Long Eggshell Poems

Family Poems

Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than...

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"As other spirits sail on music, mine, oh my love, swim on your perfume." Charles Baudelaire

"Sometimes you find an old bottle from which the soul returns." 
Charles Baudelaire

"Smell is a Word. Perfume is Literature."

"There are...

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Poems about Children


The Desk
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes.I wonder how
he learned at all...

He...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

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"Ground Level Entry"

“She fits the bill”,
they say it 
insouciantly

visions of being 
carried in the beak 
of a bilious pelican 

where it builds
its rudimentary nest, 
it uses sticks and debris

no stones, yet,
from irreverence
thrown at it

no higher...

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"The Broken Valkyrie"



when 
the artificial 
sun 
replaced 
true Light,
revolution 
was a forgotten 
Valkyrie, 
Liberty 
had been 
put to bed
broken whore 
of Babylon
no longer holding
the torch for anyone;

women and men 
grew to love 
their servitude,
complacency 
skewered...

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"Seeds"



Blue reaches reflections
touching ripples 
tears in time ephemeral
caresses fragrant Green my canopy

opens the light
inside me 

cracked eggshell 
golden-yoked sunshine
pale turquoise kintsugi
splintered paths inside my mind

in the smallness
of me 
something 
quietly blooms 

ragged yet refined
a gecko...

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The General Blues
c.1984-5

Again and again searching through grains of sand
hoping to find that certain elixir,
recovering lost bottle caps, 
when the silicon appears, i lose it..
To the ones who don't want or need it,
 I feel...

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Allow me to go back and rewind our time as friends
When I promised myself I'd never let you or anyone in

Especially the stereotypical people in your community
Where I believed in your heart I'd have equal...

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Children's Poems III

These are poems for children and poems about children and their mothers, fathers, grandmother, grandfathers and extended families. 



Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there...

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The eye wants you to believe
the eye sees everything
it cannot see
your identity
the eye is scared of all your dreams
it fears your individuality

The eye wants you to be
only what it can be
the eye is blind
the eye...

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a few years ago, my brother was visiting me - we don’t live in the same country, so we don't see each other very often. He was so amazed with some of my artwork, and...

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Might it be a pool or wishing well
with rainbow ripples round it wound
within an enchanted cosmic dell
of a fabulous world newfound—

or perhaps a spacetime passageway
that tunnels through regions yonder
to place where poets come out to...

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Tea Leaves On The Bosphorus

Seated at a table by the stirring water,
My eyes absorb the shore of Asia.
Minerets and aged worn stone
Stand haphazardly along the banks.
Istanbul is a lady with secrets
She'll lure you with her...

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The world of Expectations

Expectations, do – in all likelihood – become frustrations.
They, in their painful anger, do become manipulations,
of both – both the aching heart and the fragile soul
and of the one’s you seem to...

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"The Hummingbird Cake"




The day started bright -

Bright Eggshell Blue
and ended in percussion
dark and cloudy stormed in
thunder pummelled drums
against a backdrop of 
bruised eggshell dijon yellow
sweating heavy sage green
spitting spoilt the swollen pride of purple,
a wet...

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Law began by living,
locomotion meeting the rails of electric rainfall,
Consequence coursing through interconnected crossbeams
making all form fruit of the first & final recipe,
one great statute spawned from the storm
billowing from Divinity's genius,
everything in the Universe...

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"What a Lark"


I used to be inspired once
like a lark beating it’s wings 
higher and ever higher into a
golden and blue eggshell sky.
Hailstones hit me 
during ascension 
and I’ve fallen
into steep decline,
lying on a pavement...

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“My tears are testimony of my devotion to Beloved;
and from those tears white lilies will grow that speak the truth.”
Rumi

I had heard the legend of her tears,
silent drops of sorrow liberating her pain,
flowing upon the...

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I fail to sleep by night as

My soul sails away from me

My eyelids collapse, heavy with sleep

As I hear toothless voices

Spouting out truth like a fountain with rusty waters

They inform me of memories I knew...

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Today John McDain
Is in bad pain
The sirens could kill
But he escaped it, he will

He's at the doctor,
Who'll give him meds
And maybe just some
Comfortable beds

"There's something in his head."
The old, frail doctor said. 
"I can't find...

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.
Never looking up to see the sky
                            ...

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Germ of essence. 
Human blob. 
Shattered eggshell to the chicklet hatched.
Interlocking  family of a  kingdom.
Beget or begone? Antigone! 
Pouch bearing mammal  with no issue for her milk a plenty.
Enlightened species on
a zodiac...

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Once upon a fortunate time
I saw a princess that was so sublime.
She was *embellished with the beauty of a Seraph.
Therefore, in her heart, I sowed a seed that would etch a lovely *pyrograph.
That special *calescent...

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In times of retrospection we discover
The miles our vagrant compass trekked 
Silent horrors from which we recovered
What be righteous or unworthy we assess

For to all children life is not toys and hugs
Or enchanting dances on...

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