Long Entryway Poems

"Lizzie Borden took an axe,
gave her mother forty whacks,
when she saw what she had done,
gave her father forty-one,
she washed herself from a watered pail,
she claimed their lies and vicious tales,
she pled not guilty and moaned...

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{"I have launched myself through the fields that descend towards an endless rampage, 
Of my soul, 
We draw ourselves into it hand in hand, 
We ignore the flames igniting in its pedestal, the darkness grants...

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‘tap, tap, tap’

your petite knuckles
gently attacking my door -
I envision their French-painted nails
dancing in the shine of
the hallway light
like a row of bishops bowing to the Pope
(your sensual sacrilege)
I don’t make a sound
though my eye...

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The old fart (alter cocker) shuffle

as one fairly long run on sentence
unwittingly made locally famous 
courtesy residents here at 
Highland Manor Apartments
as first one foot and then the other
painstakingly, and agonizingly dragged 
across the cement...

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Sappho Translations XIII by Michael R. Burch

In these translations the fragment numbers are mostly Lobel-Page. All translations are by Michael R. Burch and should be so credited if they are used in any way, shape...

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I went to a poor man's house
There was an exquisite car in the driveway
I walked up to the grand entryway
Rang his doorbell
The chimes sounded like cathedral bells
He greeted me with a practiced smile
Welcomed me to...

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The elevator opened on the 46th floor, to a small foyer and one plain, grey door

The door opened and a young girl, 10ish, in a blue, polo, tennis dress, said, “Hi! I’m Karen, you must...

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The first cut 
of roses 
are in bloom 
and I will 
see them soon, 
very soon. 

They float 
in a bowl 
of Arctic ice-flow; 
regarded highly 
by the local Wal-Mart 
feng shui 
masters. 

Made to...

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I step from my car and I see ahead
the shiny glint of smooth, polished chrome,
the place is shaped like an oversized rail car,
but never on the tracks has it roamed.

I walk on into the small...

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Section Ocho

Sylvia loved her 2 bedroom apartment. 
She finally found a decent place
Well besides the rodents
And the 4 flights she treks 
That dim hallway
Smelling of mold
And tattered souls
Knock, Knock, Knock
She opens the steel door
Resembling a...

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From water to soil, we continued. 
All that I've at any spot known has been rottenness. 
I can hear myself awakening close to the water spewed.
Each component of this second was essential to my awareness....

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The old Kaufman footwear factory
with it's grand entryway
Marble floors
Granite counters
Important people use to walk it's halls

Pictures of the founders had lined the walls
Intimidating, dressed in three piece suits
holding somber expressions
masters of a previous time

I walk...

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A hierarchy of antecedents 
an inverted pyramid or
joy that precedes heart break
and well wishes 
tears that cascade after facts
and unchecked plane tickets 
sentiments divulged, rearranged, displayed 
like an Muslim at inquisition 
Scientist's solution burning 
on a Bunson burn
making sense of what...

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She built her nest of straw and mud,
anchored to the rocks on our entryway.
Through the glass in the front door,
we watched her as she sat up there

on her eggs, allowing babies to grow.
After they hatched,...

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One day I heard a knock 
Or more a rapid tap upon my door. 
It brought me not acute alarm, 
For it was noonday by the clock 
And noontime rarely brings one harm, 
So with...

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Mom’s Tree House Apartment


Step inside, warm feelings greet you…

On the entryway wall, President Kennedy signed a condolence letter
from 1962, addressed to my Grandma, thanking her for Grandpa’s service in WW1.
Below, perched on an old credenza,...

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I watched in awe the laboring tenants of the birdhouse I'd made,
And for their family devotion, they (and I) have been amply repaid!
Mr. and Mrs. Wren became the proud parents of a couple of eggs,
And...

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Whether the work-load is manual or high-tech exercises; 
Whether it taxes our brain, leaving us without answers;
Or dirties our entire body with dirt, dust, and grease;
Whether the tasks stress our emotions to the max:
Or compel...

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Slender, whispering and flaming fireweed surrounds
the gray-weathered clapboards of the deserted
homestead whose torn gingham curtains blow among
the paneless windows with the gentle breeze of
summer morning.

Silence is challenged by harmonizing birds
who serenade the observer of the...

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Dreams, an entryway to celestial exploration
Out of body we penetrate through meditation
The subconscious rises to visit lost loved ones 
With star smiles that through seams of heaven run

Ladies squander lifetimes hoping for a ring
Travel to...

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Bàbá,
what eyes do you have of a big bigger sort,
which portaled my entryway into the blindnesses of our Ilé,
wherefrom I made to look to see with your primordial eyes?

Bàbá,
why is your soul watery,
salty like the...

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It is amazing what I see
On a walk in the forest near the end of spring.
I saw two big trees joined together in the
middle covered with bright green 
Philodendrons that were sitting on an eave
Above...

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When early rose the sun, 
came first steps and a smile.
Humane, you were the one
to give and never tire.
Not just a house, you said,
we're building on their dreams,
not just a door of wood,
an entryway to...

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Haiku Tree in Library Entryway 

Say a haiku tree in library entryway
Trying to understand what they did say
And to read nothing will it ever cost
But each time I do I am totally lost.

Is there some...

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From fading greens of summer, we will pass
     and seek the autumn season's entryway
to honor our maturity, en masse,
     with festive ceremony and display.

A glorious salute to...

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