Long Glimmer Poems

Let me take a little sip
Of your blessed, breathtaking brilliance that will numb...
This pain I have in this heart of stone
The voices in my head won't leave me alone
I thought I was on my own,...

Read More

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.

This poem has also been titled "Epitaph for a Child of...

Read More

Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

Read More

R.I.P.
by Michael R. Burch

When I am lain to rest
and my soul is no longer intact, 
but dissolving, like a sunset
diminishing to the west...

and when at last
before His throne my past
is put to test
and the demons...

Read More

Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

Read More

Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good, and never mind the Urn.

A lentil and a bean might...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems IV
I wrote this around age 17.



Bible Libel
by Michael R. Burch

If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.

I read the Bible from cover to cover at age eleven, ten chapters per day, at the suggestion...

Read More

My most popular poems on the Internet (I)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch



Smoke
by Michael R. Burch

The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in)...

Read More

Hark and listen well, if those foretoken in the eyes of hungers lust
Trapped in their illusion, trampling the Stars into dust
Forced with the detestation stench by the swamp of absolute disgust
Thou blackest scorpion be accursed,...

Read More

Prose Poems

Something
by Michael R. Burch

Something inescapable is lost?lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void. Something uncapturable is...

Read More

The excitement mounted as we rummaged around in the attic looking through old steamer trunks for discarded clothes and props to make Halloween costumes. With an old suit and hat of Granddads, I became a...

Read More

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems (I)

These are poems about World War II and the Holocaust, which is also called the Shoah in Hebrew. 



Epitaph for a Child of the Holocaust
by Michael R. Burch

I...

Read More

Sandy Hook Call to Love
by Michael R. Burch
 
Our hearts are broken today
for our children's small bodies lie broken;
let us gather them up, as we may,
that the truth of our Love may be spoken;
then, when...

Read More

you were an infant
i would sing a song i created for you

'there's a baby in my arms
there's a baby in the mirror
but honey 
there's not really two
the child in the mirror
is only 
an image 
of...

Read More

...cont

Always wanting to get the most from life,
one morning after a terrible snow storm
she rose from bed stretching 
the most radiant, playful grin spread across her face,
"I feel incredible," she screamed,
"Let's have a picnic!"
"In this?"...

Read More

I have been scared of the darkness below
The sun glows bright and the wind will blow
I have been unprepared for the worst again
The moonbeams glimmer above like my pen

Was in solitude for hours
Ideas sprouting like...

Read More

Do you recognize me anymore?
Do you realize that my heart is sore?
Let me memorize your heart’s melody
Let me see right through your…melancholy…

Do you ever wave goodbye to yesterday?
Can’t bear the thought of you leaving me...

Read More

THE DESERT THE WILDERNESS THE STORM

I am parched, my back is arched, 
my body racked with pain,
Nothing green in sight, 
my thirst, my plight, 
eyes playing tricks on me again. 

An illusion of rest beside...

Read More

Crumbled like dust and I began to stumble like ashes with a gust of wind – that’s what I felt before exchanging smiles and goodbyes…
Oblivious obviously…removing the plank from my own eyes of deep-inside-prideful lies
Memorably,...

Read More

Centuries ago

In ancient Hermopolis

A debate roared loud

Between a proud Christian priest

And a strange shepherd

Who was a Manichaean

Wearing ragged clothes

And who was looking for sheep

“Flames will consume you”

The priest roared at the shepherd

Because their debate

Was going...

Read More

Condensed Spoken Word Piece:

Here's a condensed version of the script, focusing on the key themes and emotions:

"(Sighs) I walked out of that interview, feeling like I'd wasted my time.

They didn't care, they weren't listening, they...

Read More

There Is This Dark Place Where I Go

There is this dark place where I go 
when feeling overwhelmed
When life is too much to go on
My light all but dispelled

I take myself up to my room
And...

Read More

Suddenly, two Indian boys throw themselves into the water like meteors
swiming towards camp chatty as prarie dogs,
they hail from a Teton encampment of 74 lodges a few miles up river
most of the men are feeling...

Read More

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...

Read More