ("Thus always I cause the death of tyrants.”)
the purported line Brutus uttered 
after assassinating Julius Caesar.

     Alternatively...

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You’re sick, demented, and twisted and you want to judge me for my sins? What about yours? The ones that lie deep within
The ones that sculpted you into the person that you are, the ones...

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Just enough to make it just
I want this to be enough to make this
The last song ever, the last note ever
The last romantically, poetically sad excuse for an apology, epilogue
But I've already messed up the...

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Grow.Heal.Prosper 
 
M Y    L I F E ! 
 
 
I feel like my life is like a boat , the boat is my life everything I’ve worked...

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Somehow, 
Forward, and headlong
I knew it was day again

There was a shift in the dark mutterings of the Devil,
Who now refused to sleep as I refused to sing,
Almost an anticipation in his voice,
As if he...

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Dad hit me only once, an upper cut to the solar plexus. It nearly lifted me off my feet. I was 17 then and already fairly tall, 6’1.” He was 48 and of medium height,...

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It may have been the devil himself who prompted the kids in my schoolyard back in 1947 to chant "Patsy Foley's roly-poly from eating too much ravioli."

At first, no one could remember who started the...

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Family Poems

Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than...

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“Frequency” 

we are separated 
from the others
by a thin membrane

electromagnetic

we are receptors
unignited ununited
only tuned into our own

frequency

existing to be lit
the fuses touching
reaching delicately 

that which we do 
and do not see, 
believe

answers embedded
in tablets read...

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Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here...

2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves...

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State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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Please be informed: 

The Nigerian youths have agreed together in love and oneness that in 2023 presidential election and in every other elections, whether state or local government. We will not vote for anyone who...

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Poems about Children


The Desk
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes.I wonder how
he learned at all...

He...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch

In the Whispering Night
by Michael R. Burch

In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
while...

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Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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Fadwa Tuqan has been called the Grand Dame of Palestinian letters and The Poet of Palestine. These are my translations of Fadwa Tuqan poems originally written in Arabic.



Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by...

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Date:   July  2049

Early morning combinations 
Personal hygiene conversations
And kisses in most of the Hakim 
Households. Damian was negotiating 
For properties in Virginia namely 
Virginia Beach. He wanted the 
Prosperous realty. He spoke...

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Part 1: FORE SIBERIAN FATE

silk wings wet -
angel on the lake.
starlight glitter
separates from

the golden wheat.
her docile hair,
prophecy of ice.

winter pink,
pinched cheeks.
ice skate scrapes -
flecks of flakes.

the snow queen
before her relentless
reign, a pretty thing.

her smile warms
the...

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At the footbridge Sue was meeting her beau
(He was married to a woman called Flo)
Sue soon found out his deception
She dismembered his erection
For his love life it was a massive blow

To the hospital fled poor...

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A cool February evening Damian was
Asleep. He felt somebody rubbing 
His chest. "Leave me girl." Polly
Rolled out of bed and announced 
"Damian, you should move in with me!
I want you to move in! Wake up...

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