Long Daedalus Poems

Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

Read More

Various Heresies 2

You
by Michael R. Burch

For thirty years You have not spoken to me;
I heard the dull hollow echo of silence
as though strange communion between us.

For thirty years You would not open to me;
You remained...

Read More

So many people and the various sores
Intoxicated in such a way my eyes,
That wanted open to crying their doors.

But Virgil told : “What for you look this guise?
Why now your sight is so carefully brought
Down...

Read More

“The Church of Pasiphaë”



inside the church of me
a heart on fire blazes brighter 
than any morning star you could capture 
to wish a life away, a Lawrence forest ripped,
lit like a funeral pyre I wish...

Read More

Often times I wonder if I may have missed 
a greater calling or purpose in my life.
As a young man I was frivolous and non-sensical
when it came to asking the most important questions:
“Why am I...

Read More

"Gods and Monsters"


Ying Yang
Black White
Dark Light
One God meets another 
in the middle of the 
night, are they at odds with one another?
Or just shuffling Decks of cards,
playing with each other 
for the same stakes
they're the...

Read More

they warned me
against extremes
intensity must not be indulged
"Flying in between
is your safety scene
not too high
not too low
don't look too longingly below
don't fly too close
to the sea of his splendor
the blue green of his eyes
hypnotize, mesmerize
desire...

Read More

Walk here with me
Along a strand of island in the sea
Let your heart drink like a leaf
From this mighty river
That shaped the world's relief
Listen to his name
Hear echoes of white colonial history
The burden of shame
Edging...

Read More

I, who now sit alone by this barren shore
Looking vainly out to sea as if 
I thought I could espy distant Crete,
Have become a source of ridicule 
Among these lesser men,
Who strut and title themselves...

Read More

Courtesy the mighty Amazon successful deliverance reported...

Regarding unexpected Gadshill gift
(as if delivered from Magi)
tamper proof wrapped,
thus an obligation goads me
to communicate following
trademarked™ poetically apt
reasonable rhyme capped
with feeble airborne attempt,

no matter arms waved futilely,
madly, and ridiculously...

Read More

It was with immense fortitude that he endured the pain.
His back was arched and head rose as he strode down the thoroughfare.
No one need know what lurked behind his eyes. 
Although in all honesty he...

Read More

Bring them a cup of sea for lighted candles
Tell them taste and tell, and tell, and tell
The ancient salt, the bitterness it kindles
While creation groans at the brink of hell.
     ...

Read More

I tried to fly
God knows I tried
To bring the cherry back
For children in the nest.
I told old Daedalus
It was the weight of sorrow
That kept me 
In the labyrinth dark
Shivering before the minotaur
I had no weight...

Read More

Resurrecting Icarus
or
A Modern Moral Fable
by
Rick Folker
Kansas City, Mo


Daedalus claimed the sky,
Built a labyrinth from which
Theseus could fly
...
Minos enraged, entombed the 
Treacherous Daedalus in a tower
No sky could aide the architect’s power

On high
No land, no sea
Gave...

Read More

I stared, and stared, and stared
Following the light with my eyes
To see beneath the dress
The deep bosom of water suckling
Babels on the ancient salt of primal seas.
We build our ladders not from mountains
But their stones
Children...

Read More

A Life Bereft Of Healthy Risk = >
Absolute Zero Value

Spectator role questioned,
(sans existence, no more
relegated to sidelines), else
yours truly cannot endure
foregoing one after another

golden opportunity to restore
adrenaline rush say jumping
without parachute, (egg nor
ring danger), yea...

Read More

Having successfully seduced Zeus with his boyish beauty,
Whose eagle's claws captured the once mortal soul,
He was blessed with immortality and endowed with divine duty,
To bear cups and have filled to the top his bottom's bowl.

Had...

Read More

The Hill of Howth During Horse Show Week 1972


June 16 is Bloomsday when in a world defying time
which stately fat Buck Mulligan starts off with a swim
and Stephen Daedalus feigns teaching and plays with his...

Read More

Above the clouds in many splendored hues of blue and white
    This view beheld by an honored and rarest few

A nations treasure lies below in marble and in green
   ...

Read More

 I am skilled, and without any weakness
With a bow and arrow, I have great prowess
One shot of mine, and even massive men
Become nothing more than obstacles fallen. 

 I am without anxiety, apprehension or...

Read More

Partnered with the light is ever darkness
Where wild boys of dune collect themselves
In chariots of steel inside the mind
Cocooned from what once was but now is gone

They ride clear off the edge of night
Rising to...

Read More

And did those wings in ancient time
Soar upward in the sun burnt sky:
And was the father of our dreams
Seen boldly taking us on high!

And did the clever man of arts
Shed light upon our lofty bent?
And...

Read More

Like the lost sounds of evening bells 
The voices of children pealing 
The last lie of innocence in papyrus away; 
Not the baubled brook in joy; 
The rinsing screams soliciting crude customs back, 
Spreading phonetic...

Read More

Don’t give me your porcelain smile –
The ethereal agent of your fraudulent ways,
Which you summon to lure another helpless heart,
Bound tight to the mast of a sinking ship –
A trap to fool a new Odysseus

Don’t...

Read More

Wind stream rider high in flight
Far beyond espy steady
Searching clouded obsidian
Peaks of loss and desire
Held closely to my sanity
Erupted in fears adrenaline 
Rushing through feral blaze
Carrying that scent within epitome
Stilling me trepid emptiness drains
Into this...

Read More