Long Coppery Poems

I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates...

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Fragrance of Life  ©

Cool rain drums on blistering 
asphalt, the scent streams into 
the nostrils--hot, grassy smell of 
summer, freshly cut-smoky 
cedar lingers on the air 

Fresh popcorn drenched in 
butter, I sit in...

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The ability to stay calm is a hard task to manage.
The wooden bench I am sitting on creaks with every 
move I make. Each creak stabs my ears.
The open wilderness surrounding me has a sinister...

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      ...

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The waves crushing her tiny body with striking blows
White creamy wash caresses her golden skin as the wave slows
Moving sluggishly towards the horizon
Because of a recurring vision she hopes she’ll arise in
Her feet digging deep...

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This pen isn’t mine.
It’s the devil’s

It therefore feels plagiarized
And wrong.

These words aren’t mine.
They don’t belong to me.

I’ve sold my soul.
Given it away.

He whispers evil his candy,
“Enjoy,” he slithers lusciously.

I turn my cheek.
“Stay away from me!”

“Oh,...

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Here lies my notepad, covered in scrawl, my pencil rolls on to the table
I watch as it rolls and suspect it may fall, but it stops at the edge, balanced and stable
The cloth it is...

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Variations on a Theme of Red 

Color of bold that daubs the sunset bright
Old fair weather friend of shepherd’s delight
That taints the emblazoned rays of gold 
Displayed a glorious red for all to behold

Rare crimson...

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Written: February 1st, 2025 For contest by Sponsored by: Brian Strand

                        ...

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Your indifference is the abandoned torch that scours old bridges,
Hiding in shadows the echoes of each tremulous and cold step.
Your wounds, coppery reliefs that lure me dishonorably,
Urge me to explore how I pretended, burning, turned...

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A Poem-A-Day:
I read today, in a poem entitled "Lion":

"I foraged, first to find the light dappling the leaves,
then breathed into an infinite power, feminine rust,
a coppery taste of salvage, leading me into a canopy of...

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Jewels of Africa.

The saffron Queen spins the lilac sky,
her rays flick crimson cinders into Royal Blue Oceans.
Submerge, sizzle, frizzle...going, going, gone! ...But Not.
Cumulus clouds drizzle pepper fog over pink Flamingos, homeward bound.

Tea-green Botswana bush,
teeny, tiny...

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In the crypt of the soul, I build the days,  
Today, yesterday, tomorrow, in a hidden sanctuary,  
On the parchment of silence, I place shattered thoughts,  
And in the dew of mornings,...

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Head twitching, 
black eye gleaming, reflecting moonlight,
He dreams of hoarding that great shiny orb. 
Tucking it in with his precious treasures
 inside the Rowan tree to feast his eyes upon... his alone. 
Perhaps he will...

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I
Old English Lawns
unseen hands watered and caressed
emerald tinted aquamarine green
O the most beautiful natural lanscape
Not even lawn furniture, or modern waterhose
O the gratitude for this interruption of civilzation
How you overcame drought, all weather extremes
showing neither...

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The leaves of the fern
Begin the rhythm of the forest.
The music of the woodland floor
Pulsates to the rise of the sun.

The morning...mists dissipate in silent beats
Playing to every lead from the composer above.
Dapples of light...

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to sneak outside,
into the gentle beauty of evening
when all others are asleep,
except for nocturnal hawks like me,

I  wander along the river's shore,
in the twirling, dappled
prism of waves, pebbles and buds,
thrown across the grass
by the...

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Daybreak usually greets me when it ascends each day.
Yawning, I drowsily rise from the comfort of my bed
as the horizon glows with colors in resplendent array.

Dawn announces, "The warmth of Ra is on its way!"
Soon,...

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As twilight dims in western skies,
umbra’s odd and coppery band
gloams slowly cross the perished land.

Mystery to our wond'ring eyes,
this marvel now can be unveiled—
a shadow looms, moonlight impaled.

Scarce minutes though its firm demise,
phantasm this or...

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The moon, a pearl in the velvet sky,
begins its slow surrender.
Not to darkness, not entirely,
but to the Earth's long shadow, a hushed embrace.

A copper stain bleeds across its face,
a celestial blush of twilight hues,
born not...

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Her exquisite lace linen collar tiered in layers of dainty threes
Was not the only beautifying feature of Princess LaCrees
Her beetle necklace of green peridot was engraved well
Her monocle was designed by Bob Mackie’s protégé, Snell.
She...

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I smell the coppery, sweet scent of blood,
a soldier lies dead, his face in the mud.
I mourn the soldier's death.

War is a putrid expanding abyss,
where finding food and water feels like bliss.
I mourn the soldier's...

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Here I rest upon the smooth rivers bank 
Resting under the protection of white birch
Tasting the scent of spring on old Cape Ann
As if being reborn in the late April sunshine

Here thoughts and memoirs drift...

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let’s take the long way back
beneath shaded oak and aromatic pine
athwart the weathered split-rail fence
bent into the warp and woof of nature’s wiles

past the old place
with its long front porch
and massive beams holding memories
of laughter...

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You talk a lot
and I do mean a lot
endlessly, really
but you know I don't mind

Because I love to hear your voice
even if I don't always
decipher the exact words
Your voice washes over me
like sunlight
and I just...

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