Long Ignites Poems

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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(In a Lush Garden Somewhere Out There)

The student stands where shifting sands of thought
Once firm with reason 
now elusive truths are sought.
Its splendor wanes 
a threadbare fading strand,
A quest for wisdom 
in this digital land.

Sage:...

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"Salvage"


Salvage the fixating salvation 
unfurling from the wreckage
of a numb world twisted inside
treasure climbs swimming 
the ladder from the deep of all things 
reaching upwards travelling in a new time
of melting morpheme moments overlapping 
dissolved...

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A Night On A Wharf

The couple decide to walk. The boardwalk still lit at this late hour guides them. They walk hand in hand,..whispering softly with small talk...solemn.,. lonely , yet together. The walk is...

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Imitation! Creative Compliment, Lacking in Originality, or Plagiarism? 

This week takes me back to college days. I was taking a graduate course (as a Physics major)   in 'Modern Poets' at the University of...

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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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   Symbols cry in dry ice theater -
the expanse of aesthetic visa-
drawn-
from the romance of the silvery eye -
as it golden advances the lid of covenance 
in dynamic enzyme.
Open faced type interpreted-
interpreter-embossed embol-
in...

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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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A Dark Identity

Days into nights... time without time
Normalities of everyday life beckons to remain
Shadows with lights.... to find to define
I am he who goes by without a name

The world is only up to date
And I’ve...

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Ledger of Love

In the shadows of the Victorian night,
Where candles flicker with amorous light,
A forbidden love fiercely burns,
In a pounding heart, passion yearns.

Amidst the lace and satin array,
Where masks conceal bygone dismay,
A dance of desire,...

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I cannot die tonight
I dog-eared a book
Of pages I haven't perused
You know how long that took?
Scent of pages
Frayed and yellowed
Always get me
Calm and mellowed
The spine cracked and worn
Each page a promise, a tale untold
In the...

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The sun, resplendent in its blazing might,
Burns fiercely o'er a barren, lifeless waste,
A desert dry and vast where earth is scorched
By searing radiation, deathly bright.
No sign of life but one lone phoenix flies,
Soaring precarious, close...

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I gaze upon a moon so full and bright beneath my feet
The stillness of unbroken waters where reflections meet
The creaking and the straining as the old bridge wants me rid
Shall not give me cause to...

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JACKS AND THE BOOM BOOM ROOM HISTORY AND SPOKEN WORD

Before the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco’s Fillmore District came to be, it was Jack’s.   A poppin’ groove organ funk soul jazz club...

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{“The day I loved you was my homicide. 
The day I loved you I was petrified, the day I loved you I was humiliated of myself that I was indeed capable of it, the day...

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To my Valentine

                              As the full...

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I believe in You, despite the tough twists and turns…
But, this heart of mine – it burns…it churns…it learns…
To heal on its own through time, space and Your everything
Free verse helps me to let it...

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Written 3 September 2023 For
With Each Morning Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Martin Bram


                       ...

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Part I:  My mother’s Voice. 
  
“There’s something not quite right.” 
My mother’s doctor said.
The murmur in your heart.
I think we’ll  make a start, 
to take a look, and book a bed...

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Oh that Lily, she the epitome of a  
Golden Child as I watched her
Exuding effortless grace, a liquid-silver baton—  
a Haddon Heights Garnett.  
a Blazing Comet /  
enchanting /  
popular...

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{"It’s 4:05 pm, darkness is mending over the horizon, the city, I’m fighting and thrashing against the flames that shroud. With secrets yet to resign, they dwindle at nightly dusk as it topples over. 
Down...

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Hidden beauty resides not in the grace like charms
Of coy smiles 
Painted across a gentle Madonnas face.
Nor is she vested within the chastened vows
Of saintly knights; encased Great-Helm:
Thus maketh the pale maidens meek pulse
To so...

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"Inside the Winter Wild"

Inside the Wild, 

Winter races 
towards Time 
like a runnaway train

it’s shadowy 
and dark,
yet, inside Winter, 

the wild keeps
without fail
its burning light, 

a passion play

for everything 
and all, 
along the way

discovered 
in...

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                                  ...

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"Love My Way"

Ghosts read the walls like braille in this place
it’s a macabre dance with the past and the petulant future
it romances them away from the let-it-be moments
on repeat heavenly tortured in the evermore never-give-up

they...

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