Long Chancel Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

Read More

Coercion began
as the ground surrounds the seed
baring life and truth
A kingdom of soil
An army of soiled crickets
A pubescent king
Presenting Jo Jo
the leader of the region
and sire to the throne
Forced to lead the masses
basis chases hatred
Bandaged...

Read More

The chilled musky air torments the aging Saxon stone;
whistling through the aisles, the sound reverberating
as it sweeps along the colonnade.
Moonlight penetrates ancient glass stained windows,
initiating reflected shadows, as an innocent mind pulsates tempestuously,
he who was...

Read More

Coercion began
as the ground surrounds the seed
baring life and truth
A kingdom of soil
An army of soiled crickets
A pubescent king
Presenting Jo Jo
the leader of the region
and sire to the throne
Forced to lead the masses
basis chases hatred
Bandaged...

Read More

Midnight at Blackfriars 
  
The city spires are hidden, 
It’s getting colder fast, 
It feels as though we might have 
Some snow this month at last. 
The wind sweeps keenly through St. Giles(1) 
The...

Read More

Europe was frozen in a tide of hate
The genius Jew was being persecuted
Bound to the intransigence of fate
His violin played the tunes they executed
Now it was time to think as they electrocuted
The hopes of young...

Read More

11009
CharlaXFabels
HOW ROOD
They took a cart with four wheels scootered by me just to almost hit my foot they 
tried to run between the bus stop and the bench where eye was standing waiting 
for the...

Read More

Morning walk by the seashore~
I was here some twenty years ago;
Could this be the same sand where I used to walk on
with nothing but rainbows of seashells in my mind?
This could be different sand, I...

Read More

A restless night, another hum-drum day,
Resolve to take a pleasurable walk;
I make my way towards St Mary’s church.
Across the street, a sixteenth century home –
Maltravers Manor, testament to time.

I’m heading for the ancient Hollow Way
Where...

Read More

Soul Sanctuary

Wandering through a moveable museum of memories columnar
Dusting off exhibits of moments held fast in watercolors gossamer

Milestones chiseled into fleeting moments of atonement,
Soft edges of first love painted in golden moments –

Brushing aside gauzy...

Read More

I gat no ing job
All I do is place a daring bet
Sometimes I hit the big stone with my toe
While if luck gat my back, it catapults me like a jet

Madness permits corncob 
Yet remain...

Read More

Sanctuary

Wandering through a moveable museum of memories
Dusting off exhibits of moments held fast in gossamer watercolors;
Milestones chiseled into fleeting moments,
Soft edges of first love;
Brushing aside gauzy cobwebs on photo negatives
Blushing with pastel transparency in opaque...

Read More

Love is her Belief and her Commandment
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Love is her belief and her commandment;
in restless dreams at night, she dreams of Love;
and Love is her desire and her purpose;
and everywhere she goes,...

Read More

My heart feels crestfallen
Whenever I think about that day
She looked like a bee collecting pollen
In the garden of Deity as she pray


The raven attire on the pale skin
The ample lips and the double chin
Crooning behind...

Read More

THE SUNKEN CATHEDRAL – after Claude Debussy

A tomb
So chill, so deathly still
Where algaed bells hang dumb

Diffus’d 
Her warted, weaving spire
In eerie midnight sun

A womb
Come, bubble, bubble down
In gloom, the vaulted way

To see
Through brackish ripple glass
By...

Read More

Dreaming of verdant meadows and amber acreage
    flush on the banks of a dazzling blue lake's ridge 

  Jousting with villains for the hand of fair damsels
    or...

Read More

A tomb
So chill    so deathly still
Where algaed bells hang dumb

Diffus'd
Her warted    weaving spire
In eerie    midnight sun

A womb
Come    bubble    bubble down
In...

Read More

Huge bronze bells peel muffled engulfed by sea 
above unhearing in depths deaf to thee

drowned the dead the lost tsunami friends
not figuring quick and sharp their ends

black churning death coming from the sea
no distinction twixt...

Read More