Long Carnelian Poems

Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XII

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly,...

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Ordinary Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Indescribable—our love—and still we say
with eyes averted, turning out the light,
"I love you," in the ordinary way
 
and tug the coverlet where once we lay,
all suntanned limbs entangled, shivering,...

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The New Jerusalem chapter 21:9-22

One of the seven angels who had one of the seven bowels full of the
seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the
bride, the wife of...

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O the sunset...the sunset...the carnelian sunsets
how I long to hold them in my hand...so when you are blue...so blue
so deep dark blue...you can come to me 
I will open my hand and you can wonder...wonder...wide...

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“10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11It shone with the glory of God,...

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That Blessed Door

O the rain...the rain...the falling rain 
that fell and fell and fell again 
keeping you from my door...O my door...that blessed door! 

O the sunset...the sunset...the carnelian sunsets
how I long to hold them...

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DO YOU KNOW GOD?

Do you know God?
Do you really know God?
Do you know the Light
That shines brighter than the sun?
Do you know the voice of many waters
Or the eyes of fiery fire?

Have you seen the...

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" Tortured metaphors
                           spilling from tequila lips,
  ...

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Sweet Rose of Virtue 
by William Dunbar [1460-1525]
translation by Michael R. Burch

Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,
delightful lily of youthful wantonness,
richest in bounty and in beauty clear
and in every virtue that is held most...

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Written: February 1st, 2025 For contest by Sponsored by: Brian Strand

                        ...

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On an early morning walk of coffee and salt
under a sullen sky filled with the tridents of wings,
I add my footprints beside a blowsy sea (praised be 
Poseidon,) that accepts the given of a northeast...

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Bawdy tales of dreams and secret memories
their superficial veil infused with gossip sleeze
its curious listeners deemed  pretentiously deaf to what they mean?
Absorbed in superficial greed,the auction proceeds
quick tempered and tastelessly naughty
laced in gemed jewelry,outrageously...

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HEALING RUNES
…………………
----------------------------



Of all the stones that are stately mesmerizing
None can heal like my combined, energized hues
How through my iridescent rock I work wonders abating
Stress and strife clear muddy clouds of hardened blues,
Take my carnelian streaks,...

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for Aidan in row 5

At the edge of the sky, there is a crimson slash 
seen through the leafy scrolling of trees that soldier 
the perimeter of the lake. Overhead there is only 
gray, as...

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Upon the rustic walls,
Laid a shadow, shadow too dry.
In the trees beyond, laid the carnelian of fall;
And I stroll away, into the vestige foliage ply.

In my little cabin,
many boring days had flown by,
but it was...

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Tell me your reasons and I shall tell you mine; never ceasing stories, but!?

Sheltered as a child and kept from the world, to soothe anothers scars....

Crippled through time these lives; life, psychologically mauled in maimed

Precipitations...

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Carnelian robes permeate dreamtime landscapes
of parchment and prayer flag.
Smiling faces walk swiftly
through corridors of ancient walls
carved from living mountains,
spinning cylindrical wheels in their wake.

Patience of a thousand, thousand years,
we wait for peace.

Eagle feathers jounce
as soft...

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When the roads open their eyes, all the blue fish come to my sea. The road is a smile exits its pink  ear from that window which sleeps on my mother hand. Without any...

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A mystic rose smile that belonged to my mother this is what I recall   

My easel and I resting in the spirit,  by the grandeur of a morning tilt.  As the...

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amethyst, amber, agate, aquamarine
barite, bauxite, beryl, soon seen
carnelian, chryophrase, cool citrine
diamond, dolomite, delivered by Dean

Emerald, epidite, elusive by far
Flourite flowing next to Feldspar,
Gemstone hit parade, setting the bar
Hematite holds us hostage, said Mar.

Isis calcite showing...

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amethyst, amber, agate, aquamarine
barite, bauxite, beryl, soon seen
carnelian, chryophrase, cool citrine
diamond, dolomite, delivered by Dean

Emerald, epidite, elusive by far
Flourite flowing next to Feldspar,
Gemstone hit parade, setting the bar
Hematite holds us hostage, said Mar.

Isis calcite showing...

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Autumn Morning Country
The Morning Sky Aquamarine.
The Morning Sun Canary.
The Morning Clouds Pearls of White.
The Morning Birds Ruby Light.
The Morning Grass Emerald Green.
The Morning Leaves Smoky Quartz and Peridot.
The Morning Tree Trunks Citrine Light.
The Morning Smears...

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Dandy Diva 
Jewels as unique as women who wear them 

At the market she has her stand 
Goldie locks hair beautiful face   
Andrea is her name 
Gems and jewels are her fame.

Games and...

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Late,
 the morning glories rise
 passionate, royal, magenta blooms trumpeting,
 helloes and goodbyes;
novice neophytes falling 
into lavender blush dream states
succumbing to a mellowed change in weather
 cooler days awakened by pale aging sunlight
 soft, restless...

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