Long Demean Poems

Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

Read More

(One poet's vision of what being indwelled by Christ's heart might look like)        

What makes me feel loved isn't easy to say, 
And not because the heart of...

Read More

This is a Crown of Sonnets I wrote about one of my favorite books and movies (the version in 1943 with Liz Taylor, who was only 11 had a small role, Joan Fontaine and Orson...

Read More

Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

Read More

" We Will Get Our - Hyphen "


                           ...

Read More

Limricks prompted by a comment made by someone today

It's a fact, and no longer just a rumor
Some soup people barf at toilet humor
Have you sniffed your own butt 
It stinks so keep it shut
Pessimism must...

Read More

Wham Bam not even a thank you ma’am, was I hit by a Mack truck or slapped in the face where I stand?
The severity of it, but to you a job well done, the patting...

Read More

(1.)  Honoring John Keats
, fifth poet in my dedication series

Oft From A Distant Echo, It Is Heard

At the start comes just a solitary word
oft from a distant echo, it is heard.
Imagination steps on into...

Read More

Sung to, You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, (extended version).
KP

You’re a monster, Donny Dump.
Some biiig-time twiiisted clooown.
To no end, I could deride you,
are no depths you didn’t fall to,
no ineptness could elude you,
the bottom-feeders they...

Read More

GOD & ME

They told me of God, his name, essence, demeanour
Men of knowledge, wisdom and inside information
But I, lacking such arcane wit, being  only a gleaner
Inspecting what I discerned from my simple station
Found that...

Read More

This is about San Francisco,1967

Oh, yes that city had its own song!
It was a siren's call that sang;
"Here, Panagiota, is where you do belong!"
And my dearest poets, the sirens 
call was not wrong.

It sang a...

Read More

We don´t listen to the same blues, you and I.
You don´t hear the bass or the drum or the sounds
That tell you a bit about me. 
Instead you cross the street,
Wearely and willingly, speeding up.

I...

Read More

I am weak. I am strong. I am right. I am wrong. I am everything in between and more. But what else?
 
I am nothing but a label that everyone knows. I am what I...

Read More

Once upon a time two gumdrops dissolve


once upon a time
there were two gumdrops
she was purple, he was yellow
they were complete opposites
they both worked at a hotel
on a white sandy beach
with palm trees swaying on the...

Read More

In believing you have misconstrued what this was and what was meant for you and the part you've played in the time you've stayed..

   The hunter became the huntress the prey seized the...

Read More

Who is living alive inside of you? 
Do you even really want to know?
Have you ever spoken to the one that is always speaking to you?
Are you stacking all of your priorities with any proper...

Read More

Character.

That's where the biggest measurements,
truest tests of worth
should lie.

And yet, 'tis not so.

Sometimes, mostly, I believe
that it's indeed enough.
That being a good man
is enough to keep me afloat.

Sometimes, rarely, . . . 
I don't.

How many...

Read More

Adulterous besieging capstone damnation
exploitation foists groping, heaving
insidiously jerking
knowingly lunges
machinations notoriously nymphomaniacal 
officiating penile quests
rapaciously, sadistically 
tenaciously, unstoppably 
vasocongested wickedness 
Xerses yawped zeolously.
*************************** 
All throughout history of  man/woman kind
ascendent civilizations extensively gouged, 
impailed, kindled, murderous...

Read More

Gold Fever 

History will not record the bloated weight
Of this pious and bigoted race 
Or count the fat and flaccid wealth
Of religions idolatry

Those pages have been scrubbed clean
By prosperous forgivingness 
And the cruelty of established...

Read More

Is it ‘friendship’ you proffer (to strangers who ask)
If you’re ‘sap for sad stories,’ deny other’s truth,
If you’ve something to barter, a ‘twit’ for ‘twat’ thought, (1)
Good advice you call ‘currency,’ aids in some plot
In...

Read More

Tomorrow comes, and lo and behold
WMD, Weaponry -  Middle East stranglehold
Chemical Scuds, conventional too
What will Saddam's madness do.

Visions of - Gulf No 1
Burning wells under our lovely sun
OPEC panic, its not their day
Millions of...

Read More

Darkness Where Now Poe And Raven Reside,
(Part One)

As the Raven cross into the dark pits
Those in torment went into heaving fits
Its shrieking calls, alarms even down there
Far worse its image to dying souls scare 
With...

Read More

There are some who live by fear
And there are those who live by love
Those who believe their perceptions
Should not be constrained or altered

There are some who think belief
Should be guided and dictated
They believe in the...

Read More

( previous title...Destruction Junction)

                     **********************

There once lived a mouse who was intelligent; a mouse of...

Read More

Friends and foes,
Wit that flows,
Down the rope will you go,
As the time goes,
And then you start to see,
Rivalry is not something one seeks.

Take Leonardo and Michelangelo as an illustration,
And as a lesson to keep,
Both were...

Read More