Long Grinds Poems

Poems about the Coronavirus I


yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote...

Read More

Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here...

2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves...

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

These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

Read More

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, translation by Michael R. Burch

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow...

Read More

State of the Art (II)

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



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer 
~~~~underwater~~~~
watching the shoreline...

Read More

Dream of Infinity
by Michael R. Burch

Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your soul sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then...

Read More

These are early poems of mine, written as a high school student in the 10th grade. 

as Time walked by
by Michael R. Burch

yesterday i dreamed of us again,
when
the air, like honey,
trickled through cushioning grasses,
softly flowing,...

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

yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote this poem after having...

Read More

Most mind boggling mysterious mortal

Mystification prevails stupefying yours truly
befuddled, he blindly stumbles along rocky
pathway illusory impediments strewn helter
skelter intangible obstructions hinder access
psychological barricades effective impasse

detains, deters, detours manhood maturation
manumission manifestation materialization
linkedin, when permanent submission arises
beckoning...

Read More

I
The beggar outside the supermarket
You swore was picked up later
In a flashy car
Sat there in the sun for 8 hours
While you pissed & moaned
All the way home
To your bookless
Mausoleum 
With a chlorinated pool
Where one day...

Read More

A slice of life / a day in the life

Out in the elements – almost every day, training,
weather, sunshine, cloudy – B. C. fate – raining.
Seventy five reps, twenty times over my head,
on my back,...

Read More

We pursue endless climate sabbaths,
I perhaps best and worst of all,
holidays of verdant forests floating within
oceans of atmospheric tides sucking and spewing nutrient flowing matters,
slow-dancing ecopolitical issues reincarnating history
of Earth's love of Time Herself,
rich bubbling...

Read More

Darkness swells from the depth of the sea,
waves crashes against waves,
the mad sea roars and vomits vengeance, 
it belches and yawns at the sound of her name.

They have been drifting for many days,
entranced with panic,...

Read More

As Barbarossa roars into the East.
its southern barb cut swiftly to the core.
And as it raged the slaughtering increased,
consuming any force that stood before.
His swift barrage devoured the ranks of Red
as iron divisions consummated death.
These...

Read More

It falls softly as it tumbles...
Down from the sky darkly...
Deep in the heart of midnight.

Not a deity stirs at this moment out of time.
As young eyes stare into the void of an empty room. 
Something...

Read More

How many people with foreboding palpitations
have I seen slip from middle age and slide into old age?
They slither into their last refuge, the dirt hole,
and ignorantly nestle into the forever unknown life stream

The ones who...

Read More

Angel of mercy please intercede

Weakest most lame specimen
among human breed
control of my life I willingly concede
wordless son of a gun fires off 
following capricious poetic deed 
done dirt cheap while 
traveling highway to hell
the speed...

Read More

“50 Words for Poe: Automata”





Haunted eyes of an automaton
the monkey grinds his music
outside the Magic Theatre
Harry looks on

"For Madmen Only"

He enters of his own volition.

Boxcars he rolls
Double Sixes! the Macabre Maestro
conducts his orchestra
Hermine still sings

A...

Read More

strife riven island corner, rough hewn by rival visitation
  vexed, looking in, looking out, on the edge of places to go
  thrang in thrall of other realms, banners furling, batons flung
  across...

Read More

When one makes viable peace 
Between erstwhile colonial whites 
And erstwhile colonized blacks 
To the advantage of the whites
We urge for a Nobel Peace Prize
Such was the case in South Africa. 

‘It is all for...

Read More

I run from memories, stained in enough felony
After a failed choreography to budge up new colony
To annul life, yet live the same life pieces harmony
Quick succession of bolding and evanesce jeopardy 
In confusion.

Constantly nudged, freely...

Read More

Contact 

Standing in a field, camera in my hand,
Scanning misty pines, haloed hill so grand.
Many miles I've traversed, now lost all sense of time,
Morning dew underfoot, dappled light is sublime.
The green plants of this earth,...

Read More

Legend Of The Black Dove
                          (Part 12)   "Terminal...

Read More