Long Fatten Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

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No, Freddie can’t say he mourned when his father died and his father’s third wife found Freddie's number and gave him a call to give him the news. His father had been responsible, worked hard,...

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At the edge of a wood, in days of summertime,
Lived Hansel and Gretel, once upon a time;
Whose dear father, a poor woodcutter,
Could no longer earn their bread and butter.
Late one night, a conversation overheard--
As from...

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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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I will only write funny poems 
as I don't feel like I want to do anything else
Why are we so lazy at times?
Is it something that we ate
Or are we just natural born lazy?
I like...

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Finally to Burn: Icarus, Resurrected
by Michael R. Burch

Athena takes me
sometimes by the hand

and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands

where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting

and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting

and all I remember
upon awaking

is: to Love sometimes
is...

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the yard was in a state of disarray
the caretaker there 
had been perceived
as being obtuse for offering as a quay
the promise of the gift of a coming day 

suspicion and rancor did hold prevail
surely it...

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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace
you climb, skittish kite ...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there
so that all that remains is to

fall?

Only...

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I was perched upon a wooden bench beneath a bottle tree 
when this worn out wiry ringer stopped to rest his gammy knee. 
I’d been touring through the outback and had sought to sit a...

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]=           THE STRANGER MAN  (1)

Once a foetus when I began the venture
And sloughed from the cove of the womb
Now closer the monstrous possessions 
I...

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Perhaps you see me
it may be your gift to see
or merit for hard work
or maybe you paid for it with the lashings you endured
but surely it is now your inescapable wretched curse
as the truth haunts...

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Voices of the silent whispers echo deeply disturbing fact 
debates hold principle those with brains tear down structures 
human rights ignored opening up a can of worms within morals 
where truth is hidden away questions...

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Doomed are the meek and weak as they seek
simply not hard enough trying to feed and succeed
Money and glory does not grow on trees and
there only is hope when the forests are savaged
You cannot eat...

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"Fattening up time" the wall calendar read
which meant only one thing to old farmer Ted

Christmas was coming and there's money to be made
you see the bigger the bird the more he'd be paid

He'd saved up all...

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"My dear Hannah:  We're camped nigh a town called Gettysburg tonight.
I take pen in hand to write to you, my love, by the flickerin' candlelight.
From afar I hear the beat of Rebel drums preparin'...

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He made his first money being a paper boy,
tossing the newspapers onto people’s front porch
He liked getting the perks ... 
milk and cookies, lemonade,
apple pie ... the whole works
But he loved getting the tips,
the extra...

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Dear commissar 
My poetry is filled with agitation and grievances.
To have stood amid, betwixt disillusionment and
Displeasure before. This plea seek not immunity 
Nor to pile vanity vines rather seeks progression.

Dear commissar
My poetry is the echo...

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Cackle like hens
 might the fox
 find you
he spoke. 
that those who
feedest thee sowest not
but sprinkle grains to fatten
might the fox
spoil the harvest
there labors shall be in vain!



Nyx raised stranger people
with the teachings of the...

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Drought's End
                               Frank Halliwell

Past the...

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Written: October 28, 2023, For Unseeking Seeker Contest
                           ...

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Statetly young prince into a village came riding
Prepared to pay the price of bride that he decided
Hearing that in this village one such maiden was residing

In the village an uproar as young maidens were adorned
A...

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I
My five-five-fingers of my hands
Zestfully lived In serenity.
The three thrill fingers of my right hand:
Thumb, index finger and middle finger
Stoutly lived civilly and gleefully
Amongst her BROTHERS:
They rested gleefully upon the placid,
SHARP-SABLE-POINTED-DART.

II
Sharp-sable-pointed-dart;
Perched in the midst of...

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