Long Guileless Poems

Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

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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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Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

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Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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Mission Control, this is Flight Z924693744, do you read?
We're having some technical trouble. How should we proceed?

We have spotted a planet, that appears to be suitable to abort;
But, to return to earth, we will need...

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Ours was daily mysterious,
sometimes near mystical, 
rapture;
a sensual yet platonic
dorm-mate love affair,
within the only male grad student corridor
at SFSU.

He was the presumably straight Vietnam veteran
southern white good ol' boy,
athletically studying Japanese,
with a gentle passion for...

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My given name is Hortense, and I am an English Professor,
I love my job and my life, and to do my best I endeavor.

I am popular with my students, as I also am with friends;
And...

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Standing all alone in the woods;
eyes shut, I feel the lilting light.
Sun dodges needles through the crown,
beams land on my skin softly so.
Brisk breezes quicken and rustle.
Bristlecone pines ever sway slowly,
while pockets of air blush...

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For Within Thine Eyes, I See Love's Eternal Gaze, 
- a collaboration with Susan Ashley
 
How shall I, let your kind and most tender heart go
with its immense depths, sweet kisses, resplendent glow.
I could do...

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Oh ...

Spring-tide ...
Always things that juxtapose,
Life never flows as smoothly as a gentle rill 'round a stone.
Brief notes of harmony, torn asunder by a cacophony of chaos,
Turmoil the norm ... reality the chill that bites...

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We warrior poets
calligraphy ride boldly into the foggy fray
Our ancient, iron-will pens
are always getting battle-tested
time and time again     by cloudy blot resistance
We always rolled scroll win ... 
writing off into the...

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How shall I, let your kind and most tender heart go
with its immense depths, sweet kisses, resplendent glow.
I could do no such, no more than I walk away
sweetheart, I love you too much, this truth...

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Dismantling Dysphoria -New blood synthesis


All colours evaporated, vitality ceased
Deep agony! Topsy-turvy my life turned 
An inferno of grief engulfed my heart
Surged to the top, pain of bereavement
No panacea, no potions to douse...
Alone she left me...

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Unquotable quotes: Outsiders and Odd Men – XXVIII

                 for Colin Wilson (1931-1913) 
      ...

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She needs to feel in love to drive aside the night,
I love to feel in love, ONE source of joy and light,
When love is not at home, she’s sad to be alone,
When love is not...

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I think the beauty in living comes along when we shirk our heavy coats
And our white-knuckle approximation of old, flake-away skin, which we have
Stapled back onto ourselves—
The faces we’ve taught everyone to believe:
Just dumb enough...

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Wherein upon a darken road

the path by which the traveler trode

there amongst the guileless snow

Alighten by moonlight’s o’er throw


Lost among the recurring trees

On last breath, and on his knees

He took into him the cold grey...

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Höchstzal 25 Worte! 

I hear, I listen, I read, I observe, I sense; there are words flying around everywhere and from everyone including me, at an awesome pace.

There are things in life that don’t add...

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The song of my love is heard
It travels over Seas and mountains 
Bearing cadences that make the fishes dance
It frolics over hills and oceans 
With rhythms that adorn the eyes of the sun 
Sniffing the...

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The Atomic Café stays with me, over
even the most perfect of days.
I think about the arrogance of power
and how most people live in a daze.

I think on the geniality of the average citizen, 
how willing,...

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My life spirals ever downward...
The grave taunts me with its laugh.
Death's bony fingers are affixed my throat
As the jester of my unmerited epitaph.

My angst at my ever-flounder appears
Well-earned and justly placed
Where the rabid minions of...

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Written: September 15, 2023
______________________________________________________________

In a cosmic world where marvels dwell,
There lies a well where truth does swell.
Under the surface of the cultural tide,
Dissemination of erudition, hence and wide.

Yet, amidst the waves, dishonesty lingers.
Distorting the successful...

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The rosa blanda embroidering your face
will become the veins in my tongue reaching to clog my throat
go past the tonsils and vocal chords and windpipe
down and down still, burrowing into the esophagus 
relentless in its...

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