Long Flutters Poems

The Original Sin: Rhyming Haiku!
 
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
-Michael R. Burch
 
The herons stand,
sentry-like, at attention ...
rigid observers of some unknown command.
-Michael R. Burch
 
Late
fall;
all
the golden leaves turn black underfoot:
soot
-Michael R. Burch
 
Dry leaf...

Read More

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

Read More

SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

Read More

Poems about Poems VI

The Board
by Michael R. Burch

Accessible rhyme is never good.
The penalty is understood?
soft titters from dark board rooms where
the businessmen paste on their hair
and, Walter Mitties, woo the Muse
with reprimands of Dr. Seuss.

The...

Read More

Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There...

Read More

Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

Read More

To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen—
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me...

Read More

Enough!
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that I don’t want to die;
I shall be glad to go.
Enough of diabetes pie,
and eating sickly crow!
Enough of win and place and show.
Enough of endless woe!

Enough of suffering and vice!
I’ve...

Read More

The Whiskey Bottle Wish

 	One late summer night outside a saloon in the mid-west, an intoxicated Dusty Rogers, stumbles out of the Bar nearly taking one of the revolving doors with him. As he flutters...

Read More

when I met you, I was dying. for the very first time in my life, but certainly not the last- you made sure of that
when I met you I was dying. I hadn’t eaten in...

Read More

I'm such a drama king
What kind of happiness can I bring
At the dinner table? Would they place a label on me?
I'm like a dysfunctional cable box...a beat-up TV 

Pre-chorus: I promise I'll be okay
I just...

Read More

The pale apparition swirls in on night mist.
It envelopes her body, then breathes out its kiss.
Cold to her cheek as the fog to the shore;
She utters a sigh then sleeps deeply once more.
 
She’s new...

Read More

with a cat lying on my lap
a sough whispers in the trees 
as a summer day begins fading
the tiger lilies below bend as if trumpeting
a musical for ears yet to come into existence
evaporating the din...

Read More

Here I lie in this cooler, this fridge where I would rather not be, but the truth of the matter is you’ve done it, you got the best of me
I lasted as long as I...

Read More

“Look up at the stars,” you say
Its just another night up on the old water tank
Our blanket is spread and here we sit with the universe our theater
Another night of showing me the constellations 
Astronomy…your...

Read More

Spring — a life anew

Prodding rays of warming glow,
sunshine.
Crusted ice and snow
slowly melting into trickling drops. 
First to bloom
a crocus blue, a tulip tries to rise.

How long the wait
and freezing rain
chilled the weary bones.
Heat up...

Read More

Dear Victor

The day you walked in I was just ten years old and for the first time I felt the gentle butterfly flutters of a young hearts innocent attraction. 
I wasn't the only one. With...

Read More

It’s unfortunate that I fall for your type
 Because it always means there’s more than one
 A decision to make, moments of weakness
 Where my mind flutters like a butterfly in the sun.
 I try...

Read More

Private Residence

Sign at the gate – no solicitors –
Beyond the rosewood door sanctuary in seclusion
Untouched by hands racing round
A face framed by chimes and alarms –
Measures of mincing minutes
Exiled with suitcases packed
To astral planes of...

Read More

Continued from Part 1
Ah Consuela! I’m watching the vertigo veiling her green Spanish eyes,
while the drumbeat pounds, droning, the rhythm sounds, moaning,
                 of jungles Jamaican entwined
in the valleys concealing the vineyards revealing
                 the vaults in...

Read More

Animal Poems II

These are poems about animals, limericks and other forms of doggerel.



Ballade of the Bicameral Camel
by Michael R. Burch

There once was a camel who loved to hump.
Please get your lewd minds out of their...

Read More

Pity Clarity
by Michael R. Burch

Pity Clarity,
and, if you should find her,
release her from the tangled webs
of dusty verse that bind her.

And as for Brevity,
once the soul of wit—
she feels the gravity
of ironic chains and massive...

Read More

Under the colorful leaves 
Of my Poet-tree
The Autumn breeze
Blows one off and it spirals slowly
Down for me To read

I pick it up off the ground
And looking around
I hear no sound
On a big mushroom I sit...

Read More

FLY FREE AND HIGH: BUTTERFLY


The 
  BUTTERFLY 
    Flutters
       By

       A flying      rainbow ...

Read More

And as I stood upon the shore in Pacifica
Gazing over the soothing Pacific Oceans Archean waters
With its cooling yet cleansing rhythems, washing over my baring feet
Feeling the suns warmth softly caressing my now bronzed flesh
Traveling...

Read More