Long Fairer Poems

WOMEN ...

Truly amaze me ... they possess the super-human
strength to birth a child - one of the most painful
and demanding physical and emotional feats of end-
urance known to our species - yet they have the
self-confidence...

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Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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Written in summer of 1976.


I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessmen from Campbell Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And willow-haired orangutans.

I spent...

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Thiru-Valluvar on Praising the Good Qualiities of Ladies: Canto 112 - Nalam Pinainththu Uraiththal

[The poet devotes the third part of his treatise, the Thiruk-Kural to INBATHTHUPPAAL, the amorous relationship between the sexes, i.e.,  cantos...

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baseball, bird, change, childhood, games, holiday, lost,

“Seasonal Walks in the Park!”

A walk in the park after a springtime morning rainfall 
Is to hear the droplets fall from bent branches overhead
That can shock and moisten one’s...

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“Wha’da-ya’ s’pose he’s thinkin’ about,” I heard a nurse inquire, “he sits there almost every day just gazin’ at the pond?”
“Hard to say,” a laundry gal replied, “but chances are...if you could, somehow, read his...

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Unquotable quotes: Gals, Dolls, Bitches and Broads – XXXVII

( No aspersions are being cast here, willingly or otherwise, on the fairer, stronger and infinitely more sagacious sex. Even if these over-used words are somewhat overloaded...

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I’ve unfurled the Southern Cross tonight and put it
On the wall, and as I gazed the longest while.. I thought I heard the
dingo’s call?  It couldn’t be as all
Round me were the sounds of...

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March 8th - International Women's Day The World Over

Down to the wire, before this
calendrical occasion doth expire,
though arbitrary twenty four hour
time set aside for guide
ding hand of the supposed/purported
fairer gender, yet human race, yet hide
bound...

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Doubt is anonymous.
It's (more) synonymous,
to the fairer sex.
It's a, in built feature,
of possessiveness.
A default setting,
of mother nature.
Selfish at times,
devoid of broader vision.

Natural defense mechanism;
that activates when love
is not reciprocated.
Just a shadow of affection,
towards another.
Can cast...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY : LXIV - LXV


NOTE (facts to bear in mind while reading) : Under the French Penal Code, harm done to the infirm, minors and seniors (i.e. over 65) is...

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February 13th, 2023 - old man winter gave a one...two punch

Overladen snow covered crackle and crunch
though, this skeptic owned a doubtful hunch
that such 24/7 round the clock whether coverage
would make laughingstock of forecasting
how Jack Frost...

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OLD MAN MOSES - SCOTLAND RISES

Old man Moses sat upon his rock; contemplating, his woes
Moses ails but a vision of a land to his sons and daughters
Born not to settle for their history as more...

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The THIRUK-KURAL on Women who know no bounds : Canto 92 – K913, K919 and K920

(Thiru-Valluvar comes down heavily on women of the « oldest profession in the world » in this Canto 92 consigned...

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Poems for Poets VI



Caveat
by Michael R. Burch

If only we were not so eloquent,
we might sing, and only sing, not to impress,
but only to enjoy, to be enjoyed.

We might inundate the earth with thankfulness
for light, although...

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As precautionary measure...
 
I backed up all software
resident on fifteen inch 
Macbook Pro computer
yesterday December first 
two thousand twenty two
courtesy two terabyte 
Seagate external drive.

Hardware not necessarily superfluous
when associating, assessing, and assaying
true value to equipment...

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POEMS FOR POETS IV

PROFESSOR POETS

These are poems about professor poets and other wanna-be “intellectuals” who miss the main point of real poetry, which is to connect with readers via pleasing sounds and the communication of...

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Note: the "dd" in Welsh names is pronounced "th."

Merlyn's Birth
by Michael R. Burch

I was born in Gwynedd,
or not born, as some men claim,
and the Zephyr of Caer Myrrdin
gave me my name.

My father was Madog Morfeyn
but...

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POEMS ABOUT POETS VIII

PROFESSOR POETS

These are poems about professor poets and other wanna-be “intellectuals” who miss the main point of real poetry, which is to connect with readers via pleasing sounds and the communication of...

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These are my modern English translations/interpretations of ancient Greek poems by the immortal Sappho of Lesbos…

With my two small arms, how can I
think to encircle the sky?
—Sappho, fragment 35, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mother,...

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A mystery to some, but not to me,
why one would call thee, "Lady"
Other beetles could be called fair,
some would even argue scholarly

But gentlemanly?

Now that's a stretch
if I ever heard one
Have you ever seen a bloke...

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In homage to the waters around the UK and all those who sail them...


Late at night and early dawn
Like clockwork - every day are heard
Those dulcet tones “set fair” to warn
With poetic, most prophetic words
What...

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I was a sophisticated, world class traveler, like merry wind in green trees.
I had seen hottest deserts and rain forests, where songs will never cease.

I had traveled by planes and by trains, by luxury ship,...

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SAPPHO TRANSLATIONS

Eros harrows my heart:
wild winds whipping desolate mountains,
uprooting oaks.
—Sappho, fragment 42, translation by Michael R. Burch



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

No droning bee,
nor even the bearer of honey
for me!



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation...

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Passed down through generations of my family history
is the story of a man buried, and of an ensuing mystery.
It's an age old story that my ancestors have always told
about the presence of a rose appearing...

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