Long Canticle Poems

THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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Of new pains new verses must be composed 
To give matter for the canto twenty
Of the canticle first, treating sunk posed.

I just was inclined with desires many
To thoroughly look at the open deep,
Which was moisten...

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Venite
Come let us sing to the Lord;*
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving*
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is...

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SCANTILY-CLAD in the GARDEN of S W EDEN

Here I stand, all alone, scantily-clad in the garden of S W EDEN.
Wondering if the Original Garden still remains untilled and uneven.
Wondering how that Serpent knew of the...

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(strike while the iron's hot, else...
up prize cold hard steel Goldfinger
rewind: the following case in point).

Believe me you (stranger out there
along the information super highway),
perhaps feeling comfortably numb,
which I (personally experiencing futility)

vainly searching for Nirvana)...

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Canticle: an Aubade
Michael R. Burch

Misty morning sunlight hails the dawning of new day;
dreams drift into drowsiness before they fade away.
Dew drops on the green grass echo splendors of the sun;
the silence lauds a songstress and...

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Cadaverous climate controlled cave creature 

(Idea birthed, engendered, and germinated 
from Lombok Indonesia earthquakes
On 5 August 2018, 
a destructive and shallow earthquake
measuring Mw 6.9 
(ML 7.0 according to BMKG) 
struck the island 
of Lombok, Indonesia),
rendering...

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These lines were written for a contest about aging on another poetry site. They do not reflect my attitude about the process, nor should you allow them to affect you.


My sorrowful thoughts were wandering in...

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one day as a boy, I went down to the sea
clambered o'er rocks way out to the bluff
stopping to search in a tide pool for shells
senses awakened by strong, briny smells
warming, the zephyr was gentle...

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 as the fresh morning utilized the Moons net
one last time before she turned in
while her other face puts on make-up
eagerly she waits to kiss...

Sunsprinkled showers of light
that frolic across the
ESH
R O
H L
T D

greeting me...

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It’s a wonderful feeling as you gladly air your sweet melody
The canticle of your ebbs is heard from your sweet glee
Children shriek with laughter as they feast in haste
Adults lay down to feel your scent...

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A canticle I think I'll be, 
A rimed thought, hoary and ancient, 
Stinking as the dust heaped up empyreal on the hills of 
The Judean sands;
And as dulled and dimmed as an archaic coin tarnish'd.
This...

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Written: September 24, 2023
_____________________________________________________________

In the dawn-like haze—a shriek was heard,
An echo so shrewd, yet birdless, oddly slurred 
It was ordained by—a stratum unseen,
A throbbing coerce, a numen so keen. 

A canticle flower—a bellow coarsely flung,
Through...

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La Fête foraine de Scarborough

    For the anonymous medieval poet

and Simon & Garfunkel - in admiration

                ...

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Whisper of Conscience

Because of the canticle of everlasting love
Like a sunlit lyric sung upon a path
Life’s essence sheds freckles of pacing anxiety
That echo through catacombs of consternation
In a whisper of untranslated dots of braille. 

Because...

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I catch a fleeting glimpse of her room from the hall,
my back slams lightly against the wall,
slumping listlessly, my anger out of control.
As she lies in her hospital bed, tubes patrol
in and out of every...

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The breath of Heaven is your sigh ... callow leaves of May tremble for its press on their cheeks, and giggle to slumber on pastel quilts of Autumn, for its sake alone. Should it not...

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Stone Spires

Stone cathedral spires rise
          Sharply
From freely flowing waters
 Birthing rebirth -
Lifting up unto the eternal
 A psalm
   A canticle
    ...

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(Idea engendered from Lombok earthquake: Indonesia)

Nary a chink of illumination pierces thru
thick cavernous rock solid chamber home
     to this crepuscular anchorite,
who spent untold countless chunks of time
holed up deep underground

 ...

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Fall softly, wee one, here ... fall softly
    to your repose, drift the dark like a
        feather! You are perfection, defined,
    ...

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This tediousness of life and all
LIFE: that sinful lady
who gambols and whips her watery gown
and whispers those most secret secrets
whose cosmic kiss dances so infinitesimally close to the eardrum
but never encounter

How it all bores me
this...

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Please,
  Feel free ...
    Kick me down the street
      Like a dented can - label ripped, rusted edges

What else can you do with a damaged container...

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I hardly noticed the first tiny crack, 
through the deluge of tears I cried.
Perhaps too numb to feel the sting of pain
or the fissure exposing my wounded heart,
but in sorrow, I chose to ignore it...

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ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 5/19 and now there is a contest using this form. MY POEM IS NOT FOR THAT CONTEST.
It was created using ONLY the titles of poems I've written.  Many of them were...

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ARE YE GOING TO MARRY THAT WITCH OF A DAME - Counterfeiting the CANTICLE by T. Wignesan

(With self-lacerating apologies and scathing penance to that great troubador medieval English poet who longed for his lovely lass...

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