Long Hammers Poems

Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds



Flying
by Michael R. Burch

I shall rise
and try the bloody wings of thought
ten thousand times
before I fly...

and then I'll sleep
and waste ten thousand nights
before I dream;

but when at last...
I soar the...

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Sonnets XXXIII-XLI

The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch

She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must bend down to her to understand.
But she only smiles, and...

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Here and Hereafter
by Michael R. Burch

Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ...
wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter.



Laughter’s Cry
by Michael R. Burch

Because life is a mystery, we laugh
and do not know the half.

Because death...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers IV



Neglect
by Michael R. Burch

What good are your tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is your concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm...

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Poems about Children V

Pan
by Michael R. Burch

Among the shadows of the groaning elms,
amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves

Once there were paths that led to coracles
that clung to piers like loosening barnacles

where we cannot return,...

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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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MODERN SONNETS II

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

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Part I

Rock n Roll came through the slave trade
The Hippies and Moonies said “We’ve got it made”
“Rock n Roll sounds came from the jungle” [Lennon said]
The blues helped through the struggle
The rhythm and the movements...

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The three enigmas of Turandot

The well of souls run deep in fabled lands of old.
Of China's ancient dynasty and the lost Great Tartary, 
a ballad of love and loss that must be told.

The Emperor's daughter,...

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The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning...

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Sometimes faith lives on the edge of a knife
as Sviastoslav the Rus sacker came to know 
The Khazar Khanate knew how to cut a slight
his gilded skull stole the show,
The Vatican went from a marsh...

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Burn
by Michael R. Burch

for Trump

Sunbathe,
ozone baby,
till your parched skin cracks
in the white-hot flash
of radiation.

Incantation
from your pale parched lips
shall not avail;
you made this hell.
Now burn.

Keywords/Tags: burn, earth, environment, fire, future, nature, natural, planet,  climate, pollution,...

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30 Days In

I fall short of just enough
Words escaped my breath
Eager to talk 
My tongue utters
As a mute 
Finding his voice 
My mind races with mighty a speed

My fragility becomes apparent 
A spectacle amongst
Figures who...

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Written 28 April 2024

“Genius begins great works. Labour alone finishes them.”
          Joseph Joubert

             ...

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Written: January 22, 2025 for contest Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann

Quote: “In the dynamic world society which is the objective of the United Nations, all peoples must have equality and equal rights" By Ralph Bunche,
...

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Written: December 04, 2024, For Contest, Sponsored by: Ink Empress
                   ________________________________

A grimacing goon
in a destructive drug-driven delirium 
faces...

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Look at them walking in boots underneath a humongous hot balloon and a big umbrella position in the East sucking up the dreadful heat. They held onto each other just like significant lovers waving to...

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is everyone from Barking  Barking mad?
Does everyone In Lambeth do the Lambeth walk?
Is Leicester Square In Leicester?
Is The Elephant And Castle a place where they hide Elephants?
Is Oxford Street in Oxford?
And Paddington a bear?
Highgate...

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Father’s Day was coming and Dragon was already, in full mode.
Hubby was his Hero, a true Papa, like in every story ever told.
Everyone was talking about what’s, to be, their Papa’s Day gifts.
Yep, TV salesmanship...

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Into A Dark Raging Storm, Tempest And Hail


Into a dark raging storm, tempest and hail
alas, sadly all was to be to no avail.
Twelve pounders broke loose crashing about
some over the wind praying in a shout.

Prisoners...

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SHAKEN UP

The vortex sucked
me into the globe.
  shaken, distressed
pounding on the confines
of the glass.
   the snow n-e-v-e-r stops.

Music lifts,
   from the bowels
of this new world —
the humor of “it’s
 ...

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The green village, the colored city, the ever familiar locality
Each path, tree, house, turn, each native I have left behind
But creepers, hedges have entangled with my leg and hand
The green crops fields, green hills, fruit...

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An eggplant need not taste nor look like egg,
Nor in a hamburger ham need be there,
Where's pine, apple in pineapple, I beg?
Nor yet french-fries in France invented were.
They native are— American pure blood,
Wherein was born...

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Sitting working in my private room a grandfather clock ticks and tocks so very loudly,
Like a metronome tuned into my mind my eyes become heavy my lids slowly begin to close,
My mind drifts into very...

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When you find a marble in your hand or head
(And you will because it will be roundish)
Hurl it immediately at humans to get attention           ...

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