Long Floes Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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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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yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote this poem after having...

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* My take on the theme of my contest. Just for fun. 

A canopy of silvery stars speckle the ebon expanse above me, at once beautiful but at the same time, taunting. For if these...

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Sinister glacial dissolution 
verging on huge jagged icebergs reverberate
nature mocking bird song sans bot mot, 
braggadocio, rodomontade, et cetera
distinct, ear splitting, 
and fractal heaving snap, crackle and pop, 
cacophonously fabulous, incredulously humongous, 
and thunderously voluminous...

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A former slender man (lapsed Unitarian anorexic)...
deplores adipose tissue gain

No Holiday music can soothe savage beast
washboard abdomen weight watcher's dream fleeced
skinny bag of lovely bones permanently leased
body snatcher somewhere amidst policed

madding crowd of carolers singing,
where...

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Women look at us with haunting eyes,
Quiet depths where dreams swing, scattered gems,
What do we seek, perhaps, among rays and shadows, to embrace the dawn?
On pathways hidden beneath leaves, where love is whispered in the...

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I stare at birds flitting branch to branch chirping happily
but birds flitting branch to branch don’t touch me anymore
my calloused senior feelings come more frequently now
just like my urge to pee

Sad, pitiful, stupid stuff enters...

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Aye haint gonna mention anyone by name,
     and git myself poisoned
     with deadly tocsin, a most wick
kid demise act of vengeance cheap trick

boot Mayan tent to write...

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Yamaguchi Seishi haiku modern English translations

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Ceaseless chaos—
ice floes clash
in the Soya straits.
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Having crossed the sea,
winter...

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I loathe shucking clothes,
(no matter eyes severely myopic)
in preparation for here goes
another warm shower quickly
relaxing this senescent
body ready to doze

soon after lathering
this blubbery body
most unwanted fat grows
on me, no matter healthy diet
of worms, or how...

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When the bronze-skinned, 
silver tongue surfer
came smoothly yacht cruising
at year’s end
All the island ladies,
at the cabana house welcoming party,
mosh pit fell in ... 
Fell in love 
with the cosmopolitan thought
of permanently leaving
Loose their dinghy life...

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a limning rush of sinister 
     fiery angry flames bent avast
analogous copse, 
     where every limb bough, bore full 

     roaring furnace hot...

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Ah, drifting leisurely inside the cloud, 
Watching hot sun’s rays glance across the nose 
of the winged drone, stealthily slipping proud, 
I drifted so peacefully through the floes. 

Updrafts from silent streams beneath arose 
lifting...

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First draft/ Epilogue to “All the secrets of a wudby poet”

Take the time to see
How a poet creates and plays
Tiz a little different from other books you may have read
Okay a lot different
I mean whoever...

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‘ Volcano’ ( or The Perils of  Passion )

Volcano … You Inferno ! … You, Latent Threat
… I am not Ready, for Your Rise … just Yet …
So Stay Low and Do Not Throw...

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Ah, drifting leisurely inside the cloud, 
Watching hot sun’s rays glance across the nose 
of the winged drone, stealthily slipping proud, 
I drifted so peacefully through the floes. 

Updrafts from silent streams beneath arose 
lifting...

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'Twas the night before Christmas at the North Pole.
Santa paced to and fro contemplating his role.
Things were in disarray and Mz Claus was on his case,
Chiding him about working just one day a year was...

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Mirror Smoke

This is one of those miserably sodden days of sinus congestion
Forcing my writing soul back against the wall to unleash itself
to speak out against senseless multiplication
In that timeless frustration of controlled freedom
We of the...

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Tromsø

Your shiny streets, subdued footsteps, silent, snow -softened cars.
Plumply-padded pavements. Shuddering snow slips from the roof slopes above. 
Words softly spoken – hushed - heated words make slush. 
People stay indoors, behind the swish of...

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Let's melt down all the plastics that will not biodegrade
and form some giant ice floes to replace the ones God made
so Polar bears will have somewhere to sit and sleep and stand
instead of getting persecuted...

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S Silent One suggests poetry as therapeutic endeavour

I ‘Is there a special place where the ink flows forever …’

L ‘Like pain placed in a paper bag scattered like a dead man’s ashes’

E Engraved on the...

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