Long Coarse Poems

Dear people, 
    (Am i?) Mad it’s a conformist state?
A status that perpetuates people to pair, to compare, to prepare, 
to perfect, before performance, …?
    -sure hard to try...

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Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

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Nucleotidings
by Michael R. Burch

“We will walk taller!” said Gupta,
sorta abrupta,
hand-in-hand with his mom,
eyeing the A-bomb.

“Who needs a mahatma
in the aftermath of NAFTA?
Now, that was a disaster,”
cried glib Punjab.

“After Y2k,
time will spin out of control anyway,”
flamed...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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TITLE:
       Xenophobia

Heed the warning
This isn't for the faint of heart
Verbalizing my deepest yearnings 
They're bound to be a bit tart...

Because where I'm from is called the Bible Belt
Where folks...

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justice 

What does this vastly misunderstood word mean to you? 

Too what ends? 

May we seek? 

Who(m) may guide us? 

Endless deliberation (spiss spiss spiss)

Debated and glorified by us all 

Beloved; instilled among (a) core...

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My Daughter

My beautiful Daughter, walks life’s paths alone,
She does so, by design – not of hers – on her own.
She travels heavily !, from place to empty space,
from space to vacant place – in what...

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Of Ghosts and Fiends in Twilight


The sun sank low on the darkening horizon
Grey mist hung adrift over the land thickening
A cold, brisk autumn wind held and embraced me 
With my horse’s pace and that of...

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Stood I there, that last day,
On an iron bridge...
An aqueduct by design,
Where, looking dreamily out over
The Ernes Lower Lough,
My compressed shadow 
Momentarily paused -
To contently recline:
Amidst coy Junes radiant beams 
of sweet benign!
All was stilled,...

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Beginnings – Endings

Out of the darkest reaches of time and space
came molten minerals, gasses, rocks, comets
– life traversing aeons, in suspended animation
across millions of light years, billions of desolate miles
creating unseen universe after universe,
creating unseen...

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MICHELANGELO: Modern English Translations

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is considered by many experts to be the greatest artist and sculptor of all time. These are modern English translations of his poems and epigrams by Michael R. Burch.



SONNET:...

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Everybody moved out of the country to get a taste of the shining city
Ripe banana, ripe plums, are perishing in Uncle Sam’s broiling sun
I cannot stand the scorching heat that is swelling up from the...

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Rosalia - The Evil Black Witch of the Harz

Prologue
This is a rather grim epic poetic tale of Rosalia, a 16th century German witch who terrorized villages, destroyed the lives and corrupted the souls of many...

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Summer Memories
Summer Realities

This, the first day of summer, two thousand and two, finds me,
slipping back into what once was my desire, my need, my reality.
This step back into, and into times passed, has allowed me...

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I see a rose wilting by the darkness of an abusive husband/
And I feel guilty just standing by and not doing something/
I’m proving nothing with my inactivity and hollow words/
Truth is hard to swallow but...

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The sun, resplendent in its blazing might,
Burns fiercely o'er a barren, lifeless waste,
A desert dry and vast where earth is scorched
By searing radiation, deathly bright.
No sign of life but one lone phoenix flies,
Soaring precarious, close...

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With the opening of my fortress cell,
solemn-faced men come locust invading in
Their mouths smile not, and eyes neither grin
as ceremonial words pursed lips expel
A deer thought escapes ... my life nears its end!
And I feel...

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Joulupukki hesitated for a few seconds, 
     “I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but what if we feed the magic corn to a team of deer and they pull...

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Though a Democrat, I play the devil's advocate...

after reading the article
(published in the July + August 2024
issue of Mother Jones)
titled Raging bull - Donald Trump's
pugilistic spokesman has taken
campaigning to a whole new level of low.

Beyond...

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Nexus had not yet reached the other side
When we started to enter in a wood
On which no any sign of pathway lied. 

No green fronds,, but grey dusky color stood;
No smooth branches, but all with...

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What happened to my sex drive?

(sung – in a round pussy willow warble - to the tune of -- 
Oh Where Oh Where has my little dog gone).

Once pronounced libido of mine 
took kamikaze nose...

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To a perfectly perfect stranger
met on a time on the river bank
I asked a simple question,
“How should I live my life 
and live life to the full?”
He smiled at me, His eyes dark, wise and...

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Kublai winter days are slow and steady. He is now my fluffy
old boy dog. Sleeps a lot and is somewhat of a loner. Genghis and Sassy
follow me always wanting my attention. Not Kublai, I have...

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Secrets are anxiously being kept with a behavioral struggle, as one of the special few enters the room; obviously preoccupied with his thoughts. Bottom teeth are nipping his upper lip tucked tight, rope acting as...

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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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