Long Flourishes Poems

Dandelions…
They flutter, now I see
Fiery lions…
They're dancing with me
Sunlight…
Come out and shine down 
Moonlight…
Shun out my darkened frown

I am the infinitesimal stars in the tranquil, terrestrial night
I am the scars minutes before the sunlit dawn...

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Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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When passion plants a multicultural seed,
then justice flourishes a polypathic trusting flower.

Permaculture and polyculture, 
grow holistic cause-effect karmic significance 
for our physical, and mental, political and spiritual health.

Permacultural, as I intend it this morning,
refers to...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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O’ my dearest love,  
I gather the world’s rarest petals for you—  
Ghost Orchid fragrance lingers  
in the marsh’s quiet air  

look, love, it fades  
then rises in  
the...

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The Enchanted City of Dual Realms
In the sprawling labyrinth of concrete towers and spectral glass,
where skyscrapers, like ancient obelisks, pierce the celestial veil with unyielding ambition,
serpentine rivers of fortune murmur in arcane tongues, their secrets...

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Poet's Pre-Notes: A poem from my 8th week in a Stanford continuing education class offered on the internet, a study of free verse and structure. The poem writing technique is to write as unconsciously as...

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POTD 30th August 2018 

The gently swaying branches of the old oak should elicit calmness
And yet a sense of foreboding permeates the midnight air
Wild imaginings?  Or did shadows flit across the leaf strewn path?
No...

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Existentialism emancipation proclamation manumission...

Flourishes amidst freedom 
once invisible (alice in) chains shucked
when soul no longer kept linkedin 
to jane's addiction 
with corporeal duty, entity, fealty... 
while formerly shed body electric 
gendered as former googly eyed...

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A healthy dose of invective flourishes at Highland Manor asylum

I hate to be curt,
but welcome to the monkey house
at 2 highland manor drive,
where all manner of imbeciles go berserk.

I and the missus
(thee unfortunate recipient
of poisonous...

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Sitting atop a large flat stone in an open field
Brushing aside his long silver locks
Bringing to his lips a long clay pipe
Steadying for a light, his gnarled knuckles make this a fight
His sandals dusty, brow...

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Rampant and endemic police brutality... 
flourishes against United States citizens of color 
going on three years 
post George Floyd 
short lived heightened awareness
when #blacklivesmatter 
in conjunction with 1619 project
wrought upwelling of progressive surge
hinting at positive...

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Oh that Lily, she the epitome of a  
Golden Child as I watched her
Exuding effortless grace, a liquid-silver baton—  
a Haddon Heights Garnett.  
a Blazing Comet /  
enchanting /  
popular...

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Written: December 04, 2024, For Contest, Sponsored by: Ink Empress
                   ________________________________

A grimacing goon
in a destructive drug-driven delirium 
faces...

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*** Lunacy Loo Flies ***


Beauuty, in a creature from
Among the most high;
In rythmic song while in her flight 
Witnessng the realities and fancies
Circling the clouds — 
Proud of her ancient, legendary form, gone

lost into that...

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conspiracy theories usually hide ...
       in the shadows .. but as Covid spreads
         across the globe baseless opinions and 
 ...

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Life is precious , therefore he cultivates it
     it's vastness among all his compositions
   they flow like an aria from many instruments
       ...

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A Harlem hoodlum, (albeit respectable)...

ready for night time in bedlam
after swallowing me favorite dram,
cuz reasonable rhyme resembles flimflam.

Whiling away his time playing solitaire...
initially prepped, honed, and crafted
November second two thousand and twenty
slightly tweaked February nineteenth
two...

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His soul portrays the eyes of a wolf,
lost without his pack - banished from his territory. 

In his deceptive demeanour,
hiding his depressive state - he howls at the moon.

An outcast unable to dream,
he adorns a...

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In A Suburban Paradise

I was to spend hours on my bed 
writing short stories in 1967;
with my left leg dangling over the left side, 
I sat on the right leg,
like I was some nosy bird...

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A hoodlum, (albeit respectable) in bedlam

whiling away his time playing solitaire...
November second two thousand and twenty
fast approaching the final countdown

With less than twenty four, twenty three, 
twenty two...  hours
harkening, heralding or (worse case scenario)
hindering...

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"1331 is already done
1111 is even more fun
With these number and with these words
We prove to each other that we are nerds.
Tell me a story whilst I dream
Tell it with flourishes, candy and cream
And get...

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OH! Those dangerous days are back again!
When Roman citizens had to choose
Caesar is lord instead of Jesus Christ
As the one true Lord God Almighty!
Even when they knew it was not true!
Some of those believers did...

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Sappho Translations by VI Michael R. Burch

Sappho, fragment 121
translation by Michael R. Burch

1.
As a friend you're great,
but you need a much younger bedmate.

2.
Although you're very dear to me,
please don't be silly!
You need a much younger...

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