Long Gaudy Poems

Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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New Year Poetry

Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
translation by Michael R. Burch 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed,...

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act i:
walk down the strip, the neon lights casting a gaudy glow on the fray. i meet my dealer, a facilitator of welcome distraction, and we exchange nods. i take a bump, and the rush...

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“Irish I am,” my mam speaks in hushed tones to the air
She questions still, seeming to her alone
Intones, “Ireland, O Ireland, what are you?
Where do you keep yourself, so I may rediscover you?”
Her speech unknown...

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Elvis Aaron Presley, Elvis, came from poor beginnings
born in Tupelo, Mississippi to Vernon and Gladys
this boy loved the gospel music in church . . . . 
at thirteen his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee 
when...

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Do not vainly look in those remote
Places,
That, once, were acquainted with a 
Small part of me;                   ...

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Sun setting over the dark green fringe of a shivering lake on the last day of winter
An old man still unbent sits on a deserted wooden bench
   with the load of his cares...

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For a Friend

Deep in the forest of your dark Spanish eyes
Past the gaudy shops and glaring street signs,
There is a dim distant glow,
You think it is far, but look: how steady it shines
And though small,...

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Alfredo always abhorred angry approaches
After an amigo accosted after an argument
And, afterward, Alfredo abstained arguing,

Because blackening bruises betrayed blather
Berniccio blindly behaved better, bravely
Becoming brotherly before blasting bullies!

Carefully commandeering calmer Carlos,
Claiming cool comradeship courageously
Communicated clever candid...

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5/5/21

Woke up groggy
The waters were often choppy
From Del Monte 
Toward Milwaukee
To way beyond Nagasaki
And all across the Mojave
See me in person or hit me up on the Walkie-Talkie
Always been a real one, not no carbon...

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She smiled at him, from a distance.
Imagination, betraying trust.
Mesmerized; he moved towards her.
His heart was racing, his mind.

Looked liked she landed from heaven.
Wearing a yellow skirt, red tops.
And a laced white jacket over her,
Perfect bosom
Her...

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Mayan Poetry Translations

The Receiving of the Flower
excerpt from an ancient Mayan love poem
translation by Michael R. Burch

Let us sing overflowing with joy
as we observe the Receiving of the Flower.
The lovely maidens beam;
their hearts leap in...

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There is a picture of you on my bedroom wall
Drawn by my own simpering hand
Of your divine features and veiled Oriental eyes
Scratched out by the crude tool of a 2B pencil
Alas I had no mosaic...

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She bustles
her boys out of bed
grouse, groan, growl
groggy gripes
snarky snipes, as they squabble
their way to breakfast

Packs their lunch
crunch, smack, munch, they eat
hurry boys-
catch the bus
flurry and fuss all the way
outdoors, scuffing floors

She sighs, so
relieved, can't...

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Lion Dancing To A New Year

It is that time of the year, you'll know it by the din reaching your ears...
Thunderous gong beats, clashing cymbals that's all you can hear...

It is a most riotous time...

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The little pygmy named Pixie Poggly was quirky queenly quaintly and quickly, but rarely ever really did much can't you see.

Until one day, a raunchy rascal quaintly and shrewdly, Skinny and slippery that he was,...

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You’ve reached a certain age when life has set you free
You can cock a hoop at protocol; do things that aren't PC
You can swim in just your underpants; be a gentleman or lout
Speak your mind...

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Eat drink and be merry, a voice resonates from the balcony,
Eat drink and be merry the time has come for you to be happy
You have burn the energy out of the sun and you have...

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I was a celebrated, dramatic mime artist, an art developed in ancient Greece;
I took folks on flights of imagination, like cushy, butterscotch clouds of fleece.

So beloved was this art called re-creation, that it had for...

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I was less than the spark at the start of the flame,
When You fashioned my cage out of Truth's rules and morals.

I was fresh from the morning and sparkling with dew,
When the breath of Your...

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(not that ye wondered, 
but simply tubby like totally tubularly clear
The Epic of Gilgamesh will not be extolled here).

Though thoroughly well mapped, parsed,
     scrutinized vibrant wonders zoom
plethora, sans newly discovered life...

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Again I wake in this wretched place
Where the devil glares with grimaced face
Reading my heart, stripping it bare
Savoring the scent of the secrets there
I'm slipping and sliding, the ice too thin
Carefully creeping, lest I fall...

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Gods of glowing neon and gaudy screens
smile upon charming, charming patterns of heads.
All colors of hair, lit red, then green, then blue,
guided along invisible paths, crown heads
perspiring, chanting and glancing down
on marching, mechanical arms, then...

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Over two hundred million people sleeps and wake without a leader,

A cloned effigy in a rock called "Aso"

too old to lead or long dead to be,

demented or dead, they cannot tell,

old age has come but...

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