Long Cinder Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Fahr an' Ice
by Michael R. Burch

From what I know of death, I'll side with those
who'd like to have a say in how it goes:
just make mine cool, cool rocks (twice drowned in likker),
and real fahr...

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Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

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Each flame 
elegantly weaves in waves
flowing up from resources red cinder hot,
similar in warm color
temperature decrees
of beauty as integrity's truth
trust each surrounding flame.

Each flame 
unique in point of origin below
as ubiquitously flickering fading destinations above.

Yet...

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Sonnets XXXIII-XLI

The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch

She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must bend down to her to understand.
But she only smiles, and...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XI

Myth
by Michael R. Burch

after the sprung rhythm of Dylan Thomas

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and...

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Because the charity of my native place
Obliged me, the broken branches I the picked up
Them giving back him, who was to debase.

Then we finally reached where had to leap
From the second turn to third, and...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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All the guys and gals that I had graduated with, from Jimmy Dorsey High School, back in 1935,
Half a century later were dispersing all around us, surprising me with whom among my class was still...

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Huge fluffy clouds began to form over 
Sanibel Island as the salted gulf splashed 
against the rocks around the lighthouse 
coastal waters rose up as a calming coolness 
carried this gentle warm breeze over to...

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I write this prose for my dear, fair lady wife
To celebrate her Birthday on November 29th
She’s my partner, my best friend, the love of my life
Without her my life would be as dark as night

From...

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JOE VERSUS THE RACCOON 
By Kate H. Stark


Each night ‘twas the same old proverbial shout. 
“Hey Joe, will you please take the garbage bags out?”

Joe sighed, rolled his eyes as he walked toward the door....

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Lilith Waits   



Lilith waits as she surveys, all her brutal yesterdays

She cruelly paved with stepping-stones of broken hearts and human bones.

Her lips turned up at their red corners, she grins at all the...

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please tell me ...

what happened?
what dire damage have i wrought?
what did i do to ruin it, that friendship, rare?
you once knew me better than most ...

my darkness didn't frighten you, didn't rattle,
you sighted those demons...

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"The Great Forgotten Language" 

In the forest
Love shows
the way
spreading seeds

strange creatures
come forth
into the clearing 
of a known self

some run away
spooked as if 
the bare reflection 
shows their undressed soul

confronting, 
are the peculiar
ghosts risen, speaking 
like...

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“For other answer”, told, “ I cannot lean
Than do it, because to honest question
Must follow action, with no word between”.

We dropped down the bridge with its progression
Where following it is reached the eighth bank,
Then I...

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Cypress trees like evergreen steeples
rise above rows of gravestone woes,
their shadows lie side by side like railroad ties 
across writhing paths banded like snakes;
the gravel birth cords sinuous 
sensing the ground   seeking the...

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~~~
Dappled grey horses
sweat crusted and weary
hooves drifting dust
lift a day
passing dreary
The harness bells faded
reigned in at the rill
a cool running brook
near the base of our hill
~
My eyes
I'm a lad
scant older than four
brought visions to mind
full...

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*Image of Pala au & Nanahoa by Historic Hawaii
AUDIO: Couplet read
VIDEO: Unique Okala Island Off Monumental Cliffs of Moloka'i


Cliff

Cliff's supply the bemused aback.
Amassed jaws sink as all stand back,
tourist gawks, at paired land splendors.
First; mountain...

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I watch the sun fall from the sky
tumbling soundlessly, the horrid quiet deafening.
As I see it touch the horizon, the world burns
and clouds, like kindling, burst into flames
set afire, until their brilliant hues burn to...

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Straight lines, sepia

The suppression of unwanted thoughts

Like time spent in sensory deprivation
Time spent in a droning room
Under sterile light hums, practically drooling

The vacuum of most moments
As standard as cinder blocks
Punctuated by things so washed out,...

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Military maneuvers,
conducted by starship troopers,
make a Lot of king Chedorlaomer noise

Earhole space
penetrated by the Pentagon puffing pace ... 
stealth sound of smoke signals
Warning drumbeat signs 
of an incoming, deadly drone invasion

Attack helicopters hover
over tempting topography...

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The road wore a coat, a thick blanket of snow
Spring had not reached those Tennessee hills
As midnight approached, three Rebs lie in a hole
Near a slope where six brethren were killed

In tattered gray suits and...

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As I think back to that dark time in our community I don’t know if I’d ever seen anyone quite 
like that (Cinder Girl). We girls thought she had (Lovely Bones). The last time I...

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And so I ponder my frailities as give giveness to the/they that are in response to my/your parental misgivings, the way windward wade their roughened cinder complexities confided to an annotated disgfiured desire-repost postured, annotized...

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