Long Davenport Poems

Poems of Recanted Bachelorhood

bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ALARMING
since my resolve
dissolved!

*

Disconcerted
by Michael R. Burch

Beth, my sweet,
fresh as a daisy,
when I’m with you
my heart beats like crazy
& my future gets hazy ...

*

What Goes Around, Comes
by...

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Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XIII

Davenport Tomorrow
by Michael R. Burch

Davenport tomorrow ...
all the trees stand stark-naked in the sun.

Now it is always summer
and the bees buzz in cesspools,
adapted to a new life.

There are no flowers,
but the weeds,...

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Climate Change Haiku
by Michael R. Burch

late November:
climate skeptics scoff
but the geese no longer migrate.



The King of Beasts in the Museum of the Extinct
by Michael R. Burch

The king of beasts, my child,
was terrible, and wild.
His roaring...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 3: EVOLUTION



Peers
by Michael R. Burch

These thoughts are alien, as through green slime
smeared on some lab tech’s brilliant slide, I grope,
positioning my bright oscilloscope
for better vantage, though I cannot see,
but only peer, as...

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(alternate title – A bona 
er fide dog day afternoon delight).

A mere half dozen vowels 
constitute the English language 
    Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay
Consonants comprise majority
  
(sans remaining twenty) 
   ...

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I cannot sponsor a contest but if you can and you are looking for a topic may I 
suggest a limerick contest that requires the poet to base the limerick on a word that 
begins...

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When I was around 14, I attended a church youth conference that summer, 
sleeping in a dorm at a college campus and attending fun events with kids of my 
same religion. The group I was...

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Can a man tolerate an incarcerate?

Madly in love with a madwoman

Throughout the investigation; Prior to the incarceration she's reflective

Two years on the verge of being wasted like Iron Maiden single "Wasted Years"

Additional two daughters she...

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When I was a child,
summer at my Aunt Joanne’s
meant staying out as late as it took the sun to set!
And mostly with my cousin Chris,
I threw a baseball back and forth
with exhilaration each time I...

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Strikingly crafty logomaniac presents...
what else... his trademark blatherskite!

While sprawled comfortably
numb upon davenport
Iowa daily dose of poetic mishmash,
thus yours truly couches, kneads, sports...
his imponderable matted
swiftly styled balderdash
noah intent to kindle
potential ark enemy, nor abash

please pardon your
garden...

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RAF navigator Ron Day and I took of from Banff, Scotland,
I was in the RAAF, an Australian, and we flew in formation:
40 Mosquitos to attack German ships in Norway land,
In a harbour, Porsgrunn, but then...

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Rapturousness wrought Unitarian
transformational spiritual rapport
traversing thru space/time
continuum appending increasing
chronological orbitz as an Earthling,
frivolously did cavort,

who (with ever more energy)
required exhaustively to sport
fretfully clinging to each moment
after downing a quart of port
poured by Norwegian bachelor
farmers of...

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"19 Davenport"



Spitfires lined in regimental row
Amberley in Autumn
fuel burns on the runway
mirages burn slow

Wings counted

His Adjutant's pad 
counts dollars and time, 
cold and sharp, he salutes lesser ranks, 
all spit polished, all in neat lines,...

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My sharp 
              eyes  
                      saw
           
A dog  
        digging 
                    a hole
                             at Davenport.
A cat 
        catching 
                     a cobra and 
                                        cutting 
                                                   its head.
A witch 
            bewitching  
                              with 
                                    witchcraft.
A robber...

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In dust-laden silence, past the reach of day,
The mansion's library whispered of forgotten tales,
Its heartbeat echoed in the books arrayed.

Time's soft touch graced each spine and page,
Among them, Dickens stood with solemn grace,
Austen's wit lingered,...

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I was born in nineteen sixty nine
just off the block and in my prime
now let me introduce you to 
some pertty good friends of mine

Let's start with my uncle Jesse
to me he looks like he's...

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October is Pastor Appreciation Month. So here is a poem I am writing for my pastor, Jeff Davenport of Calvary Baptist Church in Covington, KY
INSTRUMENTS OF GOD
It is the mouth that speaks the truth
From the...

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Dear Cold Springs,

Men build empires from granite
facades taken from the ground you keep.
Most people on Minnesota Highway 23
pass without knowing the history
you keep to yourself. Most think you’re only
a small town with a brewery and...

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"Tightropes of the Three Graces" 

Tightropes
for hanging clothes
on a line 

each piece 
pegged wooden
held between closed fences

misfortune's breeze lifts
sleeves like covers
pointing the way home

books and their pages
for The Davenport dancers 
all's well that ends well...

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Alone, I could see the lights
strung on top of Mercy Hospital
from anywhere
in the northside of Davenport
the reds and blues and greens
and I believed there was magic.
I was a senior in high school
out for a drive...

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Harvesting Pumpkins

From villages in Iowa,
Indiana, Minnesota and Nebraska
and from towns in the Dakotas,
Wisconsin and Michigan,
there stream to Chicago in spring
parades of lithe girls
looking for boys 
who will look at them

but who find instead
men who will...

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Thank you God for being in my heart. Without you I don't know where I would be. I 
know you can see!
My faith in you means so much to me. My heart you have touched....

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The Gypsy jumped from car to car,
never getting off the train

In Davenport through morning fog,
the old town looked the same

The prairies waited in the dark,
the Rockies far beyond

In Denver’s wind he heard the words
to an...

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