Long Flagstones Poems

THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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Peanuts slowly slid between the old man's fingers as he watched.
Unaware, his long time patrons smiled and greeted him as they passed.
The music stopping abruptly,
he listened to the sound as the nuts hit the cobbles...

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FREE VERSE VI

Reason Without Rhyme
by Michael R. Burch

I used to be averse
to free verse,
but now I admit
YOUR rhyming is WORSE!

But alas, in the end,
it’s all the same:
all verse is unpaid
and a crying shame.



What the Poet...

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Advice to Young Poets
by Nicanor Parra Sandoval
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Youngsters,
write however you will
in your preferred style.
Too much blood flowed under the bridge
for me to believe
there’s just one acceptable path.
In poetry everything’s permitted.

Originally published...

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"My dear fairy, for whom do you wait,
that time patina green your copper hair so it may match that door?”
Though I knew, t’was you, dear friend, for upon your stoop she perched,
Arms a-droop so queenly...

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.          
            
            ...

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colored craving things arrive
reaching tender to assault 
eyes unused in wintered 
hollow months
grey and white and plain
becoming sudden kaleidoscopes 
bleeding into landscapes, 

drowning pain
with cacophonies of endless greetings, 
as nature emerges 
with energies and hunger.
awakening...

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Spring things arrive, assaulting eyes unused; 
Hollowed by a winter grey, whitened paint infused. 

Bleeding sudden kaleidoscopes to landscapes, 
Cacophonies of endless greetings, drowning pain 
As nature comes with energies and hunger once again.

Along a...

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a forgotten hope chest – 
linen   s!t!i!t!c!h!e!d   with love by candlelight  
   c   r   u   m   b   l...

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My first was beside the outside loo,
'cos my wife said not indoors thank you.
I made her a table from an old headboard,
She was pleased, I knew I had scored.
My second was in a closet, 20...

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you May-
think me odd    perhaps strange 
peculiar and off the wall-
but I
like to wander cemeteries

among    rows       on rows

I love the tranquility
there is a...

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A faint perfume of lilac blooms has stirred the sleeping dawn
Bright sunlight weaves a golden loom with threads across the lawn
Crisp white-lipped Delphiniums tossed snowflakes to the hills, while
Daffodils and pink jonquils shake off the...

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you May-
think me odd    perhaps strange 
peculiar and off the wall-
but I
like to wander cemeteries

among    rows       on rows

I love the tranquility
there is a...

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Scared to walk on the flagstones that your love would lay in my journey
My journey to freedom
My journey to diffidence  
My journey to destiny.
I returned back flake of your sole that was with me...

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I stopped awhile, to rest my legs, and spied a crevice in the wall
where mossy stones, and flagstones, lost, are hidden in the vines
I'm quite intrigued, so I must squeeze, and curl myself into a...

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There is no Path
but there is where I have trod.

There is no Path
but there are promises.

There is no Path
despite the signs.

There is no Path
despite the flagstones.

There is no Path
but there is where I have trod.

I...

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I love the tranquility
there is a peace like no other
where hidden birds sing melodies
and little creatures scurry
and time stands still  
I like to read inscriptions
on tombstones in the dappled sun
    or...

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 In Paradise, in it's  grass, they dig holes.
 In which, to place the ashes of those who can pay.


The grass grows between the Cloisters, Cathedral and
the silence of stone monks.

From within the Cloisters,...

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The sermons nearly finished, suddenly a happening befalls my eyes
Our congregation now sits silent, amidst echoing tearful cries

An old man we know as Tommy, he's the retired Rector of our Academy
Now lying silent on the...

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Insidious fingers of flickering phantoms
Cast in the bloody gold haze of frozen pain, sorrowing.
Reveling players reaching past the present memories, moments
Cemented in ashes.

Merriment mars the perfect surface of poetic sin
Flint and steel, stealing life from...

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Natty disasters sitting in boneyard wing
Hidden rolling shadows re-occurring
Tumbles the rain that rapture bring 
All sodden on Golgotha fog·ging

Utterly murky shadows about 
Dank teeth beyond the tomb square
The blindness of the swollen moon thereabout
Lightning strike,...

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You stood there in the empty room
with sadness on your face
a memory of years gone by
lay silent in its place
A house you’d built
with your own hands;
no longer yours to own
against your will, abandoning
this place you...

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The soft throaty purr
Of a returning plane
Bringing back memories
Of sun dappled waves
Washing sun drenched sand 
Where bodies bronze 
On a rainbow beach.
Those warm evenings 
when the rich red rioja
Lends a luscious lustre
To the spicy tapas.
How...

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