Long Groves Poems

Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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Pain settles in quite instantly your senses 
are totally unprepared for this graveness
the notion to sleep sets in like an energetic 
twilight phase the injury abruptly strangles 
thought my ears are always ringing with this...

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FIRE! UPDATED 1998 IN 2021 BY COVERUPS PAYOFFS
GARGANO FAKED HIS OWN DEATH MEMORIAL DAY 1999
THE CAR BOMB THAT ENDED MY LIFE AT LEAST AS I'VE KNOWN IT ON THIS DAY THE SKY WAS SO BLUE...

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Patience
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

If you refuse to speak, I will fill my heart with your silence and endure it.
I will remain still and wait like the night through its starry vigil
with...

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The Bedouins, bequeathed with the sacred beauty of paradise harsh,
trusted guardians of jealous gorges and gifted groves
lead me from the Wadi Musa to the humble ingress of Petra,
saying with thrill, the Jin of your Jihad...

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Poet's Pre-Notes: A poem from my 8th week in a Stanford continuing education class offered on the internet, a study of free verse and structure. The poem writing technique is to write as unconsciously as...

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"Dandylion" 

The guy was a 
Dandylion 
there was 
no denying it

full of promises
and making wishes
residing over 
this new world

poetically 
speaking, he
shone like 
the Sun

he sat on his throne
for all to see
the mane man
roaring non-garrulous

declaring 
to...

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Original New Yorker Intents and Purposes

So who did you expect
to actually elect,
Vandana Shiva?

from Uniting Constitutions of MotherTrees

Tribes and groves
grow forests together
forming more therapeutically perfect Unions
of unity yin-flowing integrity,
not quite so much uniformity
of Yang's violating offensive...

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VIII

In the minds fixed eye I see five newly discovered graves,              
Headless lions sat atop an impregnable "Triumphal Gate";   ...

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A dawning twilight's me. Oh, joy. Oh, what a joy. This day. Oh, what a day. A breath bestills my eyes and I, e'er slight, a deeper breath that reopened them and myself to a...

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Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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As I hover over the darkened room, I wonder how I have gotten here. Did I die, was I 
dead? That was the only explanation I could think of for my disembodiedment. But 
concentration was...

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She was grace in its purest form. Thinking not and caring not of her 
destination, she soars across the angelic sky on her tiny golden wings. Yet her 
feet never left the cold laminated floor....

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   Aided by the wind, 
entities take flight like prismatic colors- 
talismanning chanced direction 
"of watering misfit eye", 
looking for a new place 
to touchdown...

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   "I have seen and heard the vibrancy of dreams, 
and the way 
of the crossings-through the ills 
and through the barriered things."

A fleeting spark that perceives, 
I, have seen...

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Tell me
Have you ever felt you could runway
Far away to a secret place
Where time stands still
The hot sun mostly shows its beaming face.

Well come!
Take my hand
And I'll take you to that place
A world away in...

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Forth from the heaven, from the misty moorlands of all sacred woodland greens,
drop by drop by striking the pebbles and untouched vegetations oozes, 
the intoning hallowed water of evergreen woods' crystal cascades, brooks and streams.
to...

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In all my modest travels abroad,
believe me when I say
’tween the tigris and euphrates I’ve trod,
and seen a Great Lighthouse by the Bay;’

A magnificent construct, endlessly tall,
seemingly to the heavens it rose,
but no light shown...

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THE NIGHT THAT RABBIE VISITED ME
One night in spring  I couldn't sleep      I heard knocking on  the door
I got out of bed, walked to the window to have...

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Past the grain fields clanks the old train,
and it goes beyond the fertile valley;
then it vanishes amid the swaying hills,
not too far from the massive castle
built by the Normans, and it's pelted by rain,
washing the...

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I.

I had the son for a sacrifice
Proffered in faith and joined to love
My covenant with him is eternal, sealed by his blood
And his fire consumes what he pleases
Though the waters be deep as the abyss,
they...

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When men exalt gifts above the giver with the heart venerate idols of their heart so it becomes hidden art not a jot or tittle has passed from the law not in Rome or New...

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Nero the god! I had a dream. 
There I was at the foot of Mount Olympus.
 Mother was with me as usual. 
As we reached a cross-roads, Agrippina said: 
"Come Nero, here we turn left"...

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The idea of a living constitution
has the same forensic indeterminacy
as a committed dream.

I am content to trust this dream to the end
to have it fill my cup of hope all day and night.
I am content...

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Conflict
 
The priest ran
Scared to raise 
An ignorant army

On a darkling plain
Loading guns
With dummy

Faith. The froth
Rose arrogantly
In the test

Tube.  They heard
Eyes shut and saw
Ears plugged,

Contorted faces
Expecting the explosion
Any moment.

Slowly
Very slowly the froth
Spilled over

Leaving behind—would
The...

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