Long Edwin Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

Read More

Wonderland
by Michael R. Burch
 
We stood, kids of the Lamb, to put to test
the beatific anthems of the blessed,
the sentence of the martyr, and the pen’s
sincere religion. Magnified, the lens
shot back absurd reflections of each...

Read More

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers I

I translated the first six Native American poems for my father when he chose to enter hospice and end his life by not taking dialysis …


Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation/interpretation...

Read More

To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen—
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me...

Read More

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers II



All Things Galore
by Michael R. Burch

for my grandfathers George Edwin Hurt Sr. and Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

Grandfather,
now in your gray presence
you are

somehow more near

and remind me that,
once, upon a star,
you...

Read More

The language and images of Mario Vitale's poetry are so closely bound to the natural cycles of seasons, of generations, of the body's functioning, that is surprising to realize how many of his poems deal...

Read More

Understanding Suicide Understanding Me

Awhile back I had a dear friend contact me to ask if I heard about the young mans suicide at a nearby towns school. I had not. After asking one time on...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems XIII

Davenport Tomorrow
by Michael R. Burch

Davenport tomorrow ...
all the trees stand stark-naked in the sun.

Now it is always summer
and the bees buzz in cesspools,
adapted to a new life.

There are no flowers,
but the weeds,...

Read More

I am not a sanctuary
do not come to me for sanctuary, 
I am a supernova,  the Saturn V rocket
prepared to penetrate the highest blue sky
with a 6.5 million pound payload ride,
my rocket shell steams...

Read More

Sappho, fragment 58
loose translation by Michael R. Burch 
 
Pain
drains
me
to
the
last
drop
.



Sappho, fragment 130 (Lobel-Page 130 / Voigt 130)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Eros, the limb-shatterer,
rattles me,
an irresistible
constrictor.



Sappho, unnumbered fragment
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What cannot be...

Read More

Reposting from my other page while I was lost in cyber space.


Where I Have Been



It's been a twisted messed up road ever since I slipped off track.
If the signs are right I'm reading, I guess...

Read More

Sappho fragment 22
loose translation by Michael R. Burch 
 
That enticing girl's clinging dresses
leave me trembling, overcome by happiness,
as once, when I saw the Goddess in my prayers
eclipsing Cyprus.
 
NOTE: This is a translation of...

Read More

Father Daughter Dance

He told her “don't you worry”, but he'd be a little late.
He promised when he made it home he would take her on a date.
She squealed in her excitement, soon they would be...

Read More

Learning By The Living.


Life's roads we all travel down
mistakes we think we've made.
Living for the memories
that we could never trade.

Finding set backs now and then
in things not meant to last.
Picking ourselves up again
then moving slowly...

Read More

Where I Have Been



It's been a twisted messed up road ever since I slipped off track.
If the signs are right I'm reading, I guess I won't make it back.
It's been such an uphill journey I've...

Read More

Whore  Edwin Hofert

Sure I'm on the right track both eyes set dead ahead.
The big threat to my future came from back behind instead.
Many of the ones I loved had launched their own attack.
You see...

Read More

Poetry Soup Hero's

Poets with golden ink and pens 
You make us move forward with your inspiration
With kind an honest, encouragement  and compliments 
Small act of caring all which has the potential to turn a...

Read More

An adventure with a friend in the Fall of 2019 became a celebration in the Winter of 2020. We departed Northern California and headed East beyond the Great Divide, beyond which there lies a city...

Read More

Whispers of talent are carried on New England breezes
Dickinson, Hawthorne, and the Irvings’ son Washington
Though I sense a special connection to all of these
None inspired more than Edwin Arlington Robinson

Three Pulitzer Prizes were displayed on...

Read More

Where You Are

I see suspicion in your eyes, you know I know you're going through hell.
You think I'm like the others, and there's people I'll run and tell.
It's not to say I'm better. In a...

Read More

Hidden In A Broken Heart

Tripping in the shadows she falls down to her knees.
Haunted by her yesterdays where lives her memories.
Of times not very long ago she cried out “What's the use?”
As she suffered at...

Read More

One Horse Town


The boardwalks full of people only two stood in the street.
The showdown of the century counting down to thirty feet.

Black Bart said this towns too small for you and I to both be...

Read More

Pieces Of My Heart  The I'Lyzette
What I said

Compliments once given intended just for good.
The (gift) they claim that I possess, somehow misunderstood.
Sensing your own heartache, in the poems I write for you.
All a product...

Read More

Cheap Perfume

Reflecting on his memories of a life in cheap hotels.
Remembering lies both heard and told and remembering all the smells.
Cheap cigars and cigarettes still linger in the room.
Still each night he recalls a hookers...

Read More

This story is about a little dog called Tag Along.
   He loved and followed a little fat boy name of Edwin Armstrong.
The pair were always seen together where ever they went,
  ...

Read More