Long Bustle Poems

Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IV
I wrote this around age 17.



Bible Libel
by Michael R. Burch

If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.

I read the Bible from cover to cover at age eleven, ten chapters per day, at the suggestion...

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I discovered a poem longing in my heart, it is for you, 
And it is about you, my sweetheart. This poem resembles you.
I wrote it this morning, before the arrival of the auroral shadow.
Her words...

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The Spaniel

A Spaniel that uses its head 
Can tell when its owner’s unfed 
So instead of a duck
That is down on its luck 
Will deliver a pizza instead
 
The Afghan Hound

The Afghan’s a dog groomer’s...

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I  sat at my desk in the early hours of the morning listening to the words of the mighty one calling “windows to my soul” kept warning. I didn’t question it, I didn’t understand...

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As I rummage through the pages of my life
I remember my married life
The hustle bustle the joys and the strife
There was no time for rest and relaxation
I was mother of 5 children
Taking care of their...

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There was a time 
In the not distant past
When farmers would sell their wares
Of fruits and vegetables they had planted
To feed the town folks, and balance a budget
In exchange, for clothes, sundries and junket
For the...

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I heard a whisper…

In my dream last night,  you've found another to hold

Where the blind ones tossed and turned, lost in a labyrinth 

Your lonely nights becoming  a sanctuary forming  desires

Turning your...

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Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here?
Philosophers rack their brains over these questions
Saints and poets alike try to come to grips with them
  But do they concern the...

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A coffee and a love,
On the seashore, hidden under the shade of a canopy,
Pensive, I gaze emptily, outside the deserted beach.
There's no bustle, no noise around me,
The sun burns gently, the wind is calm and...

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Moulin Rouge

The greens and pinks magnetize to my eye
Like flowers abloom, in a field espied;
That overwhelms creation’s invention
With beauty of grandiose dimension
Shifting to the wind’s orchestrated movements,
And winks my soul agape by the performance
To be...

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 WHO WAS SHE

I intuited the radiance before
I even laid eyes on her
Moving with a self-assured poise
that came from deep within
was a quintessence of a woman
of ageless assurance and beauty

What WAS it?

That layered her with...

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Cluttering above huddled rooftops
Of sprawling villages 
And shy provincial towns;
Rising sharply amidst swooping
Declinations;
Hesitating when gathering at the
Tangled woodland perimeters of
Outlying greenland bounds,
Jostled apex ridges detach among
Themselves...
When habitually roused from early
Mornings
Newly awakened sounds.

Electrical milk floats whir...

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It appears that I was both half asleep and awake.  For all intents and purposes, let's just call it a dream. There was a zoo and everything about it seemed normal. That is, if...

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You have to forgive me
Been in the hospital 
For 3 days now
With mi amor
Who has been
In a month
white uniforms
Calm colors familiar
I almost forgot I
Step on new 
ground each day

Antiseptic smell
Broken by humanity
When what is taken
To...

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--- but as if patiently waiting

to be translated back into Earth again --- :

inscribed timeworn standing stone stelae

--- things in themselves ---

as if half-expecting that at any moment 

the next traveler will arrive there,

the one...

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Lorca Translations I

Gacela of the Dark Death
by Federico Garcia Lorca
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I want to sleep the dreamless sleep of apples
far from the bustle of cemeteries.
I want to sleep the dream-filled sleep of...

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London

The tour of London begins
 In the streets of my mind,
  Through past and present
   Intrinsically entwined,
    Through people and places
     It's heart we will...

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(Three Lives, Three Sonnets, Three Friends, Fate's Dark Hand)
POEM 1. Nights Were Our Time Setting Our World Ablaze
POEM 2. When Man Lusts For All, Seeking All The More
POEM 3. Yet A Cure Within Light's Truth,...

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Some folks just don't have a life of their own.
Some live on other's problems.
Some live on other's dreams, and hopes for the future.
Some live on just being the antagonist to everyone else;
They are the worst...

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You think your life's so rushed?
You've never been literally flushed,
or frozen and really crushed.
I've been through all a thousand times,
maybe more if you read between the lines.
My names 'Rob' and i'm a raindrop,
how my journey...

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I was a stylish, assertive travel agent, arranging getaways for busy people;
Like sudden getaways of jewel, shooting stars, on ebony nights of upheaval.

I planned calm, exotic, trip itineraries, for all tired of city hustle and...

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My feet felt like frostbite had got them, 
Even though I had my suede boots on, 
I had just jovially returned from,  
That successful Christmas shopping trip, 
With no other reason to feel got at...

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In time when night turned to dawn, I could see, 
It all appeared like sheer fantasy. 
Light-hearted, I put on my office hat, 
And hurriedly in my horse carriage sat 
To drive away myself to...

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Distance flung miles away,
You turn behind and run away,
Saying no words of goodbye ,
You have taken all my hearts,
I'm heartless and breathless 
Here, I'm all alone and broken,
Longing for your return to the palace of...

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