Long Heathers Poems

Lady’s Favor
by Michael R. Burch

May
spring
fling
her riotous petals
devil-
may-care
into the air,
ignoring the lethal
nettles
and may
May
cry gleeful-
ly Hooray!
as the abundance
settles,
till a sudden June
swoon
leave us out of tune,
torn,
when the last rose is left
inconsolably bereft,
rudely shorn
of every device but her thorn.


The...

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Winter
by Michael R. Burch

The rose of love's bright promise
lies torn by her own thorn;
her scent was sweet
but at her feet
the pallid aphids mourn.

The lilac of devotion
has felt the winter hoar
and shed her dress;
companionless,
she shivers—nude, forlorn.

Published...

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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...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of 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...

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Sweet Rose of Virtue
by William Dunbar (c. 1460-1530)
loose translation/modernization/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

after William Dunbar

Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,
delightful lily of youthful wantonness,
richest in bounty and in beauty clear
and in every virtue that...

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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)...

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Toddlers' Exploration: 

Cardboard drum and a thunderous beast
With playful roars in tiny fists and feasts.
Fleeting wings glide to dreams just out of reach
Soaring through tales of barnyard Waddles and Squeaks.
Moo! Quack! Giggles tumble and bump.
Flaps...

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These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …



Will There Be Starlight
by Michael R. Burch 

Will there be starlight
tonight
while she gathers
damask
and lilac
and sweet-scented heathers?

And will she find...

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PRINCESS DIANA POEMS

Fairest Diana: an Epitaph for Princess Diana
by Michael R. Burch

Fairest Diana, princess of dreams,
born to be loved and yet distant and lone,
why did you linger?so solemn, so lovely?
an orchid ablaze in a crevice...

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All that does encompass bespeaks wonder in everything
bubbling brooks and waterfalls does your glory ring
terrestrial and celestial ever fill our eyes with seeing
how can not it's splendor not fill our very being
 
raindrops in waters...

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Picturebook Princess

for Keira

We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter! 

With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her...

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I know of a river of more than average 
Sorts...
Meandering, when not dallying to maunder,
Between many differing contours 
And unruly contorts;
Where a privileged youth once
Happily sought -
Pursuing about his passions
In the traditional methods 
By which...

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Song Lyrics I

"We Came Together" was written as song lyrics for New Zealand composer David Hamilton.

Song Lyrics: We Came Together
by Michael R. Burch

We came together – people of two lands
so unalike, at first, we hardly...

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[ Opens with Harmonica ]
     
I was a broken man, down on my knees        
Traveling on a train to nowhere;    ...

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Amaryllis is called naked lady
                             Bloodroots’ leaves...

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The recovery from life at seven is so trying. Having witnessed
your brother being taken to heaven. What future can a child see
through cascades of tears, what future does a parent explain to 
allay his fears....

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Veronica Sawyer, a rebel in plaid
She joined the Heathers, but they were so bad
They ruled the school with their cruel games and lies
But Veronica had enough of their fake smiles and hair ties

She met a...

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Recently I’ve been thinking about that 8 foot 
plot of land outside of Heathers that my parents
buried my grandfather in. It’s amazing how many
tulips and roses can fit in an 8 foot plot of land.
At...

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Deck the Yuletide Halls

Winter’s bounty of floral beauty ever blooms through snowy nights
 Even when nature wears a mantle bold stitched of frosty weather
  By warming fires and in the apparel of amber scented...

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an ocean breeze fills up your senses
 the seagulls flock overhead
 inside there is something stirring
 as if heathers exploding within
 shadows block the temptress taunts
 alone in the silence,

 couples running naked through the...

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My door is open
I welcome you
To my Highland lands
Off heathers and hue
 
Cross the bridge
Of centuries old
To my castle of grey
In it's regal fold
 
Stand with me
In the great hall of my past
Like generations
Us Fraser's...

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Somewhere after the snow but before the hot sun, 
came a fresh new season where a new day has begun-
Delicate tulips starving for a slight sprinkle,
a crimson rose bush is covered with a tiny dew...

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Their lies on the West Coast of Scotland
A Kingdom that's rarely been seen
Where it's beauty radiates through ones eyes
Even closed you can only but dream

Natures gems thrive through seasonal change
Blessing colonies of sea faring birds
To...

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Enslaved by clocks time piece, degenerating cold
Hours on end, defined as denigrated, old and retired
On movements standing still, of slow motion hands going nowhere fast
I wait in pain for her, my lover, with empathy endured
On...

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The Highlands, our Kingdom, our many Lochs and Glens
Our beauty woos fair maidens to be at the side of Highland men
Their futures to be part of our history, Queens to our many Clans
As we stand...

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