Long Furtive Poems

State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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Limericks III - Grab Bag

Being a peace activist, I once wrote a limerick in an attempt to stop needless wars:

Of Tetley’s and V-2's
(or "Why Not to Bomb the Brits")
by Michael R. Burch

The English are very...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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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...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

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LOVE POEMS V

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch, about life, the dream of love, virtue, a first kiss, a first crush, the birth of a first relationship, the joy of a first love...

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 A French ‘Indianist’ Doctor: A Tribute to a Die-hard Humanist
                         ...

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Sonnets XC-XCVII

Artificial Smile
by Michael R. Burch

I’m waiting for my artificial teeth
to stretch belief, to hollow out the cob
of zealous righteousness, to grasp life’s stub
between clenched molars, and yank out the grief.

Mine must be art-official?zenlike Art?
a...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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It was in the early days of our lives
We met
She was so beautiful 
My eyes could not stop admiring
My heart kept racing 
Every time it sensed
her good-looking approaching
But we were too young 
To give full...

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Half a dozen plus years ago the following became a near reality

Countdown to homelessness – 
mars this earthlinked sole Harris - son
panhandler would would register 
pyrrhic victory won.

10…9…8…3..2..1… 
Found me linkedin at the end of...

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In the morning, he was tetchy, but gentle,
Sitting beside me till my eyelids opened
I sat up, yawning, and rubbed my eyes
His hand brushed a dry tear off my face

“You are alive and well, I see,...

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As dawn unfolds today beyond my fractured windowpane,
a breeze beguiles the ashen drapes. Like snakes they slip aside,
revealing wanton worlds that race and run aground, insane,
immersed in scenes obscene that savants strive to mask and...

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My mind is burning, blazing, turning
With doubts and irrational drivels
My heart is livid and hardened
For it freezes in the potentials of disappointment
Of failure, downfall, and impending death
In ceasefires of never mind, and never more 

My...

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I crowned the write full missus "champ paean practical joker"

The following moniker “innocent prankster” 
awarded, hashtagged, and qualified wife
as trickster de jure appended 
to alluded spouse 
(then of twenty five plus years),
when she pulled a...

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One dark, dreary night while working on a poem of hellish, hideous and 
Horrible fright, I became at once quite so fatigued and could barely keep 
My eyelids open anymore, and then suddenly darkness came...

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With lone intent, all freedom it will wrest
if obstinance you let these wolves deny.
As tonnage sinks beneath the torrid crest
your struggles for survival magnify.
Each flailing ship that ferries surety
is fodder for the fathoms of abyss.
Their...

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(So many were protesting about America's secret involvement with ISIS but I didn't believe it until I read this latest news, shocking and disgusting. Poor innocent Muslims are being blamed for Americas furtive atrocities) 

Wolf...

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Happy 68th birthday MaryAnn Sage - revisited January 12th, 2021

Wherever you might be holed up
within this whirled wide web wassup?

Mein kampf still equals board
hardscrabble existence deplored
analogous to Norwegian bachelor,
whose Lake Wobegon nestled within fjord
forcing me...

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Written 20 December 2023
No. 1263 Unplaced Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand

                        ...

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Rumi Verse: The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself, everything that you want you already are.
             ______________________________________

Phenotype-inherited flaw chimera
fantasy flurry...

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LUKE
                                  ...

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Mystic sounds move slowly against  the face of the cragged purple mountains.  Towers of lost forgotten cities peek seductively through canopies of age old trees.  Grey mists hide millennia of secrets behind...

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I was your treasured secret 
and as you wished, I never said a word.
Just listened faintly for the next echo 
asking me again to dreaded dark,
where you yourself spoke often and I listened, 
knowing soon...

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