Long Calmest Poems

JUDY…
Judy was a German Shepherd from my newborn days
I’ve seen some pictures, black and white; she had a friendly gaze
I wish I could remember her as I sit here and write
Alas I just have photographs,...

Read More

The Eye of the Hurricane

 When all conditions have come together
And we have taken notice of the strength 
We like to name them and keep track
Of them moving across the ocean floors
The eye is considered...

Read More

“In the journal, I am at ease.” — Anaïs Nin


Crisp, like the autumn whose blazing dreams
Softly whisper into the moments,
Embracing the night and kissing the dew on dawn,
Resembling a silent promise for gentle that is...

Read More

These are my early poems, or juvenilia.

Stars
by Michael R. Burch, age 22

Though night has come,
I'm not alone,
for stars appear
—fierce, faint and far—
to dance until they disappear.

They reappear
as clouds roll by
in stormy billows
past bent willows;
sometimes they...

Read More

There upon the courtship,
proclaimed, a sorrowful
spirit hearkened upon 
this ballad of misery
and burden.  For her
grief and unrelished
despair, the angels
of Michael, our saintly divine,
answered, whil'st upon 
the hour of marriage royal,
an unwanted surprise,
a battle declared,...

Read More

Ephemeral Laments of Technicality

Qualifications of a criminal mind
Magnifications of virtue in all of mankind
Qauntifications of meaning you cannot seem to find
Fractal notations in dreaming that you’d never leave behind

Geometric cubism born of Platonic Solids
Ego-centric hubris...

Read More

Take me out of here and, 
Never bring me back to this dungeon
    
      Hell for the monkeys
    
     ...

Read More

"I beg You, show me Your glory," Moses said
but God snuck past, back-turned, revealing not His glorious head
Moses didn't know they had to wait for God Incarnate, instead
for God's glory -- no mistaking!

“Glory to God...on...

Read More

Here I am
with all my bags scattered at your feet.

The train roars away, miles away.
With smoke piling out of it and no trace of me.

Had a nightmare last night
that I left you behind
hit me with...

Read More

(I found this hiding on the web -- something I wrote
maybe 30--40 years ago...and I thought, how marvelous!
Too good not to share with Soup.)

I thought to tell her a bedtime story—
A father’s duty
A parent’s joy;
And...

Read More

A fist clenched, face muscles flexed on pinched cheeks, huge sinews appeared on his neck,
The veins in his arms were like twisted lengths of blue rope and his eyes bulged in his anger,
His brother lay...

Read More

Here I stand
sweat dripping off my nose
as I bounce my axe 
   in my left hand,
blood slides off the blade.

They tell me
   my eye turn crimson
when I’m like this,
  ...

Read More

There was a purple dandelion which I once had—
Which into the blues suddenly disappeared;
Oh! for many days it was my only possession,
Before I was dispossessed and left for dead!

For with nothing could I afterward be...

Read More

God brought me through the storm
He kept me feeling reassured and adored
He didn’t let me go when I was afraid
He filled my heart with joy that He gave

God kept me from making a bad mistake
He...

Read More

There is beauty in the darkness
There is laughter in the silence
There is kindness in the whisper
There is serenity in the storm
There is warmth in the snowy morn
There is music in the stillness
There is prayer in...

Read More

The silky blue sky augurs a clear day 
Agile birds playfully gliding in the air 
Willowy weeds spread across the way 
Cool breeze circling as it blew my hair

Picturesque nature at its calmest 
In my...

Read More

All that there is and all that will be,
Will always be no matter what ceases to be,
Day and night its all I see,
The owl, staring...
I stare back it stares at me,
Its all that there is,...

Read More

Came from work, exhausted and moody,
fall is advancing with an improvised, swift pace,
but the meteorologist defies it with the happiest face;
and tomorrow I'll wake up and trot away! 


Planned a day in the merry sunshine,
with...

Read More

The night was a hot summer’s night, a new moon,
Seductive she was, dangerous and smooth.
She’s restless, she’s naughty, and she has no fear,
She longs for her lover, who’s late getting there.

The night was so long,...

Read More

Winter steals its unwanted self upon us and the sultry heat of forgotten summer is past,
Torrents of rain painful hail have battered away our fond warm memories of a summer day,
The pasture now cloying feted...

Read More

Winter steals its unwanted self upon us and the sultry heat of forgotten summer is past,
Torrents of rain painful hail have battered away our fond warm memories of a summer day,
The pasture now cloying feted...

Read More

A ship, a ship; calling me home.
I’ve searched for years, destined to roam. 
The waves rocked her, yet she remained strong. 
A steady heart for sure, tending the wrong. 
Through battles and fights, through heartbreak...

Read More

Grandpas ghost sits at the dusty chair.

He gazes out the stain glass window.

Smoke rolls from his wooden pipe and collects in the sun beams.

He is drawn to a divine moment of a hummingbird as still...

Read More

There was a legend in the world of cricket,
For whom fans rushed to buy the tickets.
Who started  getting run out on 1st wicket 
And like a poem, got run-out as well in his last...

Read More

In the middle of deep dark woods
Beneath the clumsy, capricious clouds
A wacky, wiggly passage leads
To a captivating, cavernous ground

There dwells a divine dreamy Ipomoea__
With the sunset, she gets herself unwrap__
To brew with love, in her...

Read More