Long Docks Poems

It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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Salvation of a Formalist, an Ode to Entropy
by Michael R. Burch

Entropy?
God's universal decree
That I get to be
Disorderly?
Suddenly
My erstwhile boxed-in verse is free?
Wheeeeee!



Eternal Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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Vampire Poetry

Pale Though Her Eyes
by Michael R. Burch
 
Pale though her eyes,
her lips are scarlet
from drinking of blood,
this child, this harlot
 
born of the night
and her heart, of darkness,
evil incarnate
to dance so reckless,
 
dreaming of...

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Vampires
by Michael R. Burch

Vampires are such fragile creatures;
we fear the dark, but the light destroys them...
sunlight, or a stake, or a cross—such common things.
Still, late at night, when the bat-like vampire sings,
we heed his voice.

Centuries...

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New Year Poetry

Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
translation by Michael R. Burch 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed,...

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Back in the height
of our pre-millennial military-industrial
post-revolutionary days
of competing excess...

No, love,
Stick with
Once upon our Sacred Times...

Once upon a time
here in the US of Northern Americas
we used a Reservation Model
to dispose of hopelessly disabled aboriginals,
too RightBrain...

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Huge fluffy clouds began to form over 
Sanibel Island as the salted gulf splashed 
against the rocks around the lighthouse 
coastal waters rose up as a calming coolness 
carried this gentle warm breeze over to...

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He sat all alone, drinking jim beam and coke

Looking out as the waves crashed ashore

He kept to himself, drinking jim beam and coke

As the storm winds would batter the door

He'd only come in when the...

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Troop ships loading, crowded docks
Mums and sisters waving off
Go with keepsakes, golden locks
Some men hug while many doff

Eric, soldier single stands
Beryl, lonesome widow cares
Many kissing holding hands
Eric stands and Beryl dares

Bump the soldier, make excuse
Apologizing...

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Rum and Raisin, on the mat, were playing with their toys
Their humans had the tv on to give some background noise
Rum said, “Raisin, there is something that I want to do,
To meet a man from...

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Variations On A Theme...
of hodgepodge strewn helter skelter
wonky inviting reader to mentally swelter.

Ach'n (ache Ken and burn'n) 
kickstarting existential and proverbial struggle
me species classified as generic muggle
analogous to entertainer 
with namesake of yours truly
starring an...

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The rain birds keep hopping up and down the town
stamping the rain out of the ground with their wire feet but
they have little to compete and the sun is walking under my feet. They are...

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You had that future retro look:  two thousand seventeen,
There was a slow and sultry permanence, a little slouchy lean
As you eased out of the taxi before it shot off to the right,
Who could have...

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Suffolk day Wednesday 21st of June 2017
By Stanley Russell Harris
The new mad author
& A Poetry Soup honourably mentioned poet

There is going to be a Suffolk Day, I heard the news I did today!
On BBC radio...

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UndefeaTed.  A Boxing Lesson.

A friend, off the Vineyard,
wrighted a ship.
And, perhaps himself,
and certainly the worlds ‘round him.
His words were fashioned, shipshape and watertight
as were the splines and bungholes and rudder pins and
All the Things...

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I came back to you in September
you were quiet then
still,
like you used to be,
when men were men
and I was just a child

When the smell of the fish docks
mingled well with the stench of the slaughter...

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Written by: David William Breidenthal and Jake Ponce 

D: Blessed breeze sweeps over us 
J: Whenever I leave the door ajar at night, 
J: I felt myself grow pale from the humid howls 
D: Gravity...

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Just the very thought of him, like an artist’s stroke of his
Paintbrush, sealed a promise of a lifetime of tomorrows.
I finally had found myself and, knew my purpose in life.

The instant you were within sight,...

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The River Mersey and The Black Pearl New Brighton 

Let the Caribee and sultry sea call to the pirates bold. 
But on this shore, with its tales of lore, The Mersey keeps its hold
For merchants,...

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Unquotable quotes: The How of Democratic Kill – XXXIX, Part One

Born in 1868, Alexei Maximovich PESHKOV, better known as MAXIM GORKY and hailed as the chief proponent of Soviet literature, the veritable champion of the...

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Her  m a d n e s s  was the result of an unfortunate series of events. The epilogue came to a halt as she was  b r o k e n...

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Do you still wonder 
now that you’ve been washed out
into fate’s unforgiving seas
why you were sentenced to a life
you swore was in the wrong body?
Living in the wrong body is a natural crime
The price
To live...

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Nine years my leave had spanned
            travelling to my island in the sun.
A native son returning his native land
     ...

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