Long Embellished Poems

The Story
by Kamal Nasser
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I will tell you a story ...
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story...

Read More

The great Sabbath day descended, though not in my heart and mind
On this new day,
I imagined rays of God’s light shining generously upon the mountains,
Pools of living waters gurgling, and winds gently rustling trees
Wishing for...

Read More

But we of the Three Tribes live undiscovered 
   In the reverberating stillness of the 
 Three Gorges...
And are therefore unknown to the warring mongol;
    His impassioned lusts -- his...

Read More

This is, as indicated, the 2nd HALF of this fairly lengthy poem. Due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations, this piece had to be posted in 2 parts. 
   The 1st HALF can be...

Read More

Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised April 19th, 2023

IM pen named Pilot Jane A. Rug
who ascribes to writing poetry
as opportunistic, holistic, and cathartic
warming me body electric
courtesy an outsize 
warm brimful...

Read More

Malevolent maverick mailer-daemon...
wrought maximum monetary mayhem
within mein kampf

Incomprehensible inhumane
inquisitorial imp incarnate injudiciously,
ineffably, indescribably inflicted
inxs inexorable insidious injury.

Snake charmer also known
in the underworld as Harvey Specter
subliminally slithered,
and deftly insinuated himself
into body electric of yours truly
forever remotely...

Read More

HALLS OF AMENTI :1

My Kingdom is clear of books
                          ...

Read More

Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised March 10th, 2024...

(Any resemblance between the following humorous account and real life circumstance tis purely coincidental).

Went off for hair raising shindig
donning noggin of villager...

Read More

Ah Consuela! Invoking vast vistas for visions of green Spanish eyes,
I discern them again where she left me back then,
                 as we kissed when she parted, my friend.
Through those ruins I tread towards the footlights,...

Read More

Up up the fly away wig doth go revisited and revised March 10th, 2022...

Went off for hair raising shindig
donning noggin of villager in Nigg
(historic county of Ross-shire,
historic region of Ross
and Cromarty, northeast
coast of Scotland).

Somehow postiche...

Read More

One day I wish to know, 
as the scars of devils do, 
when your eyes, married to the auburn fox, 
will remove their pantheon of petrified ghosts
and lay with me once again.


Lay with me again...

Read More

Conquering Normans in siege they lay
waste to all England
to pillage and slay.

William the Conqueror rode overland
with nobles and ladies
of high ranking band.

Surveying all territories with equal measure
His decision unanimous,
and at his leisure

Decided on Londinium, the...

Read More

I once was a
sea lavender star, 
soaked in sunsets, 
draping evenings
with soft yarns of
hydrangea haze ~
before you stole
me from those
sangria skylines like
a windswept wave,
and placed my
hyacinth heart upon
the tan throne of 
your verbena soul. 
Never...

Read More

there flies a bird as white as life,
an ugly, peaceful dove,
 which carries darkness in its beak,
 the poem wroth with love:
 the farmer wakes at morning,
 weak with pain and ache;
there's no peace in...

Read More

Texture is nature's and life's universal adornment.
Texture titillates and tantalises the senses,
adorning the smooth, flat and boring
with bumps, context, meaning, dimensions and grip.

See me, hear me, touch me, smell me, taste me -
all get embellished...

Read More

Fertile Crescent
and Vestigial Conscience

The sun overshadowing my morality
my self- righteousness eclipsed

Where early mans' dawn is, 
Our sun over my left *should* threaten to tinge me if
I pontificate platitudes that fail to connect us to
full stomachs...

Read More

"Clinging to me
Like a last breath you would breathe
You were like home to me
I don't recognize the street

Please don't close your eyes
Don't know where to look without them
Outside the cars speed by
I'd never heard them...

Read More

Although flowers bloom it’s awkward to say that they are flowers
because they are not flowers, but thorns disguised as yellow pistils 
and stamens surrounded by the petals made of pieces of colorless
paper. Moreover, their fragrance...

Read More

Snowing tonight ~ whispering, luminescent, dazzling,  
                           Air misty,...

Read More

Snowing tonight ~ whispering, luminescent, dazzling, romantic... 
                           ...

Read More

An evening stroll, on Midsummer Night's Eve ,
under the silver light of the horizon moon.

Life that burst among a small acreage,
of old-growth forests, flourished.

A delightful flurry of fireflies, drifting,
twinkle among the foliage, an amazing sight.

Echoing...

Read More

The mind wants to believe in positivity around the globe & when this desire sets its roots, what happens next is a world wide disease 'Globasity'
It spreads like a forest fire but unfortunately its end...

Read More

To my enemies,
cloaked in t w i n k l i n g topaz~
I’ve become immune 
to your illusive m a n t r a s,
recited in roseate refrains.

I’ve learned to see 
the vermilion 
...

Read More

You took me by surprise once,
I didn’t see you coming,
An epiphany 
Unveiled to me,
Not many would’ve summoned.

This damsel in distress,
Once emerged from a rose,
Bewildered and perplexed,
An unceasing lament,
“Why is it me that you chose?”

Call me...

Read More

I glanced in the side view mirror of the U-Haul truck.  One mile forward, one more, and then another.  With each mile forward everything familiar slipped further and further away.  The lush,...

Read More