Long Esplanades Poems

Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch

Let me give her diamonds
for my heart's
sharp edges.

Let me give her roses
for my soul's
thorn.

Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.

Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.

Let me...

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MODERN SONNETS I

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.


Maker, Fakir, Curer
by Michael R. Burch

A poem...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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Buttonhole Daisy 
            by Odin Roark

My city bud and I
How we love the long walks
Daisy beneath my chin
Tucked securely in a buttonhole
Me with discovery...

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Perched on a cliff,
Towering from the sea.
Embracing a cool breeze;
Lima is the city.

Miles of pueblo jovenes,
Surround her heart.
Like a flock of sheep,
Not wanting to part.

Slums lay there
In shades of beige.
When they really want
Be red with...

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Apricot Trees
David J Walker

My mother randomly spoke of the beauty 
She saw in trees that lined
The streets in town 

The boughs and branches placed
 in parks and esplanades on Arbor days in the 
all but...

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The City Is a Garment
by Michael R. Burch
 
A rhinestone skein, a jeweled brocade of light,—
the city is a garment stretched so thin
her festive colors bleed into the night,
and everywhere bright seams, unraveling,
cascade their brilliant...

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BLANK

blank face
blank stare
blank wall
blank fear
white glare
I disappear 

man at my back
100’s in my hair
a 1000 peg legs
I disappear

receptions polite desk
not all knives are in
museums behind glass
shaped like a deckchair
I disappear

first ripples in the marble
façade tame...

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Time twirls slowly,
when tragedy sunders 
antiquated wings—
maimed and eroded, becoming 
featherless angels, 
ferociously combatant, 
sparring to win, 
wandering in vacant division,
while penetrating the walls 
of our wildering downfalls. 
Finding clemency in the 
glimmer of our...

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