Long Fleet Poems

I believed that I was rural … that I lived in country style,
where the city was close handy … that big distance was a mile.
Trains and buses ferried daily; a freeway ran close by …
comforts...

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Oh my soul what hails you?
Oh my soul what awaits you?
Oh my soul why are you in despair?
Oh my soul I have not deserted you
Oh my soul I have something to share
Oh my soul I...

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Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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Limericks II - Nature Poems and Animal Poems

Dot Spotted
by Michael R. Burch

There once was a leopardess, Dot,
who indignantly answered: "I’ll not!
The gents are impressed
with the way that I’m dressed.
I wouldn’t change even one spot!"



Clyde Lied!
by...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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"Smooth Big Cat"



He was one of those guys you just knew would be a dud. "Be nice", she said to herself.

She met him on the upswing from the abyss of a dismally closed final chapter....

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Invocation to the Muse

From the gleaming skin of life’s underbelly, 
sin unreconciled, formed from Nephilim seed,
fleet footed jokers mask pawns into flight;
To the epistle of the Most High.
For in the beginning, the true and only...

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The First Thanksgiving (Sept. 3, 1578)

The shortest distance to Cathay 1
(Land of riches: silks, teas and spices)
Lay to the north to the South Sea. 2
Didn’t Barlow tell the King, 3
Was reserved for England.

The routes ‘round...

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For my handler’s special agent Leroy Heimbach special agent Kevin Dreary special agent Paula Brand special agent Alan King how I became a causality of wearing wires pregnant buying weapons and drugs for the justice...

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Long in the tooth male doth recount, reflect, reimagine...
his woebegone damn dental daze today May 5th, 2021 

No particular rhyme nor reason
garden variety indentured flunky (me)
revisits his salmagundi salad days, 
when oral blight smote 
left...

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“Oh please don’t worry.
I haven’t a heightened sixth sense… about the mint infused lilt here.”
There must be a compass without a point surrounding me
“Looking for directions.
The town you’re seeking is a few winding roads and...

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Santa Claus, we’ve been out of touch 
and I don’t ask for very much 
but I have needs, and I’m in Dutch

I want to see the light of day
oh, and can you give me a...

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Swept up into piles; everywhere 
Abouts; in collected heaps all 
Around.               
It is almost as if the drab 
Streets were strewn...

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Each Zen ZeroSoul
invites a sacredly unique understoried purpose,
enthymematic matriotic meaning
through nurturing Health-Wealth Consciousness.

ZenSoul identity
heroic voice
shadow sacred
yin-suppressed
among LeftBrain Dominant
adolescent RedStates,
monocultural extraction planners.

Red or Blue
and Green 
between
depths of social Turquoise personality
for outdoor aquatic conversations,
ebbs and flows,
eggs and...

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Unafraid of talisa shaw 
fraud in Tampa 8 22 1972 
back off did you forget 
you cashed a check on 
my behalf for 49thousand 
dollars then withdrew the 
funds to deposit into a 
chase bank...

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Beware of pirates without a ship
like rebels without a transportive WinWin cooperative cause,
like ego-politicians without sacred ecological-economic portfolios.

One of the ways we communicate cooperative values
and choose not to communicate disvalues
is by how and where and...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private 7 with excerpts from “Notes on Poetics” by T. Wignesan

(Note: With this post, I bring to a close EM’s pamphlet collection: Faithful Private, GENERA editions by Colin Simms,...

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Nightmare 8. To Lose the Gift of Feeling Heard

Is each person not poet when he spills his heart?
Has your verse lost its edge if it’s true no one listens,
Or does God mean that no one...

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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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My terror began decades ago as I’d witnessed the plotting plans of taking a building down meetings conversations of how dynamite hand grenades including golf balls with draino finally dust pans to pour gasoline underneath...

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Lux Vitae Love Stories of The Fey:

“In the Clouds”



“What are you looking at Mum?”
“They come in the clouds you know”, she said to her daughter
“Every night, the same time, the numbers seem to grow,...

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He sat all alone, drinking jim beam and coke

Looking out as the waves crashed ashore

He kept to himself, drinking jim beam and coke

As the storm winds would batter the door

He'd only come in when the...

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I get up to the sound of drilling, banging and speeding cars with sleepy passengers shouting, “a who did a give the order,” and the fading response of another passenger “ a the woman with...

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Lisa and I finally tested covid-free! When we saw our results, we began an impromptu dance that felt like levitation.

Although my covid case seemed much milder, Lisa’s been nothing but supportive. Why just yesterday morning,...

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