Long Canvassed Poems

Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

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LOVE POEMS V

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch, about life, the dream of love, virtue, a first kiss, a first crush, the birth of a first relationship, the joy of a first love...

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Damian Stood at the bottom of the 
Staircase and Yelled "come on Mallory 
Delilah we're waiting. Let's be About this."
This shopping time there was even 
More family Members indulging In
The food shopping fiasco.
Molly and Dolly...

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(Apropos Of A School-Day Happenstance)

There she stood on the edge 
of the cliff of loneliness—her
tiny eyes staring out into space.

As I cautiously approached her,
I softly asked if everything was ok.
She replied that everything was fine;
that...

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The mysterious night tiptoed silently and abducted me from my bed
I saw a  dispirited district somewhere in town staring blindly at its
hopeless inhabitants whose passion lay motionless in ruins 
lamenting the vengeance for its...

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Itinerant mercenary shrouded with penitent robe
Shining beacon for terrorists around the globe
Hermetic curmudgeon; gun-toting xenophobe
Zealous provacateur who for ardent jihadists did probe

Material wealth a means; establishing a caliphate the end
Seeking Arab-royalty's, sovereign-sheikdoms to rend
Scourge of...

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August is ending with a heat that gives no mercy to the land or man
so intense that the air swelters off the river into the tree tops,
looking ahead, its as if we are passing through...

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Stilled again across the canals broadening 
Girth;
Mesh cages of rock-filled Gabions 
Reinforcing patches of exposed and arid earth,
Reflecting the glints that gleefully
Twist and dance in the hot glare of the sun...
Provoking images and stirring indefinable...

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I can't believe I thought that.
In the shadows of my soul the whispers lingered. It murmured and elegantly sat massaging my last ego in the stool of regrets. My being was lied to, stomped at,...

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There are times you think     the ink
is finally dry
that human hearts      are made of stone
and always die
that the lessons    we have learned
have no...

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I cradle and rock him,
He's so fragile a thing in my arms,
So perfect, so innocent,
So unlike his mother.
His mother was broken and wicked,
A being rotten from within,
But I had loved her still.
It was foolish, I...

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From sunup to sundown
it was indeed a weird day;
it seemed as if the sun rose
wearing dimming shades
and as if the wind had been
blown off course or locked out.

The bold-green leaf trees, hedges,
shrubs, and lawn grasses...

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Memories: Friend and Foe, 
collaboration with Lin Lane

"Memory is man's greatest friend and worst enemy."
                    ...

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Death of the King
– a threnody

Since the day of freedom,
the crowned king has sat
stately on state affairs:
atop this tempest
this illwind,
this boiling cauldron of corruption.
Blowing and blowing and
siphoning away our joy
and commonwealth!

The king’s green white green...

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"Memory is man's greatest friend and worst enemy."
                           ...

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Through the broken windowpane
Set my beholding eyes
On an empty room like a wanton whore
In naked beauty more adorned bushy 
Lying duped and beguiled on the floor,
Sighing desperately for her heart’s desire
That’s canvassed on the fading...

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The grass, just about dry, 
 is canary, clothed in evening sun, 
now sinking beyond the colorful portrait,
canvassed on nature’s abundant spread;
a brilliant form, painted by fall’s seasoned fingers. 

The cool breeze funnels through valleys...

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April brings in the overcast darkened skies,
and wet days yet to come.
    Rainy days linger, and don't allow the 
slightest peek, from the rising sun.

    A beautiful Monarch butterfly...

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Chaste and more graceful
Than the white canvassed Dhow:
Reclines sweet Nefertiti 
Upon a Blue Nile breeze.
Fabled entity more whiter
Than the purest white snow
That thickly blankets
And folds over the wide Pyrenees.

Dipped is thy beak 
Into a harvesters...

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Today my flowing pen
Streams screaming words
Cascading to hungry eyes
And thirsty ears of waves
Of the oceans of minds
Waiting to be sailed upon
In the winds of whatever
The day has decided to blow
Into sleeping sails awaiting
To be blown...

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"Memory can be our greatest friend or greatest foe."
                          ...

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The night sky enters the scene
Shatters my dream, and the rainbow the day made
Guess you can never escape, the things that are meant to haunt you

I stare with sleepy eyes outside to the stars
Once my...

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Kofi Amed & Dominic Amozimi

Tonal shaded selfies behind open mural walls
We were but performers in art galleried halls
Between submissive embrace and crazy calls.

We danced our way into realms of falling roses.
On sullen floors of marble...

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As the salvo to parry any blow
succumbs to a deserted battlefield;
what does a warrior do who doesn't know
the war is over and it's time to yield?
     The gusto of engagement stirs...

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IN SAGE TREED INSPIRATION

Standing in the forested arena
Beneath one of the multiplicities 
Of the ethnicities of barked sage trees
Reining in the mutual oneness
Of the equanimity of their being,
My spirituality of mind turned its focus
To thoughts...

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