Long Cawing Poems

Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds



Flying
by Michael R. Burch

I shall rise
and try the bloody wings of thought
ten thousand times
before I fly...

and then I'll sleep
and waste ten thousand nights
before I dream;

but when at last...
I soar the...

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See
by Michael R. Burch

See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Poems about Things that Break II
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter.
 
 
 
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
 
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower...

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Thank God, for people of order 
That disciplined, hold in people like myself.

We men, who enjoy strange living so…

In such outrageous outposts
Tempting a varied life… 

As well as early imprintings so…
Weren’t we told to be...

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Again the alarm is set.

Strawberries, date squares…Yum, Yum.   

The alarm rings again. The tea party is over.

 She returns to her perch where her wings are immediately clipped by the Bald Eagle who...

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While returning home from my job, in bustling New York City,
The blaring horns of traffic, and the noise were getting to me.

With loud yelling on the sidewalks, and cawing crows up above,
And my poor aching...

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The tale below was carved one night
upon the stone, by candlelight
...most won’t believe, but some just might
.........most won’t believe, but some just might



            ...

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“The ribbon is cut
 The die is cast
 The cement is dry
 Yet nothing lasts
 The brazen rewarded
 The hero a fool
 All reason outdated
 New fury the tool”

A journey presented
Your ship to go far
With...

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You raise me up above the mountains
You bring me below the vibrant valleys
You allow me to weep happy fountains 
When I walk in your bright alleys

Enormous in envy my heart is
Nervouscited for what lies ahead...fed...

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I had for long been an arborist, enthusiastically caring for the trees,
Like a grasshopper immersed in a green world, is glad for all he sees.

I had always loved nature, having begun gardening when I was...

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Edna Morris lived in the town of Shadow Fells, in rich green, hilly country,
With doting parents and sister Violet, plucking fruit from their plum tree.

Pretty Edna was twelve years old, but she and Violet played...

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Written: February 14, 2025 for Contest by Edward Ibeh

“Quote: Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!
Edgar Allan Poe”

             ...

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What is your earliest memory
of sacred birdsong voices?

How is this memory
the same and different than
your internal intimate Sacred EarthMother's Song?

Of sacred gospel and secular gossip
differentiating WinWin GoodNews
from WinLose we could go either way
more discerning and...

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"Cantus Troili" from "Troilus and Criseyde"
by Petrarch
translation by Geoffrey Chaucer
modernization by Michael R. Burch

If there’s no love, O God, why then, so low?
And if love is, what thing, and which, is he?
If love is good,...

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...inspired by and in dedication to ~  Victor Buhagiar, Robert Lindley (my mentors) and the rest of the PoetrySoup Family...thank you for your kindness and support...

A Tribute To Edgar Allan Poe... by ^WW^ Winged...

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I kneel to pray beneath an oak tree’s leaves,
where my journey began.
Broken limbs straggle over a patchy lawn,
a neglected place full of holes, 
shoveled from childhood memories.

I bow at the altar of the tall oak.
Days...

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I've never been a coward
I've never been named Howard
I'm not a doctor but I'm like a doctor
Struggling with patience
And I hate this and how I debate this
Delete this, delete that
Like I delete fat off my...

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Mind Dance

I hear you calling me
I feel you on the wind
Playing with my hair
Grazing my cheek
With kiss’s shadow

Upon your distant shores
Perched on craggy rocks
Upon sunlit parched cliffs
I receive you

I feel the whispers
Of the past
I hear...

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I love my mom 
with unabashed cliche,
                    when we hug, when we 
   ...

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A single branch, clawed and pecked, fickle and straining,
Lonely Nestling and father, paw and peck at their home
Lonely branch, spasms in the wind
Nestling and father paw and peck, yearn and whimper
These Flightless Birds, on a...

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"Scarecrow"



Worldliness 
in those 
who traverse 
poets’ 
re-edited
edited 
re-edited
thoughts;
semicolan, pause
their notes;
Mark a line
crossed black
on a 
Poet’s cross
caught still 
breeze blowing 
through
tightly tied 
forgotten
Love Knots

See there, 
an entire 
field of 
a thousand or 
more
Scarecrows
nodding
fixed to one spot

Witnessing...

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Except My Hugs 
Written by D. W. Breidenthal 

You think everything's passionate and sincere 
Except my letters, texts and hugs
You think cats are warm and friendly
You think dogs are dependent and full of positivity and vitality 
Except my...

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The ribbon is cut
The die is cast
The cement is dry
Yet nothing lasts
The brazen rewarded
The hero a fool
All reason outdated
New fury the tool

A journey presented
Your ship to go far
With doldrums eclipsed
By the light of new stars
The...

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A view of the ragged woodland from
The window:-
Slender branched trees that shed
From high above to low below;
The faint, mauven peaks
Smattered with barely visible
Scatterings of drifted snow;
Across the matted undergrowth
A bronzed carpet of copper coloured
Leaves
Whose rusting...

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