Long Cycles 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...

Read More

Hi.
We don't have a lot of time,
or, well, I guess you do,
but I don't,
so let's plunge right into the first big question:
Which came first, form or function?

False dichotomy. No such thing as a totally dysfunctional...

Read More

I was skeptically listening 
to a retiring social researcher,
and problem-solving imaginer,
from the American Enterprise Institute;

An Institute
I usually find more destitute
of bicameral consciousness than not,
and thereby with less healthy resonant imagination
than more pathological dissonance.

But, I found...

Read More

One of the least talked about,
yet most problematic issues
for regenerating  

Global
social-psychological
mental and physical
health and public safety
movements

Well fed and watered
to empower and enlighten interfaith
action and reflection,
song and dance
liturgical and fire-circle
contemporary-indigenous wisdom

Is to explore together
how and...

Read More

Nucleotidings
by Michael R. Burch

“We will walk taller!” said Gupta,
sorta abrupta,
hand-in-hand with his mom,
eyeing the A-bomb.

“Who needs a mahatma
in the aftermath of NAFTA?
Now, that was a disaster,”
cried glib Punjab.

“After Y2k,
time will spin out of control anyway,”
flamed...

Read More

Systems,
ecosystems,
and ego body-systems,
patriotic systems
and feminist systems
mutually improve,
grow more robust,
resilient,
resonant when WinWin relationships
between diversely paradigmatic elements
within said system
and between unsaid systems
improve,
grow more healthy wealth together
well-greased co-operative channels
and web-structures
WinWin overwhelming WinLose
competing smaller self-centered investments.

Capital small-self promotion tends...

Read More

When passion plants a multicultural seed,
then justice flourishes a polypathic trusting flower.

Permaculture and polyculture, 
grow holistic cause-effect karmic significance 
for our physical, and mental, political and spiritual health.

Permacultural, as I intend it this morning,
refers to...

Read More

Dream-worker 
delves deeply into my dream;

vibrations fondle anticipation
foreplay wakes wide-eyed 
swells of liquid libido quake the rendezvous edge -
a primordial being in his prime
a masculine ego quest for affaire d’amour;
her night-loving body 
c h a...

Read More

The Song of Amergin: Modern English Translations

The Song of Amergin
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I am the sea breeze
I am the ocean wave
I am the surf's thunder
I am the stag of the seven tines
I am...

Read More

The language and images of Mario Vitale's poetry are so closely bound to the natural cycles of seasons, of generations, of the body's functioning, that is surprising to realize how many of his poems deal...

Read More

I hope I know what is healthy sex,
in an experiential kind of way,
and a trans-biblical swell known sway,
and I can imagine a world with healthier,
more cooperative, politically empowering days,
but I am clueless about healthy religion,
which...

Read More

(continued from A Year Of Months (January-June)
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/heroic_crown_of_sonnets_-_part_one_772928


A Year Of Months (July-December)

8. July

July now follows summer's song of June;
with sun ablaze, her days are humid, warm.
Great time to languish in the afternoon,
and later, watch an evening...

Read More

justice 

What does this vastly misunderstood word mean to you? 

Too what ends? 

May we seek? 

Who(m) may guide us? 

Endless deliberation (spiss spiss spiss)

Debated and glorified by us all 

Beloved; instilled among (a) core...

Read More

Greetings to those who would willingly seek admission to theater of the absurd. Zoltan Goliath and Otis Trench are masters of the avant-garde genre silent musicals for the imaginary stage, an art form sui generis....

Read More

So here's my question for this dawning day,
like a WinWin ruminating message in a bottle
floating through a LoseLose climate sea
felt still foggy from last night,
some mysterious how now;

One of many
health related strategic WinLose issues
tuning out...

Read More

"It [Communion] is the liberating experience of the Authentic Self recognizing itself in others--the many coming together as One in egoless freedom and the mutual conscious intention to evolve."...

"It [Evolutionary Enlightenment] is a new and...

Read More

My TransITion began there
right there
in my woodland playground,
when I first knew
something right feels wrong to others.

I was blind to curve-balls
hurled at me.
Being "It" is not why I grow
this TransIt mind and body!

Or, is it?

Could I...

Read More

Perhaps you have read
as I have not
Beard's "Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States."

Yet, here is my prediction,
and I promise to actually read it to confirm and/or deny,
so I suppose I more candidly...

Read More

Icons are funny things,
she thought.

Heaven feels like a warm light circle
when we are thriving
and more like a cold dark triangle
of weaponed tipping points
against me
and mine
competitively not communicating
when we are barely surviving
above the mortally terrifying bottom
of...

Read More

Universal elegy grieves and yet embraces shifts of paradigm
New beginnings consciousness initiates comprehends and thus proceeds from
Illusion’s delusion collusions misconceptions in the irritating
Vortex whirlpool immanent void of false containment

Enlightenment modern postmodern retro visionary futuristic aspirations
Resound...

Read More

  MAGDALENE : JEWEL OF JESUS 


She was the Chosen
a beckoned one
to ignite His speeches 
smooth it with her own
illustrious strength
‘Courage against Odds’
marked her inner Jewel 
 soft it lay cradled  
rhapsodic rubicon...

Read More

What does it feel like to wake up into your skin?
Your day?
What do you feel first most days?
Is it in any way influenced by gratitude,
or totally given over to worry,
anxious
or, worse, anticipating 
shortness of healthy...

Read More

FIRST MOVEMENT (Minor Key)

Times such as these test body soul and mind
So should our thoughts be pain and dark confined
Or loosed to concentrate on brighter things
Like furry puppies, flowers and girls on swings

In this bright...

Read More

Earth's diverse Trees of Tribes
mentor ecotherapy with me,
EcoWe,
echoing sighing resonant waves of wisdom
surfing through lunar waxing-waning freedoms
of humanly divine burning nuclear bushes.

Show me,
unveil We,
boundary wu-wei issues
weaving functions with frequencies,
tipping wild-flowering forms with full-color fluencies,
soaring summer's...

Read More

Tell me,
Father Time,
if you would share this space
it would mean everything to me
to us, so kind

Choosing healthiest seasons 
for your highest priority,
comprehensive
social-political-economic-cultural issues:

1. Chilling domestic economy 
flat-line trends,

2. International peace intent 
and springtime praxis,

3. Continuous...

Read More