Long Disconcerted 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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This is, as indicated, the 1st HALF of this fairly lengthy poem. The 2nd half had to be posted separately due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations. No other way I could manage to make it...

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The Pain of Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for T. M.
 
The pain of love is this:
the parting after the kiss;
 
the train steaming from the station
whistling abnegation;
 
each interstate’s bleak white bar
that vanishes under...

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Having been tortured by “pretty please” looks - which she knows I can never refuse -
Me and my Labrador left for the park, for a walk that I knew we could use.

Our park isn’t big,...

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recognition of our true constitution reveals
we are not merely limited mind-body combine
our soul being encased in five sheaths or coverings
of which the first and grossest is the material organism
the second our pranic energy field, which...

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As I awake this morning
I remember a Barney song 
for my more oppositionally misaligned daughter.

I love you
and you love me
even if I couldn't realign my four B's,
Brain,
and Branches,
and Belly,
and Butt, 
these four aligned
good government.

If you...

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Everything went silent as I turned to break the news.
Glancing ‘round I found a desperate look on every face,
And when I tapped the microphone to check that it was on,
It almost seemed as though I...

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

Come, you--the last one I acknowledge; return--
incurable pain searing this physical mesh.
As I burned in the spirit once, so now I burn
with you; meanwhile, you consume...

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I’m stuck.
My mouth tries to speak my thoughts.
My creative process is buried in the muck. 
My tongue is in tangled up knots.
I long so terribly to tell you how I feel.
Although, every time I try,...

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Liebes-Lied (“Love Song”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

How can I withhold my soul so that it doesn’t touch yours?
How can I lift mine gently to higher things, alone?
Oh, I would gladly find...

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I'm in charge here 
I am your chieftain.....your Lord and Master                        ...

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Four blocks down from 'Cheeter’s Bar’ - where Mother’d earned her living - me an’ little brother, Cody, stood behind her casket,
Listening to the feigned remorse of disconcerted patrons who shared a common question -...

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We were taught 
that to be qu**r
means to be strange,
to be unlike the rest,
to be different, 
but not in a way that would raise surprised brows 
or taint eyes green with jealousy.
We were taught 
that...

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Walked a wooded trail, suddenly unsure of my surroundings,
wondered had I'd become lost..
only a moment disconcerted, as dusk grew nearer. 

I went over an old river crossed by an even older bridge, 
there not seen...

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Walking Backwards




I would trade anything
Not to have lived
The life I have lived
To feel in part
That I had played a part
That was me at least

Not to hit this wall
Not to feel so invisible
Not to look in...

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written by Mpho Leteng (Botswana) and Donald Kuutsi (Zimbabwe) 

When the sunrise, 
My undying spirit of determination rise, 
Curiosity knock on the doors of my chest, 
Demanding for tomorrow's answers, 
A puzzle that needs to...

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Encumbered about with the many twists and turns of life. 
Traveling down a long road, picking up every hitchhiker along the way.
Carrying each one alone; being conscientious to not drop one, not even the lowlife.
Contemplating...

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Random happenings of life
get out of record just as quick. 
They may sustain however, to boost
our own morals in some tranquil moment, especially
when such incidents have been generated by our own 
learnt values and kindness;...

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Waves sounding as music that catch my soul.
A temple to look for peace when I'm disconcerted.
Many ways to relax, but you are my only one.
Since the first time I saw you, as a lover, ...

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I had a dream yestreen:
There was darkness' and light's, And I stood between;
To the side of light I looked with a sigh,
There men spent ineffable rights, by and by.

There love was a sea, and virtue...

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Fingers toy with my nearly worn out bank card.
Not too confident, I hold onto my nerves, hard.
Ahead, petty items in her trolley hold me slowed.
The cashier stops, lengthily examining a bar code.
I glance around at...

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Begin the new with changes we have,
Moving burly barriers to breaking point,
We’ll have to reach beyond ourselves to survive,
Torrid threats to ambush the safety of each moment.

All the lost impulses we attempt to rearrange
Make the...

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Golden Locks

within the minute of retreat your back is tuned to your enemy's chorus
harmonic to your freedom, measured by compassion, anxiously seeking their humanity
thought ascending from stars see's an ounce of mercy surrounded in darkness
a...

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Hear a babe in his crib who is wailing,
left there with a rash that’s got infected
From hours of sobbing, his voice is trailing . . .
What monsters left their son so neglected?

Now see a girl;...

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Sitting having coffee at the classy Brassiere
Everyone is laughing, and they’re speaking niceties
Isn’t it lovely just to sit and chitter chat
Instead of being me in my lonely habitat
Not to be heavy weather, just to be...

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