Long Contours Poems

SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

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Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch

Let me give her diamonds
for my heart's
sharp edges.

Let me give her roses
for my soul's
thorn.

Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.

Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.

Let me...

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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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Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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Face to the sky,
Breath of the Caribbean
Woven with earthy Autumn,
Saturates the alveoli of my lungs,
Pouring raw impulses into the neurons of
My pleasure centers, so triggering a myriad of
Memories ... the demurring requiem to summer tide...

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SAD Seasonally Affective Disorder

Some are prone to depression in winter when days get shorter when
less light enters the brain through the eyes and thoughts become darker

I am also affected and when news gets explosive when...

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[Non-Fictional Preface: Fictional Old Folks Home/Apparition] "This is the story of two friends, both considered themselves start-up writers, whereas, one who was a bit more of an upstart, was merely known as, Robert Frost. Frost's...

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"Robert Frosts', friend, Edward Thomas was an indecisive fellow, until that one day they took the other road Edward wanted, and of course, Robert's piece was not Edward's choice to say the least, so when...

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Symphony of Shadows in the Moonlight
In the calming hours of the night, when shadows dance upon the walls of consciousness,
As twilight intertwines with the remnants of bygone dreams,
My soul wanders through echoes of the sublime,
Attempting...

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These wars teach us nothing, not even how to conquer our fears.
We are still cave people.
Democratic cave people, perhaps, but that brings little comfort.
Our struggle is to emerge from the cave.
If we made the slightest...

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Fear and violence and guilty judgment
display synaptically sharp,
competing "Loser!" skittish economies.
Love and active peace sustain buoyance,
resilience,
robustly revolving away
from red skies of mourning;
cooperatively mutual Win-Win
ecology of evolution.

I want so badly to fly my competing belief kites,
and...

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“The Road to Maximus and Winter’s de-Reckoning” 

Winter pulled me into Her
like I was Her new season
and cooly stroked my fevered skin 
like the contours of my body 
were the finest Lotus silk
an expensive treasure...

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                         The idea is to...


      ...

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Love is a catastrophe, a bittersweet madness, a wild affliction that invades your soul,
Disturbs your peace, devastates your routine, transforming you into a shadow of what you once were,
Each moment under its spell an odyssey...

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On reflection, a shining  mirror lays my core ethos bear,
inkling etched on mien can’t escape deep probing,
tilted jaw, gleaming eyes, vivacious aspect,
express an ardent quest for exponential flourish,
in this life of mine, and its...

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Placed Fist in:
Pick a Title, Vol 41 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Edwrad Ibeh


                       ...

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One hundred million miles away from home they are floating underground roaming the depths of the sea in their dark canopy. 

They are floating in the belly of the whale and are trapped beyond the...

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Wine tears
Flowing through the contours of cheeks
To reach these valleys residing in heart
Listen
Let the echo jump into this abyss
Until it reverberates like a suicidal cry
And breaks like a rope 
Adamant on giving second chance to...

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When death had nestled, a lady overwhelmed by sleep,  
Between the chasms of my being, like a butterfly in a cocoon,  
I embraced her to my chest that whispered seraphic tales,  
And...

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I know of a river of more than average 
Sorts...
Meandering, when not dallying to maunder,
Between many differing contours 
And unruly contorts;
Where a privileged youth once
Happily sought -
Pursuing about his passions
In the traditional methods 
By which...

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There are wrinkles
Now, lines erasing a past
Where the fine contours of her face
Were drawn, in color
Crisp, clean lineages from 
Time echoing hope,
Soothing away the fragments
Reality connecting the dots,
Gentling the descent
From her youth to the present
Moment,...

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“as we passed her she did wilt
which caused in us sense of guilt
since our stance perhaps did cause
to put her heart’s joy on pause
 
though we’re gentle, not hostile
we diminished her soul’s smile
since our aura as...

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In the twilight of thought, where shadows whisper tales to the wandering mind,
Without poets, without artists, the world would dissolve into chaos,
A universe stripped of its seasons, its civilizations, its very heartbeat,
No more thought, no...

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