Long Flocked Poems

“Son”...”say goodnight to grandpa”

Spurred by mother dearest 
as well as other politesse
drummed into her second born
fobbing blandishments as incentive
tumbled off fingers of prodigal son
tripped wordsmith to splutter forth
forthwith the following lines.

Back in the day 
quaint...

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I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
    ...

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 TUAN TATA : Song of Uda - I
by T. Wignesan

(Patrick Noone, a British anthropologist, discovered the Ple-Temiar tribe living isolated in the jungle highlands in the State of Perak on the west coast of...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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I live in America, as in the United States of America, and that used to mean something. At least to me it did. And it’s not so much in how I was raised but in...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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PART 1:          THE MEETING

Alone one night neath lantern light, I trudged a weary mile.
Forlorn, I went with shoulders bent (the storms around me howled)
until I met...

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Sipping cherry limeade, driving in the car parade, 
we're cruising in the Lone Star state.
Didn't want a bucket seat; the thing it couldn't beat, 
was sitting up close to your date.
One hand on the wheel...

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In the May-time of my life
time bloomed each day a prickly boll –
but I, like the softest cotton within such a sharp seed  
swaddled in the purity of security 
for what seemed like eternity...

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"I will continue to broadcast, as time and circumstance permit,
To whomever is receiving on the aforementioned frequency.
My name is Cor Nosduh. I am not infected. Over."
Yea, I thought, continue to broadcast until this massive, power-sucking,
5.1...

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’Twas early on the first day of the week
that Mary Magdalene set out in gloom;
The prospects for the morn were rather bleak,
anoint her master's body in the tomb.

While she was yet far off, she saw...

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Asifa's Blood Pens 
(The Courageous Princess)

No! No! Wipe out the name of Asifa! 
No more Asifa's on this earth to be born!
O Lord, my creator, my benefactor, my protector!
My parents chose my name in your...

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On reflection, I find myself within these walls for having played the game of mans false testimony, I chose to take the blame. I asked a great teacher, one of so many, to share with...

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I was a prominent theoretical physicist, relying upon beautiful mathematics,
Like devout gardeners everywhere, rely on butterscotch sunshine dramatics.

Rose days were spent inventing theories, to address pure astral phenomena,
And testing the raw theories, such as what...

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Past the grain fields clanks the old train,
and it goes beyond the fertile valley;
then it vanishes amid the swaying hills,
not too far from the massive castle
built by the Normans, and it's pelted by rain,
washing the...

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Tonight as candles flicker, she is sitting at the table
where her husband sat (before he passed away),
working on his daily crossword puzzles, 
seeming most content although
the nest they’d pieced together gradually had emptied 
and grown...

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The bay and titian milestone 
calls the universe 
On everything we have to remember 
2019 we met in joy
Raw in our hearts 
We gathered in love
Humble without pride 
We spoke in a voice 
They called...

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“Phoenix Dreams in the Realm of Crows” 

wake up 
shake up 
kaleidoscope girl

jigsaw
see saw 
fit the pieces

she 
another world
away 

the in-betweeen
flows easily
through the veil

safe harbour 
opening 
portals 

for ocean steering 
curious kaleidoscope
stories to sew

the slip...

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It was on a cold night in Bethlehem that hope was born
A babe lay in a manger as angels sang joyfully
Above the nativity a star shone casting bright light
Guiding the paths of three wise men...

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He sat himself down on the edge that evening with the gravest of sadness trickling with his tears and a whimper that shook his body. As he fixed his position to one more suitably comfortable,...

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Rewrote our History books for the world to see
A worthier Icon there could never be,
Born and died over the span short of a century,
Baba Madiba became South Africa’s first Black 
President in April 1994, finally,...

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I KNOW YOU, you're me because I am you

I know in the dark when you think No one is watching, in your head you question  !! 
In feeble struggles your weak mind tries to...

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"Come closer, you kids, let me tell you a story:
now you all see that there morning glory? Well
that was the blue of this little boy's eyes, born
right in this village; they named him Eli."

"Those eyes...

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