Long Burnished Poems

“Éagmais croí a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Faoi dhíon taobh istigh de na blianta seo.
Fanacht i bhfianaise, a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Ós rud é go ndearnadh tú a chaitheamh.
Briseadh an tost seo”



"An Bee Cailleach"


She lives to...

Read More

For All That I Remembered
by Michael R. Burch

For all that I remembered, I forgot
her name, her face, the reason that we loved ...
and yet I hold her close within my thought:
I feel the burnished weight...

Read More

Sonnets XVII-XXIV

Discrimination
by Michael R. Burch

The meter I had sought to find, perplexed,
was ripped from books of "verse" that read like prose.
I found it in sheet music, in long rows
of hologramic CDs, in sad wrecks
of long-forgotten...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break II
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter.
 
 
 
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
 
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower...

Read More

Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

Read More

The preparations were almost complete when Lumi reappeared down stairs.  He seemed preoccupied and burnished an all encompassing smile across his face.
     “Lumi... Lumi,” Joulupukki had to repeat himself to...

Read More

“But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
–“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” by W.B. Yeats 

“I love you...

Read More

LOVE POEMS I by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, a first date and dating, a first crush, a first girlfriend and...

Read More

"FALL"



I wrap
my Autumn world
around you

Calliope turning
raising the 
season’s poetry, 

I am she
returning 

dancing 
with Summer’s 
dying leaves 

Twirling you up into 
my warm golden brown 
symphony

hear me sing, 
whispering notes,
holding keys 

towards you 
you're approachable
reaching...

Read More

(oh, mercy ... )

amazing eye whites,
perfect and pure as glacial ice -
they draw me in,
like diving into a clear Caribbean lagoon,
fluid and cool ...
brown iris so dark in contrast,
that they're lost in the inky black...

Read More

For years I was an aspiring singer, performing in trendy nightspots,
And I sang my heart out each evening, in all of the local hotspots.

Among the enthusiastic locals, at long last I'd made myself a name,
As...

Read More

“Sacred Lakes”



There is magic 
in your shaman bones
stories shaken like strange mojo 
busy under cover of autumn leaves 
turning burnished topaz gold 
idling unrushed roll over

in honeyed slumber

turning back hands
to face a time of 
blushing...

Read More

It was in the heart of frigid winter, that my car had broken down,
I was frustrated and so cold, so like the snowflakes falling down.

I had called for a mechanic, but I had been waiting...

Read More

I wonder if our reasons
for growing random acts of violence
are similar
to our dwindling random acts of reasoned healing,
kindness,
gratitude,
unrequited love,
uncommodified,
unconscripted,
unscripted,
uncontained
restoring cooperative ecopolitical relationships forward
not just because this is our right and healthy familial thing to do
but...

Read More

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...

Read More

I belonged to a family of farmers, we had farmed for generations;
And we were true to our land, as blooms loyal to sweet sensations.

I knew the fierce satisfaction, only derived from working the land;
And sometimes...

Read More

Sun setting over the dark green fringe of a shivering lake on the last day of winter
An old man still unbent sits on a deserted wooden bench
   with the load of his cares...

Read More

"SYNAESTHESIA"



The Rose was burning 
long before she was Green
The Synaesthete placed his brush stroke
On his future dreams


Long before she was Green
The Synaesthete dreamed of him
Walking barefoot through the buried Rust 
and rustling burnished Ochre leaves...

Read More

Wordsmith's Veneration...

Methinks, I post literary endeavors inxs
but tis with blood, sweat and tears
in case ye did not guess,
who struggles to craft reasonable rhyme
ideally read by a pleasing poetess.

Aye willy nilly understate (trying to)
tantalize, hypnotize, galvanize...
with...

Read More

* I always felt like “Nessie” got a bad rap, being called a monster and a beast and all that, so I think this little piece of mythic imagery grew from that. I hope you...

Read More

Not so long ago ...
your numbers darkened the west
a noble profile of strength and pride
and the epitome of the innate, free, pioneering spirit
that your country was founded upon ...

It is said that single
groups of your...

Read More

"Papyrus, Lapis Lazuli and the Valley of the Kings - Part 2"

Rush...
the sound of the wind 
licks her ears, bites her neck, stings her lips
the deep heat caresses her hips 
brandishes, burns into her skin
travels...

Read More

Le Balcon (The Balcony)
Charles Baudelaire
trans. Michael R. Burch

Paramour of memory, ultimate mistress,
source of all pleasure, my only desire;
how can I forget your ecstatic caresses,
the warmth of your breasts by the roaring fire,
paramour of memory, ultimate...

Read More

Himalayan  Trip-Trap

They poured in,  before the deluge
To surpass the natives in numbers
folks in their  cribs -through-hearse  stages, 
trusting like kids,  a burnished sky,  blue-white, 
a cocktail of the wrong...

Read More

I had lately been in the career doldrums, for I was an aspiring, eager actress,
Like lavish summer blossoming rampantly, in wild, passionate distractedness.

I'd enjoyed a few triumphant successes, still, they were few and far between,
Like...

Read More