Long Coarsely Poems

Are you the butterfly
while in my dreams
I flit after Soshi?
—Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It's not at all anxious to bloom,
the plum tree at my gate.
—Kobayashi Issa, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The red...

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as if Monet had planted water lilies in Babylon

          hanging gardens at the heart of a canvas of joy

       ...

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The little pygmy named Pixie Poggly was quirky queenly quaintly and quickly, but rarely ever really did much can't you see.

Until one day, a raunchy rascal quaintly and shrewdly, Skinny and slippery that he was,...

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COOKING WITH JIM                      

actually, with him in spirit, in the kitchen 
of his quaint...

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Written: September 24, 2023
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In the dawn-like haze—a shriek was heard,
An echo so shrewd, yet birdless, oddly slurred 
It was ordained by—a stratum unseen,
A throbbing coerce, a numen so keen. 

A canticle flower—a bellow coarsely flung,
Through...

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So we’re going on a picnic with the pygmy, Pixie Poggly, being the quirky queenly 
quaintly quickly person she is and her friend a raunchy rascal reverently named 
Andy Bailey. As you remember he was...

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ONE NIGHT AT AN OYSTER BAR

        "Do they have steak?", he said
      to his friends, while passing time,
     ...

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(Thy lovely lasses unwittingly 
unstintingly unexpectedly 
taught me selflessness)

Every Holiday time each year, 
a rocketing increase asper
doling out Uriah Heap ping 
largesse imposed upon each
citizen banker (coerced, forced, 

induced to buy baubles,
bibelot, curios, et cetera...

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Gold or gladiolus or golden sapphire fine;
Delighted, even if I divine light define;
If, like an orange, the details I do not peel,
Will my rhyme-lyric like an angelus-bell, peal?

Like a disciplined mother rearing her infant,
Timely sleeping,...

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And blondes whistle (mightily)
Groove and rhythm supplied
By their accidental guardians
Feigning lock-down on these
Rancid, insipid rugged shores
It's what's expected
The triumphant stasis
The settling down of
Benign expectations
Mixed coarsely with the
Vinegar-garnished
Toxic waves disguised as hope
Fame and glamor
The settling in...

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There is a place where the asphalt flowers grow into the glittering light of glory
There is a place where black vultures lived with eyes of red and feathers are coarsely
There is a place where dreams...

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I walk through thin veils
of colored light and carefully
tread upon gleaming shards 
of precious glass -
broken and neatly scattered 
upon arctic bathroom tiles.

Each sliver reflects
a single piece of your 
perfect anatomy.
An arm, a leg, an...

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I grit my teeth and white my knuckles
as my newfound mentor chuckles.
He teaches me about disdain,
but no matter, I planned for pain.
My eyes both flutter as I shudder,
then I hear him coarsely utter:
"Good, looks like...

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My life is like a movie
well in my eyes I can truly be the ruling
I'm the doozy, Uzi shooting through the rooting
super-computing, fusing routine, never will use these
suiting every few, cleverly blue
see who? me looting...

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Mawmaw's icebox fruitcake sliced
Expose those colorful candied fruits
coarsely diced and smell so very nice
Sweetened condensed milk doesn't dilute
Chopped pecans and raisins~tasters recruit  

How about you?
Recipe:
I box Graham Crackers crushed
Add three cups chopped dried candied...

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Carnival without merit, affinity, and association
Brash, bellowing band bleeting notes in oscillation
Circus creatures cavorting about with every unseemly provision
Cascading, carnival chorus clanging through every subdivision
Haughty, kilted henchmen trotting in front of the procession
Decadently-dressed damsels fawning...

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I know. I have left you
With your worst enemy: your own.
I am only keeping what I’ve unlearnt
Throughout your education of me:
The enchantment of dialogic desire
And the near perfection of shared intimacy.
In this furnished house of...

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The curse driven by the full moon
Drove him to the forest where nature looms
Hunger fueled his charging rage 
Uncontrolled hormones set to be uncaged
His body writhed and twisted 
As if an unknown evils' power assisted
Elongated...

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Ibrahim saw Abraham try to spit 
But about the rudeness thought not a bit:
 Herdsman coarsely attacked with a spittle
And it had no meaning or just little,
Whereas it was Abraham’s wished battle
Against his teeming hundred...

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The libertine flails his torches
Burning staffs in his hands aglow
Golden sparks from the kindle beseech you
To dance on flames that he throws
For he is a man they call Passion
No soul has escaped what he's sowed


Good...

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The Mask

A craftsman crafts such a beatiful thing
To hide himself away,
From the true soul that lies within,
That is rotting and shall decay

Not shall he realise what trouble he's in,
Unable to mend a broken heart,
He is...

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("The Heart of It #2", 2007, original oil)

In the Footsteps of Christopher

The Bearer of Christ
As man of form and formless spirit
literally, figuratively, coarsely, subtly,
bringing us to where we are today
on this farther shore
blessed with the...

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I was coarsely stopped at a junction today
With fixed alternatives thrown my way
To let pedestrians storm in my life when there is no sign of crossing
Or to be my own royalty and allow no shitty...

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If I could remember the admonishments
of the gods,
then stalkings 
by the fabulous four,
pestilence, drought, flood, and famine,
not to mention the universal decimator war,
would reduce me to a common denominator
childlike in my passions.

Driven into obsessiveness
yet unrepentant
crowded...

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What great perspective flying gives;
The mundane is surreal;
Wide angled eyes so clearly see
Our Earth's greatest appeal.

The land's a patchwork quilt of farms,
And lakes look just like puddles;
The rivers wind like slithering snakes,
And clouds are soft...

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