Long Ignoble Poems

"Open Oceans"



Kneeling on pearls
wisdom preys

praying
preying

hungry hearts
count the days 

wasting away
in all that preying 

for prayers 
to be answered

children become
strangers

reading 
strange words

finding 
themselves puzzled

genuflecting to a deity
they do not know, nor wish to

fumbling
mouths closed,

swallowed hole
in the...

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Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

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

What good, the warm benevolence...

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In the dark of night a wind took hold,
With powers charged to shake the sky,
By moody swings of gods up high,
Their breath alone enraged and bold.

In the dark of night history spoke,
Of a world alive...

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Limericks IV - Donald Trump

The Hair Flap
by Michael R. Burch aka "The Loyal Opposition"

The hair flap was truly a scare:
Trump’s bald as a billiard back there!
The whole nation laughed
At the state of his graft;
Now the...

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"Angels & Demons"




The Soul never sleeps
battered and lonely, the lesson 
Life spent in The Hard Sell

Soft-served you become
melting Insomnia 
mouth sucking a loaded gun

blue ribbonned and veined
pulsing electricity 
from heart to lung to brain

you’re a...

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"The Forgotten Legion of Rose Thorns"



Reversing roll calls
the Anti-Hero 
jumps through 
burning hoops
instinctively

bathed in the magnum glow
designed to fire cartridges
with a kick like a field gun
a bloody victory 
is eventually won

lacking conventionality
novel and picaresque
placing bad...

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“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”



The Dilettante Diaries: Avian Notes on the Sensate Slip Stream : The Silent War in 3 Acts

(Part 1)

Starlings singing...

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This is a tale of ancient times
And a knight of valiant heraldry
Who followed true his knightly code,
The weight of righteousness his load,
All sheathed in heaven's grace he rode,
And practiced naught save chivalry.

From the Pope a...

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Jinxed jesting jejune junior jobber...
just jabbering gibberish (A - J)

Again, another awkward ambitious
arduous attempt at alphabetically
arranging atrociously ambiguously
absolutely asinine avoidable alliteration.

Because...? Basically bonafide belching,
bobbing, bumbling, bohemian beastie boy,
bereft bummer, bleeds blasé blues, begetting
bloviated boilerplate bildungsroman,
boasting...

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You had that future retro look:  two thousand seventeen,
There was a slow and sultry permanence, a little slouchy lean
As you eased out of the taxi before it shot off to the right,
Who could have...

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"As  Above, So Below - The Messengers"



One day 
when this sad story 
has all blown over
of how we came to be
walking the earth 
below the veil
with monsters 
that are men 
with horns and tails
in...

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Lima describe how yours truly went Peru zing...

thru truckloads of his personal communiqués broadcast
(methinks quite some years ago) across world wide web,
but now still smarting from selfishness, I feel quite aghast.

Yes practically every word
needs be...

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Flammer Me Gimbels #42
(a Vogon Pirate poem)

Flammer me gimbels, me trimbels and dromies,
Whenceforth I caminal scrabbit thy foamies.
Jeerbo or Jabox, ex labbit. Ex findle
Will not dethrail thee, ignibious twindle.

Ickwad of thrumpus, I salue wack vornage...

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"50 Words for Poe: Revenant"


Everywhere he looks for Her his melancholic Ghost Girl
does our lachrymose ignoble Phantom in his own thunder storm


In the Wind Song he listens
Her elusive whispers hail from another dimension 
echolocation through...

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Politesse pleases me...
thank you very much
for letting me clutch
your attention courtesy
sharing following thoughts
thru reading my poem analogous 
to invisible electronic, 
fantastic, kinetic... touch.

Manners work like a charm
equivalent to abracadabra to disarm
truculent nasty shortish brutes
who thrive...

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It is generally thought of to be one of the myriad,
Guiding, governing, binding principles and precepts of all 
Mature civilized countries that what horrors that they unleashed in
Vilest, bloodiest, convulsive conflictual combative martial 
Confrontation, on their fellow...

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Arcola circa late 1960's early 1970's...
easy to conjure this idyllic June 8th, 2020

Envision bucolic Currier
and Ives rendered landscape,
or canvas painted
courtesy gifted late Thomas Kinkade
(or substitute favorite creative soul)
how aforementioned illustrious artists drape
mesmerized amateur and/or

art appreciation...

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There is a story ‘bout Casey, that is but incomplete
It tells of simple ball and bat and Mighty’s ignoble feat
There we learned of failure and the storied Mudville name
Here we’ll learn what happened in the...

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Pythagoras while playing the Lyre one day ,
Formulated his musical theory as Historians say !
Just as distinct notes were produced by the varying
lengths of the Lyre strings ,
So did the planets , revolving in there...

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If you drink that SPECIAL brand of Kool-aid,And now you flounder belly up make sure someone else is there with you,(and not just for good luck,)who has the required skills to render first aid. Cause...

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There is a story ‘bout Casey, that is but incomplete
It tells of simple ball and bat and Mighty’s ignoble feat
There we learned of failure and the storied Mudville name
Here we’ll learn what happened in the...

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Here’s the thing ... 
needful truth of an urgent matter
Humanity has a Rubik Cube ethnic pride problem:
Dark Age Crusaders of Hate
say the right color is on the genetic wrong side
of the racial debate Holy Grail...

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And ignoble prize trumpeting hubris awarded to...

Bourgeoisie donning ersatz
overstuffed ego freezer bewigged pate
"FAKE" grotesque humanitarian
bribed corrupt judges will vindicate
jimmied cracked corn
land of "milk and honey"

red hot button he spoils to activate
countdown to Armageddon
leaving nation prostrate,
all...

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Who could forget what happened on that unsuspecting and sunny day,
when no visible clouds drifted over the Twin Towers?
Little after midnight, the cool rain adds to the melancholy 
of the descending angels; and I join...

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