Long Fretted Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems V

Poetry
by Michael R. Burch

Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.

They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both...

Read More

Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

Read More

The Dance of Salome
Herod bellowed out the night's festive orders..
"Bring the torches, bring the tables..
more wine, that we may rejoice,  
for tonight we revel in kindred friendship."
Herod strolled onto the terrace, nearly stumbled in...

Read More

It had come, at last, today was the day
you see, it was full moon and that meant
it was time for the initiation ceremony
over the next week Mambo would complete tasks

Then he would become a man...

Read More

Yamaha impressed me the first time I laid eyes on her glistening blond maple wood, her stylish body details, her long fretted mother-of-pearl inlay; lobed with golden keys. Her voice called to me the first...

Read More

Part 1

One summer in our youth group was a boy
I met.  How I would love to understand
if what he’d felt was equal to the joy
that bloomed in me when he caressed my hand.

His elfin...

Read More

These are lullabies I have written as poems. 

Midnight Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

I.
A measureless rhythm rules the night—
few have heard it,
but I have shared it,
and its secret is mine.

To put it into words
is as to...

Read More

Sappho's Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

Hushed yet melodic, the hills and the valleys
sleep unaware of the nightingale's call
while the dew-laden lilies lie
listening, 
glistening...
this is their night, the first night of fall.			

Son, tonight, a woman awaits...

Read More

Limericks VIII plus one Lead-In Poem



Updated Advice to Amorous Bachelors
by Michael R. Burch

At six-thirty,
feeling flirty,
I put on the hurdy-gurdy ...

But Ms. Purdy,
all alert-y,
kicked me where I’m sore and hurty.

The moral of my story?
To avoid a...

Read More

Daughters of Medusa


                   
Grey hair, ginger hair, dark hair......
All simmering in an inverted jar,
Cooked and fried
Headshrinkers doing...

Read More

I can understand Cowgirls
And some are real cows
But 'Cowboys'?
Shouldn't they be Bullboys?
Why did they call the chimp
On Tarzan 'Cheater'?
I wouldn't play cards
Did Williams Tell spill the beans?
If rabbits have holes? 
Can they be filled again?
So...

Read More

A couple of days ago, something of interest occurred to me. At this point, I think that I am musing and thinking out loud. So please pardon my side-venture, this detour into what's going on...

Read More

These Hallowed Halls
by Michael R. Burch

I

A final stereo fades into silence
and now there is seldom a murmur
to trouble the slumber
of these ancient halls.

I stand by a window where others have watched
the passage of time, alone,
not...

Read More

She didn't remember who I was
But it didn't really matter
Her eyes lit up like sunshine
Each time I entered the room
as if we were long lost friends

She'd say, "Oh! Please, sit a spell",... and I would...

Read More

                          A Story from My Heart



 
Kelly was a Red...

Read More

Now, the other day Dragon over heard it said that, eventually, we all must die.
Now remember he is only 2 years old, and suddenly he’s worried about me, sigh!
Yes, my hair is gray, and yes,...

Read More

Didactic old man
Fiddling with fright
As tears curled down 
From a bemoaned and fretted face
To his foaming lip
The tears thirst bitter taste
Spiced with desired regret
Of an action already finished
Crime begets an accidental skirmish
~
His hands
Those quivering hands
Protective...

Read More

The True Gothic Tale Unending of Manifold Monsters Doomed

"The biological rarity captivates each freak of nature."
-- the Coney Island Sideshow by the Seashore
 
*   *   *
 
The creeping creepy creep show's...

Read More

There once was a boy
The size of your toe.
He was nice as could be,
But he couldn’t grow.

The years just passed
And his friends all grew tall.
But the boy stayed the same;
He could not grow at all.

Wherever...

Read More

Overflowing like the sparkling spring from acerbity,
 The emerald stones on the relieve peak
 Causing welling up like stormy waves,
 And breath taking halt, grunting
 Roar as the thundering drums reverberating;
 The window pout unfold...

Read More

He was turbulent, fearful, and a dipsomaniac. He was dead to the target, undeniable emulation of his father. So I've been told.

Equated with many of his uneducated and socially stigmatized peers, starting at an early...

Read More

Pushed her womb from North to South
Born with a silver spoon in my mouth

I cried and cried and had swollen eyes
Surprised to see, my mother still smiled

Played a lot in her arms
Entered a life full...

Read More

“Glory! Great honour shall be mine!
Wenestl shall be last of his dastard line!
Sword unsheathed and bow taut-strung,
We rest not while a Norvajael stays unhung!”

Over glen and trail the quaver spread;
The Ilken sought sheaths of hapless...

Read More

When I first planted trees I thought it was for shelter 
From the ocean gales blast, and the wild rain lashing rain. 
I needed to help them, so I built up some fences.
I needed to...

Read More

I still remember that moment
It is so fresh and clear in my head
I remember how it soothed me
Calmed me and bid me to enjoy life's ride

Why, it was a moment of miracle
A moment lived not...

Read More