Long Honeysuckle Poems

The Original Sin: Rhyming Haiku!
 
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
-Michael R. Burch
 
The herons stand,
sentry-like, at attention ...
rigid observers of some unknown command.
-Michael R. Burch
 
Late
fall;
all
the golden leaves turn black underfoot:
soot
-Michael R. Burch
 
Dry leaf...

Read More

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

Read More

Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

Read More

Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

Read More

Erin, for a girl who embodies Ireland
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair—
bright carrot—and her milkmaid-pallid skin,
her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children—some conceived in sin,
the others to avoid...

Read More

Part 1: FORE SIBERIAN FATE

silk wings wet -
angel on the lake.
starlight glitter
separates from

the golden wheat.
her docile hair,
prophecy of ice.

winter pink,
pinched cheeks.
ice skate scrapes -
flecks of flakes.

the snow queen
before her relentless
reign, a pretty thing.

her smile warms
the...

Read More

THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

Read More

Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are many new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved...

Read More

A week before my senior year at Honeysuckle High School, with me our starting quarterback - who’d never failed a test -
The friend of mine who - ever since I’d barely passed the first one...

Read More

I'm off on the beaten path
with Little Rosey in my grasp

There's palm fronds like a giant clock,
twenty hands instead of two
And there's the honeysuckle bush
that suddenly broke through
the gap in my neighbor's greenhouse

"Bonnie!" she insists
"Bonnie...

Read More

THE SENTINEL
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS

					

I took the elevator to the lobby of the small hotel
I’d been here six days the ennui was starting to tell
I’d been sent to cover an international gathering
Sessions so long and dull...

Read More

My momma was big on naps when I was a girl.
Until I was eight years old, she sent me to my room on summer afternoons.
It was probably because of the heat in the south,
The way...

Read More

On my way to work one day I stopped to tie my shoe -
I had no way of knowing they were there -
But when I glanced across the lawn and saw their pretty hue, 
The...

Read More

I often sit for long periods of time
hoping the perfect beginning will come to me.
To write a poem that starts with a pristine Capital
leaving readers with great expectations.

But after much torment, with not a fleck...

Read More

On my way to work one day I stopped to tie my shoe -
I had no way of knowing they were there -
But when I glanced across the lawn and saw their pretty hue, 
The...

Read More

seasons keep m o v i n g 
 and s w i r l i n g
memories keep f l o w i n g 
and s h i f t i n g
through...

Read More

I was born in everlasting springtime, as happenstance often does to others,
Like natural green halls wherein joy sings, to its wilder sisters and brothers.

I was situated in mellowed sunshine, like a colorful ship on the...

Read More

Unquotabe quotes: Dancers - XXIII

Dance like Cassius Clay, Sting like Muhammad Ali.
The dancing Dervish’s ethereal trip makes the Sufi’s Qawwali breathlessness sound like the radio-astral waves dashing on the beaches of their consciousness.
The only unlicensed...

Read More

In the still waters of the morning’s glow, I’ve watched the
Frozen silence as the moon quietly melts away, into the chilling
Warmth of the rising run rays, that slowly spills across the lake shore!
Ever gently the...

Read More

She crossed a wide ocean, during war times, in danger
A life of adventure, of courage, of fear
Yet, nothing reveals the hint of the years
that have chiseled her wrinkles, but not dampened her cheer

She pours me...

Read More

When the enchanted 
jailors of life, 
siezed my soul 
and those
sepals unfurling
manipulative
manuscripts 
ceased to 
script a twinkle 
above screams, 
I became a 
slave to my 
own silence, 
chained by 
granite wings of 
masked butterflies, 
who...

Read More

I'm an enlightened 
equinox, strolling in
faded universe, 
dreaming poetry in
susurrus serenades 
of rustling 
ruby-leaves which
whisper cool 
beamish hues
to my autumnal-
quartz heart, 
when the nucleus 
of unborn flowers, 
wishes for a 
meditative 
musing amidst 
this mocha...

Read More

Today,
there are no rubber ducks
or mother's marigold skirts
to hide behind
as we once did.

In their place,
lurking dark and hoary,
a bathtub mist
updrafts thick with loose spores,
and mildew veins
sprawling
behind caulked-over creases.

The day,
shrinking away heavy with time,
as a body
sagging
into
water.

Even...

Read More

Wandering hand in hand along fields of gold,
jealous sun shines upon this summertime love.
Night-bird, song-bird have a story to be told.
I need your love so bad, like a lonesome dove.

Jealous sun shines upon this summertime...

Read More

I was a happy, fluent linguist, fruitfully helping revive endangered languages,
As colorful rainbows walk across the sky, in buttery hours, turned languorous.

I enjoyed doing practical fieldwork, and establishing useful literary programs,
As the honeysuckle sun loves...

Read More