Long Describing Poems

Where art thou anonymous benefactor...to offer me succor?

Ah... methinks legal tender 
could be a boon to help me bolster 
mein kampf with necessary material equipage,
which prospect to acquire essential 
commodities sabotaged 
at the altar of...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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It was 1968 we'd gathered again in the school auditorium my tiny hands sweating only five years old while my name was called in all of this cold  
civil rights riots plagued my little...

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Where do we think all this economic and politically empowering
cooperative
nutritional
organically luscious imagination
and ecologically exegetical orthopraxis
started?

George Lakoff speaks of strictly straight stern paternalistic God the Universalist Fathers,
vertically Winning over an otherwise Loser, yet highly competitive, ecopolitical...

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"I am a painter and my eyes are the paint brushes I had if I look up with my open eye I see the Horizon I see the clouds to be continued
Oh shutter as I...

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War and Peace: That Midst Nations And Nationals

War and Peace, a classical fiction by Leo Tolstoy, first published as Voyna I Mir in 1865–69. This picturesque reflection of early 19th-century Russian culture saw as its...

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First, imagine, if you can,
"Love" is not just a many splendored thing,
although it is that,
but behaviorists and existentialists behavioralize
the complex of emotions and consciousness
wearing that synergetic label
as active, sometimes spontaneous
"cooperation,"
an antonym for "competition."

Now,
Imagine you grew...

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Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...

that clenched another win today
February 20th, 2024 
(eight hundred and ninety yesterdays ago 
since June 13th, 2021)
original crafting date of following poem,
when yours truly 
single handedly trumped computer, 
for umpteenth time,
which saw...

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Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (yahoo)
jimmied today August 15th, 2022 single handedly
just before the crack of dawn
with both hands tied behind my back,
and a blindfold worn over my eyes.

While in the midst of...

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Archaischer Torso Apollos ("Archaic Torso of Apollo")
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

Read More

Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (today June 13th, 2021) single handedly

While in the midst of playing solitaire 
(with losing outcome foreordained 
after a couple moves), I became gripped 
with combinations predicated on thirteen...

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Treat this poem as the truth
Non-fiction...
Because this is the best way I can try to describe what it feels like to suffer with cocaine addiction
It’s hard to even put this feeling of addiction into words
To...

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PERSONIFIED LIGHTED CANDLE:

Come on, I'm strong and edified.
No one can hold me in detention for getting them defied.
Compared to Cassius Clay; fiercely bonified.
A firmly personified lighted candle on a lampad. 
In the corners of every...

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Sitting dying alone,
In this dark and dingy place 
It has now become my home..
The only open bar 
In town, I needed something to heal my broken heart
I'm on my 8th round, Going on Nine now!

Swaying...

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As the sun shone in southern skies, I was finally on my vacation,
And I turned the pages of a magazine, with new fashion creations.

I lounged beside the resort pool, in a straw hat and sunglasses,
Sipping...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife

I mull mortality 
thru lens crafted occipital orbs
regarding a better future
experience sing a space oddity – 
whar incessant yaks
exuding a big hurt
emanate as cosmic atomic 
bipedal hominids replete roof lee wax
during a...

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Feeding the soul glimpses of grace,
Treasured hope and lasting light, feelings
Forever penetrating the soul who knows…
Love is like the most beautiful star, glowing
Always showing its intentions, bound by emotions
Yet colored in hues of the most...

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Existentialism emancipation proclamation manumission...

Flourishes amidst freedom 
once invisible (alice in) chains shucked
when soul no longer kept linkedin 
to jane's addiction 
with corporeal duty, entity, fealty... 
while formerly shed body electric 
gendered as former googly eyed...

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The boss aka Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen 
born at Monmouth Medical Center 
in Long Branch, New Jersey, 
on September 23, 1949. 

His nationalities include hodgepodge 
of Dutch, Irish, and...

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His wise council and kind patience bolstered my resolve
to overcome my youthful woes and nightmarish troubles solve.
His humanity may have saved my life. His memory I hold dear.
But whenever the name Mister James arose—
Other kids...

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Mine slovenly unkempt appearance spelled embarrassment

spurred by most recent therapy session 
with Renee Cardone
whereby thematic thread
stitched how yours truly sewed
coping modus operandi,
viz avoiding emotionally volatile situations
courtesy mine trademark signature reactions 
rather than be in compliance...

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Doomsday Clock minute hand...

hovers over 100 seconds to midnight 
as of January 2022, 
which apocalyptic prognostication
established by the Bulletin 
of Atomic Scientists
maintained since 1947, 
the clock quantifies a metaphor 
for threats to humanity 
from unchecked...

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