Long Creel Poems

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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Salvation of a Formalist, an Ode to Entropy
by Michael R. Burch

Entropy?
God's universal decree
That I get to be
Disorderly?
Suddenly
My erstwhile boxed-in verse is free?
Wheeeeee!



Eternal Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm...

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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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Sappho Translations XIII by Michael R. Burch

In these translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any way, shape...

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Ode to a Generous Friend

I’ve a long time friend
That loves to go fishin’
Where you throw out some bait
While doin' 'strong wishin'

That something down under
Will be there just waiting
That you’ve made the right guess
When pickin’ you...

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We aborted the Christ a long time ago
What with the successive thousands of gentle fetuses strangled.
Stop stop! Why lament? Let not the wind be rankled
By thy silly bleats and unbaked ego.

Thee killed the Christ
Thee impeded...

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In the never ending cycle of life we turn around,
fading into darkness where there is no sight or sound
and back again to brightness that stirs up all our senses
love and pain fall down like rain...

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My eyes of umber caught in a slumber 
dreams pull me under, I’m in a trance.
My mind asunder hearing thunder,
the night has come with another chance.
Sleepwalking brings one more dance.

My arms spread out my mind...

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As you sit down for your tea, take a moment to think of me
I am the one who leaves the quay, to bring home harvest from the sea
Lobster pot and fishing creel, Dover sole and...

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Helios, open darkened shutters Night did seal;
Nyx's opaque, drawn shades one by one peel.
With prehensile fingers grip your enlightened quill,
Selene's pale orb with luminescent lines reel.
With gilded parasol twirl your flaming wheel,
Until enjoined sparks into...

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Colored lights may hypnotize
and sparkle someone else's eyes
now, woman

your words

glitter like you've been drinking glitterade from devilish
dixie cups' alchemy secreting formulas outshining
phosphoric secretions from fireflies and other
coelacanthic creel creatures scantily clad depth diving 
kaleidoscopic critters glitter...

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Love demands no explanation at the start.
When the game of love's in season,
There is no governor of reason,
All that's needed is a firm, courageous heart.
With youth, and charm, and beauty in control,
The sea of love...

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Sitting idle on a cooler afternoon
A window seat’d forest view
Spotted sunlight through the changing leaves
Entranced me, a waking vision’s swoon,

My life, time lapsed, on the dirty glaze,
Was a B-movie, rated yawn,
Just an endless melted reel,
Wasted...

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Glass eye, opaque and quizzical,
staring up from the creel.
A question escapes as a squeak,
when picked up by the belly
and held firmly in one hand,
as the other hand inserts the knife at the
anus and slides it...

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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 photograph
no longer dissolving under scrutiny,
becoming...

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Words That Inspire Me
By Miracle Man
3/7/2020

Obstacles were not intended to be stop signs,
but encumbrances to induce thought

Character, is displayed by continuance beyond
 where others thought we’d finish

Think of words as arrows;
Once a poison arrow has...

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for  my Father


My father is as noiseless as the bird,
Transfixed upon his pirouetting bob,
To angle fish his self-appointed job,
He speaks with silence. It is his every word.

Mirror to him, voiceless and unstirred,
The heron stiffens,...

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I went fishing with my buddy the seal,
I brought my rod, my bait and my creel,
We went to my favorite fishing hole,
But I thought it was odd he didn't bring a fishing pole,
And every time...

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Oh Monchielle of Love
thou fittest me like glove 
inside His palm, His child, 
aiming up like a dove  
of love, truthful and wild. 

Oh Monchielle of Love 
unnotched from up above 
ye knowest when...

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He ran to the mountain.
They were arguing again.
This time it rained
warm, covering him
the way she should have
but yelled instead
at father.

When the steam stopped
rising from the ground
and the sun’s bleed
lessened
he walked back
past the tire shop
the old...

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It's January
and no snowflakes anywhere!
Sad boy, where did winter go?
Mad for the delay?
He must be sleeping somewhere!
Run, run and wake him up, bro!

Hurry boy, find him;
he is snoring very hard!
Slap him, don't be gentle;
sleep can't...

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