Long Extremities Poems

Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

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Enough!
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that I don’t want to die;
I shall be glad to go.
Enough of diabetes pie,
and eating sickly crow!
Enough of win and place and show.
Enough of endless woe!

Enough of suffering and vice!
I’ve...

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Evening came and the Harvest Moon was about to rise,
little did Johnny know this night would bring him a surprise…

Johnny lived in a mushroom village with many folks just like him. He carried an over...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems (I)

These are poems about World War II and the Holocaust, which is also called the Shoah in Hebrew. 



Epitaph for a Child of the Holocaust
by Michael R. Burch

I...

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Continued from Maya 1

At length, when the womens' screams had ceased
and the sound of the thunder had stopped,
he gathered his courage and withdrew himself
from his hiding place beneath the corn.
He left the hut and prostrated...

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anxiety, intense -
but I am not frightened ...
my heart races ... I want to flee
my blood heats and lies to
my senses ...
'get out! go now! dear gawd, fool, run!!'
for you are formidable -
eighty inches tall,...

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There once was a species
with one sacred EarthTribe Vocation
provoking polyphonic yearnings,
polypathic necessities
responsibilities
authority spaces

There once was a NewTribe health plan
divinely humane for ecodancing,
ego listening cooperative well-said choreography
to sing GoodNews wondrous anthems
of global theological geography
to worship politically...

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Tardigrades aka Water Bears, Moss Piglets

Before T-Rex appeared and the Dodo bird disappeared,
Leading to modern-day scientific knowledge increasement,
Creatures of infinitesimal size called ‘Tardigrades’ endure,
Were and are living and thriving, just about anywhere on earth.

From mountain...

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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...

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"Madame Bovary", a novel by French novelist Gustave Flaubert, in 1856. Flaubert reconstructed a conventional story of adultery into a lasting work of heartfelt humanity. Madame Bovary is considered Flaubert’s masterpiece, and, according to some,...

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Life or death
is a left-brain dominant cultural assumption,
While right-brain is more comfortable
with life and death,
health and pathology,
nuance of co-arising dipolarity.

Environmentalists
shout for sustainability!
Ecologists calmly advocate
polycultural energy resilience
to recreate wealthier dynamic ecosystems

While warm psychologists
and embracing psychiatrists
listen for...

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Life explores integrity,
hoping to fulfill
all exploding polypathic 
curiosities polyphonic.

How might history rewrite humanity
if those who adventured out
and eagerly invaded
felt more reluctant to dominate?
More sure that their long-term survival
in this, or any, non-native land
required them to...

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I am reading Wendell Berry stories
again,
still,
today.

And notice
over these past several weeks
he unfolds two bipolar themes.

Berry is,
was,
a cooperative Southern neighborhood farmer
of organic hospitality.
His protagonists grow on multigenerational farms
as Berry grows into writing while farming,
thereby farming readers
co-investing...

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Part 2 of 2

.........eclectic mangling with each dextrous touch, fine lines begin to smudge, 


reality blends with fiction, body becomes an instrument, instantly switched on, fingers-the intimate, 


high octave tinkering, pursed lips to the sky-the...

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Everyday you tell me how much you need me,
how much you love me, and yet somehow,
you still manage to leave me scared and broken.
Your voice is sometimes what I fall asleep to at night.
The sweet...

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Just breath
Don't think about being judged, mad, angry or sad
The feeling of words and fear stuck in your throat
About to choke
Don't think about it
The pit in your stomach
Twisting and knotting
Sensitive and rotting
I can barely breath
Hide...

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He walks towards her in a cold winter’s day
with his buttoned-down shirt and expensive blue jeans.
He doesn’t waste time as he whispers to her:
“You have the most beautiful eyes that I’ve ever seen.”

And it doesn’t...

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He walks, rosary in hand, up the steps. 
His tread is broken, fragile, and the joggers 
Might hear his breath, each sharp inhalation, 
Each hissing exhalation, were it not for their 
Own breathless haste, their...

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Expressed emotions
Of one’s devotion
Are expressed so vividly
To prove I am not going through the motions
Things end so complicated
Because they started plain
I want you to be my Gina Waters
And I’ll be your Martin Payne
Because without pain...

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The Light from the Shadows

The light from the shadows of a thousand candles burning
The bright configuration of a lighthouse plainly warning
Plain sight considerations of a future that is forming 
Contrite observations of memories of the...

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Call me mad if you must
But please first hear me out
I just got back from the Cryogenics lab
And guess who's head I picked from the crowd

If your thinking Jimmy Hoffa
No, he's somewhere deep asleep in...

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*Image of Paradox of a Mindfoolness.


Irreconcilable Paradox

The midnight sun casts about clear shadows amidst a
     twilight noon, 'tis yesterday.
The windy gale brews, astir none to wake the quietude,
   ...

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Loneliness of Gray
                by Odin Roark

Could It Be…

The mirror by which we see ourselves
This captive freedom of art in all...

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Aching
aching deep within
reaching out beyond the veil
never forgotten

All Aboard
body and soul combine
for the ride of a lifetime –
no return tickets

Am I me
I think I am me
I think, therefore, I am me
I am me I think

Astral...

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Move Your Body

                       Get up, get up and move. 
   ...

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