Long Crescendo Poems

Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

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Sonnet LXXXI-LXXXIX

Day, and Night
by Michael R. Burch

The moon exposes pockmarked scars of craters;
her visage, veiled by willows, palely looms.
And we who rise each day to grind a living,
dream each scented night of such perfumes
as drew...

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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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Skin of Terror
- Daniel Henry Rodgers

(The stage lights come up slowly on Michael's face, which is crisscrossed with wrinkles from his fuming anxiety. He peers out into the gloominess at the wheel and tightly clutches...

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With these lines I’ll relate an intriguing tale of dubious accuracy
For I Hope to unveil sordid affairs of more than one conspiracy!
Be warned, that though you might be disturbed by the facts I relate?
They are...

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I know you're not here

but you are in my heart 

so 

you are always with me

i'll just slip into you

with these words.
 
I know 
there are mountains
dwarf the cities below 
peaks that stride above the...

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PRELUDE.
When the sky and world are dark no sounds are heard in the woods. Perhaps the scrabbling of night creatures on the hunt fo food. But no sound of woodpeckers ra ta tatting, bird song...

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As I ascend the podium, a predator of piquant pontifications, my eyes ravage the assemblage of adversaries, their countenances a canvas of consternation and morbid fascination. The atmosphere is heavy with the miasma of malignant...

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...inspired by 'Portrait Of A Lady' by T.S. Eliot


On winter days the view outside is nebulous at best,
within, the furniture is as it always was, and I am waiting,
waiting for a glimpse of you to...

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As I pivot to confront my offspring, I anticipate the sight of terror etched in their innocent eyes, a reflected horror that would mirror the abyssal darkness that has long resided within me.

Instead, I am...

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Godot has arrived
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Alive and well thanks!

...said the haiku poster
Crudely pasted to the fence
Who was too busy selling stolen goods
To notice he was a notice
Announcing a brand new play
A fusion of two classics

Waiting for...

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Beneath the pall of an eldritch moon, 
                           ...

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She was a grand piano: grand in structure, grand in beauty, grand in quality 
of sound. She had captured the heart of every pianist who had come to play in 
the great hall. Once they...

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She was a grand piano: grand in structure, grand in beauty, grand in quality 
of sound. She had captured the heart of every pianist who had come to play in 
the great hall. Once they...

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Obsessed

Hours and hours practising 
“Practice makes perfect!”
Others have described Antonio’s playing as perfect.
He has played in spectacular locations. Even before Kings and Queens. One day Carnegie Hall, 
the next day the Britannia Panaopticon Music Hall,...

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The Age Of Summer Love Was Kismet Kissed
(a Sonnet duet)


Our summer love began in Gemini 
with sultry eves of wooing escapades,
and as the moon did swoon as it drew nigh
my lust you stirred with strumming...

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Gaia steps out
to listen

She may roar in full voiced 
crescendo

Then retreat, hiding
anticipating with global delight
diminuendo

Tomorrow
our first perfect win/win day
when no win/lose to lose/lose
has unpromisingly happened
to trigger my anxiety,
innuendo

Of win/win delight
empowering Sun's sacred
yellow persevering light

Gaia will...

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(Lights dim, single spotlight illuminates the speaker, dressed in simple attire. Voice starts trembling, building in intensity)

Can forgiveness mend
a childhood, mine 
fractured in the dark? 
Where the scars are a map, inked 
not just in...

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On the spur of the moment forecast by eternal script in the stars

The Bard strummed his guitar and sung a ballade from heart’s lute 

Wild horses would not keep him away from her as he...

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Unquotable quotes: Gals, Dolls, Bitches and Broads – XXXVII

An adulterous couple soon make lying, cheating and downright treachery (not to mention their role as carriers of germs within the orbit of the family) the principal...

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The video is intrinsic to the setting of the scene. The vocals and music track by ‘The Corrs and Bono’ are background music incidental to the plot. 

A balmy night it was when he stepped...

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I came back to you in September
you were quiet then
still,
like you used to be,
when men were men
and I was just a child

When the smell of the fish docks
mingled well with the stench of the slaughter...

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Every step feels like a hurricane or twister, and it’s not child’s play
I keep letting go of the notebook, guess it’s time to review the frames
You can never walk on water if you don’t first...

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(Apropos of Black Poetic Griots)

We may not be deemed apostolic recorders
But we poets, guided with divine wisdom, are
The lay scribes thereof in the chronicling of
Our life’s sojourn in the shadowing times
we spend here on this...

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weird as it sounds when my thoughts wield their all mighty hold

cast inflictions twist meaning and imply the truth of whats told


I resorted to reason which seems to be a contradiction of terms

of engagement with...

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