Long Gapes Poems

"The Payload" 

The payload 
came crashing down
like rain expelled
from the fat belly 
of a ruinous pregnant cloud 
bilious with buxom promise

it came crashing down 
like school fish released 
from the tight confines
of a course rope...

Read More

This morning, my yard was hopping
with squirrels and rabbits busily shopping
for pine needles, berries, and cones,
perfumes, oils, and sweet colognes,
to entice partners for this evening's bebopping.
The fox said to the wolf in a huff.
"We're making...

Read More

{Three o'clock on a December afternoon,
the sky is opaque as my nature has stood out, the rain drizzles down my windows and I am distinctly reminded how it once drizzled down my back; the lacquers...

Read More

When at five-thirty
In the rubbed-eye haziness
Of ferreting lonesome night walks
The camera-eye refugee
Asleep in the half wakefulness
Of the hour
Peers out of his high turbanned sockets:
Hyde Park's through road links
London's diurnally estranged couple -
The Arch and Gate.

...

Read More

French poems by Charles d’Orleans in modern English translations by Michael R. Burch



Traitorous Eye
by Charles d’Orleans
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Traitorous eye, what’s new?
What lewd pranks do you have in view?
Without civil warning, you spy,
And...

Read More

I
went
about
to pray
one day
to Jesus,
and as I
looked around
I gazed in my way
upon a place a ways,
afar, and so I could see
the generous gapes of
the giving trees, as so they 
are. Nestled down between the
broken valley (of...

Read More

Exciting walk; barefoot on warm rock while cold spring water
burbles past me. “Hey! over here.” she calls. 
A puppet, my instinct guides me there again;
Creek ends in dark green pond. “Hi” I answer.

My body tingles...

Read More

 Part 2
4th Delirium: Lost Souls
Sunken cities , pilgrims peering.. gawking,
squinting eyeballs, blazing sun
Janus facing, shepherds chasing.. stalking,
friends embrace before they shun
Tearooms steaming, tumult teeming.. talking,
lovers listen, poets pun
Broken stones unanchored, quaking.. rocking,
slipping, falling, one...

Read More

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk. George MacDonald
 
_____________________________________________________________

In a world where decay is dominant,
Arctic tundra is melting, and...

Read More

Open like a door before me
Be it sun or rain or stormy
          Each new year gapes like yawning chasms, dark
     And for...

Read More

The world flaunts her stunning self,
gorgeous curves and all,
and the wide-eyed onlooker gapes at her,
drooling, intoxicated with love,
nose upturned slightly, drinking in
the fragrant smells emanating from 
her direction,
roses and flowers, a blend,
sweet, with a slight...

Read More

She’s crying
With indignant eyes 
And a tumultuous heart
He’s sighing
With restrained thighs
And a perplexed start
It slams
With a thunderous noise
And a conspiring choice
Do I end this mess? – 
Or give it a Holy redress?

She seems not to...

Read More

~ 
Went-about to-
pray-one-Christmas-morning-
to-Jesus, and-as I looked around 
and gazed in my way upon-a place a 
ways, afar. I could-see-the generous gapes-
of the giving-trees, as-so-they are. Nestled 
down between the broken valley-of Gods-open-will. 
As they were-that...

Read More

The warden’s bewildered, the keeper’s amazed
as the gate gapes behind us, a hole in the haze.
Our steps seem uncertain, the cobblestones crazed,
pearly stars burn above us like pinwheels ablaze.
Though lanterns hang vacant in streets staring...

Read More

This night, I am trapped behind a face. 
My eyes are barred with tears that blur 
the look in them I would like so much for you to see.
I try a different face, one that...

Read More

The cracker crisp Maine air 
rang with the rooster’s revel.
Moving day, time to clean the hens shed.
Monstrous three story hatchery,
thousands of burnt umber; beauties a laying.

Lace edged bobby socks, red Keds, barrettes, T-shirt and short;
and...

Read More

Catcalls and rapes
Molesting all sizes and shapes
Broadcasted on TV, the recorded tapes
But blame is on the victim howsoever she drapes
Cause that’s how this society gapes
 
A man lies on the street, blood spilled all over
They...

Read More

My mother made a dress for me it was beautiful and bright.
 She told me to wear it well and rather ladylike. 
 Little did mamma know the weak seam could pull though, 
sometimes threadbare...

Read More

As 
when to 
pray I looked 
one day and gazed in 
way, upon a place a ways, afar, and 
so I could see the generous gapes 
of the giving trees, as so they are, so...

Read More

The “Bench” sits proudly among the trees,
perched high and overlooking the beauty of the water down below.
Exquisitely black, it seems to hypnotize,
beckoning you to stop for a spell.
Once captured, an involuntary trance arises;
you’re transposed to...

Read More

The shaggy prophet scrambles up his pine soapbox
with purpose of penitence direct in words, begging
the Christmas crowd to open their glassy eyeballs
     away from the dance and clamor of control
sweeping the light away from every human...

Read More

Ghazal : Now she’s left and gone to be herself again

Now she’s left and gone away, my clothes hang dry
On the line for all to see – what a crying shame !

The lone cuckoo calls...

Read More

Come, raging fire, and cleanse from my soul that
 “Greatest” of all words … HOPE.
 I have seen the detritus of this life and have known
 The grandest of songs and still  
I am...

Read More

Behold, how horribly the hungry Fire gapes at us
like a python, like a ravenous whale
and like the Bermuda Triangle.
How terribly the maddened Fire devours bricks and stones,
and drinks all the snow-hills like a tasty wine!
Like...

Read More

and for our fifth anniversary, wood;
at that age love’s roots are hopeful, flexible,
damp: feeling fresh earth with fingers 
stretching and toes padding. A landscape found.

My memories are rings of bark in rotation,
aging and looping nostalgic...

Read More