Long Deepening 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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Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems VI



An Illusion
by Michael R. Burch

The sky was as hushed as the breath of a bee
and the world was bathed in shades of palest gold
when I awoke.

She came to me with the sound...

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Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

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Yosa Buson haiku translations

On the temple’s great bronze gong
a butterfly
snoozes.
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hard to describe:
this light sensation of being pinched
by a butterfly!
?Yosa Buson, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Not to worry...

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At Tintagel
by Michael R. Burch

That night, 
at Tintagel, 
there was darkness such as man had never seen...
darkness and treachery, 
and the unholy thundering of the sea...

In his arms, 
who is to say how much she...

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MODERN SONNETS I

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.


Maker, Fakir, Curer
by Michael R. Burch

A poem...

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Explain your historical evolution radically, inclusively, expansively, good-humoredly; 
not carefully, deductively, reductively, sarcastically.

We once had a school of thought
among up and coming geneticists and historians
that the precursor to the regeneration of a species,
or even an...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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LOVE POEMS II

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating and marriage. On an amusing note, my steamy Baudelaire translations have become popular with the...

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If we,
especially in China, Russia, and USA,
were more cooperatively in charge
among our EarthSouled selves,
and less about competitively charging at,
shooting at each other
and our homes
and gardens,
less rapacious supremacy 
against formerly extended cooperative family farmlands
and forests;

Punishing each...

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LOVE POEMS IV by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about love, passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, romance, relationships and marriage. 



She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful
by...

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Attitude with latitude

originally written January 19th, 2019
and tension defines the dynamic

Valiant prince sip pulled effort
rebuffed, snubbed, thumbed
courtesy eldest daughter
uncontested vainglorious woke
mine genuine apology,
viz sincerely yours truly
psyche asper paternal overture
toward aforementioned offspring
smitten with opprobrium
figuratively smacked upside...

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"The way I see it,
we're all related."
said my EcoTherapist.

While DNA and RNA include infinite permutation possibilities,
their primal core functions suggest simple bipolar relationships
between who's inside and what's outside,
and who is dominant so the Other recessed,
perhaps...

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It will be wintertime very soon
Here comes the evening moon
Gradually, we'll be shining like the sun
Eventually, you and I will be made as one

Tick Tock Tick Tock
The clock is taunting me...
Tock tick tock tick
The time...

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Boob jobs and bomb jobs

Sisters in arms those tits and those weapons of massive 
destruction sex and death go together in dynamics
thermodynamics psychodynamics fused on the playground 
of this life of this poem on which...

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What might it take for love to conquer anger
fear
hate?

How is holistic compassion already more contagious than a-holistic self-hatred,
we-hatred?

There is more than one way to hear a**holistic here,
but they all have to do with sectarian divides,...

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I beg for your forgiveness once more
I said too much again…need I say more?
It’s been a crappy, snappy day for me and today will be my day
An attitude of gratitude instead of dismay would be...

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I've been warmly remembering
your peak solidarity experience
joyfully shared

When you suggested
in a state-wide wisdom circle
that our cooperative advocacy
might feel more robust
and become more strategically
and resonantly effective
If and when
local communities more intentionally share
our current municipal Trauma 
Prevention...

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The New Man, a Human being in transition.

The New Man is not a softie but knows the healing, creative power of vulnerability, how to melt and let his heart be touched. 

He knows how to...

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Keep your head up above the surface
Don't lose grip or you'll soon fall on your 
face
My eyes search for any signs of 
weaknesses
And my mouth devours everything in sight

You're flipping out like some mad hornet
sinister...

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As I age into merely spiritual memories
of those sadly/gladly left behind
in less/more egocentrically embodied forms

Co-acclimating/aggressing functions
feel more like contrasting/constrained flows
of positive/negative
sensory-neural energy,
communication systems,
nutrition/digestion networks
of regenerating/degenerating
natural/spiritualized memory.

It does seem
our spiritual advisors
lesson-givers
teachers
scripture narratives
stories
preachers
communities
economies
directors
democracies
theocracies
leaders feature
pathologies of heart
and mind
and...

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Today I have been comparing and contrasting Bernie Sander's and Donald Trump's political and economic motives
for seeking their respective Party nominations.

Senator Sanders and Chief Corporate Executive Officer Trump
began with intent to become The Nominee,
we might...

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To a perfectly perfect stranger
met on a time on the river bank
I asked a simple question,
“How should I live my life 
and live life to the full?”
He smiled at me, His eyes dark, wise and...

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Laws of co-gravitation
are more like mutual invitations
originating with NewBorn memories
wombed by MotherEarth's DNA
WinWin empty Reed of Paradise potential.

Vocational streams of gaming wealth
held in healthy mindbodies
WinWin revering
and LoseLose fearing
co-incarnate journeys toward ever more healthy integrity
and wealth-cooperative...

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