Long Engender Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

Read More

Various Heresies 5

Tonight, Let's Remember
by Michael R. Burch

July 7,2007 (7-7-7)

Tonight, let's remember the fond ways
our fingers engendered new methods to praise
the gray at my temples, your thinning hair.
Tonight, let's remember, and let us draw near...

Tonight,...

Read More

Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

Read More

"Hey, you philosophysing Hindu. Give me a break, Buddy. I was just pulling your leg. [...] I want the rest of the story. Really, I mean it.” Theson said nothing. [...] “I can see you’re...

Read More

Rosalia - The Evil Black Witch of the Harz, Part Two

Rosalia’s Instruments of Evil and Debauchery
Rosalia needed certain tools or instruments of evil and debauchery to successfully pursue her nefandous plans of bringing the people...

Read More

To faith communities
and fraternities,
brotherhoods
and sisterhoods
and sororities,
local non-profits
and friendly neighborhoods,
mediators
and counselors,
cooperative associations,
trauma-informed learning theorists
and practitioners for resilient
mind/body peace,

Do not deceive yourselves.
Continuing to gaze and daze 
on a monotonous monocultural path

Disassociating 
internal v external
navel v social 
my...

Read More

Excerpt from “fake” encomium given years ago... 
at Lake Wobegone High School (my alma mater), 

and recently discovered ridiculous rough draft
amidst plethora of junk emails
while practice reading some lines 
regarding Midsummer Night's Dream 
upcoming performance.

Arch...

Read More

Which paradise is not the elusive chimère?
	 	 
…how long does it take to live one life…learn the lessons of a lifetime…find the time to live…find the time to sort things out…know what you did...

Read More

Written 23 November 2023
Placed 1st in :
Stoicism as  Way of Life Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Sotto Poet

                  ...

Read More

By George (burning hard), I Shaw tried to playwright

offers his unsolicited tidbits 
as scene courtesy 
the following virtually 
staged philosophical insight.

Arch back like 
a professional ballet dancer 
to stand out from other pedestrian applicants 
seeking...

Read More

Botched and bungled interpersonal opportunities viewed...

tonight October  25th, 2022 
terrifically summarily requoting 

poetic outdated iteration,
I share the following lines
echoing in the valley 
of love and delight.
courtesy 20/20 hindsight
October twenty fifth
two thousand and twenty two
admirable,...

Read More

Botched and bungled interpersonal opportunities viewed...
(summarily iterated June 30th, 2020)

I share the following lines
with utmost delight
courtesy 20/20 hindsight
June twenty ninth
two thousand and twenty

corrigible, fallible,
and intelligible light
hearted fella (aging
baby boomer) usually polite
doth not trend toward
superficial nor...

Read More

Groundswell Of Emotional Blessedness

Ebullience exudes from mine every pore
courtesy festive mood in the air,
thus acknowledgment to the following:

thank you All Poetry, COSMOFUNNEL,
Facebook, Hello Poetry, My Poetic Side
PoetryNook, Poetry Soup, PoetryVibe
Tumblr, et cetera 
anonymous global friends,
Romans...

Read More

Facial Recognition Blues

Physicists speculating about a cosmic hologram 
Anarchists debating about the next message from Uncle Sam
The archaic ageing of the technology of the Telegram
An innocent waiting for an answer from an Annogram

Images of scientific...

Read More

Poems about Poets IV



The Princess and the Pauper
by Michael R. Burch

for June Kraeft

Here was a woman bright, intent on life,
who did not flinch from Death, but caught his eye
and drew him, powerless, into her spell
of...

Read More

(thank you All Poetry, COSMOFUNNEL,
Facebook, Hello Poetry
Poetry Soup, Tumblr, 
et cetera global friends).

A network of cherished kinships allied
forged, and linkedin analogous
to union of groom and bride
thru electronic bonds engender intrigue,
nonetheless unconditionally accept,
no matter I chide
self,...

Read More

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...

Read More

a ma lingering effect from angst riddled adolescence 
written some years ago, the psycho social mental events
indelible imprint etched psyche ova this pa on a win tree day hence
though a survivor of self starvation i...

Read More

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...

Read More

Each time has a special place
And every such place has its time.
When nature seethes with strangeness
Where the mind in exquisite isolation halts itself and listens
For the rumblings of a something large and not easily defined...

Read More

The river boils and burns
Churning the soil downriver
Silencing the calm quiver
Halting the anaesthetic shiver
This fissure in the earth was the sliver of hope in this dearth
A cool spring, the fuel to my being
The Sun has...

Read More

LIBERTY MONGER NOW OWNS PROTEST 
   AGAINST COUP FOR SUPREME COURT TO IMPEACH:

HIM AND BUNKUM "FAKE"  AS HIS TAJ MAHAL 
   ANALOGOUS TO A PSEUDO PHALLUS SIZED LEECH

SIMPLY VISIT THE...

Read More

I had very little in common with the strangers I met on Clark street.                     ...

Read More

I 
A right became an unexpected left; 
Nothing more important than subliminal 
country miles that pulled me forward, 
no destination or thought to why, 
just my surprise. Some ten miles gone, 
I felt a ray...

Read More

(Dedication: For the school children, teachers,
adventure guide and tourists who lost their lives 
while trekking on Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, East 
Malaysia during the earthquake, on Friday, 
5th June 2015. RIP.  And for those missing.
For...

Read More