Long Insulates Poems

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
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 it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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Free advice to those* who would be King from the THIRUK-KURAL with notes
[*like presidents and prime ministers of declining (falling or fallen) nations]

K381: padaikudi kuulamaiccu nadpuaran aarum
        ...

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Image of Love Fantasy by Giphy.

LUDix-Rym: Thine Art Loveth

HARK, whilst thee singeth melody,
gauged labyrinths midst harmony,
ransom subconscious, placed thee free,
persuade possessed, heed thy purged glee,
beg reposed heart thy beating plea.
Themes prune labor to a degree,
song...

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Through the frosted window I watch the snow fall,
Falling so heavily amongst the street lights.
Faintly I feel the slow beat of your heart,
Beside me you sleep peacefully from the cool of the night.
As we lay...

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This joke has worn thin, it’s a membrane of gauze 
which insulates feelings and never gives pause 
to express the frustrations, self hatred and fear 
of existence defined by lung-blood and beer. 
Each day is...

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The day’s hot-the wind like a convection oven
Blows hot air in our faces.
My cap and gown insulates me
Baking me like a potato wrapped in aluminum foil
I desperately fan myself and look around
My eyes search for...

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Arise from shackles of darkness
Sometimes choking your light
Pinching happiness and meekness
Coercing you against your will to fight

Light as the way to salvation you choose to lose
Amid shadows in your doors that lengthen
For no reason as...

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Walking upon silent parched paths,
under speechless scarlet skies.
Your name sits upon the tip of my tongue,
listening to the susurration of my heart.
Each vibration echoes tones of lament,
conflicted by the principles of time.

Adrift in the midst...

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A Lady Waits

The sleepy sea massages a creaking ship which slowly navigates
through blackness the sky emanates and the great Atlantic integrates.
A sailing school of serenading seagulls dips and dives and celebrates,
and amongst the sea-sick shipmates,...

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You know it's true, a bed that's fresh can help you sleep at night! 
A metaphor, but so much more, tight ships embrace the dawn
Of coming day. They birth accord, help make day's prospects bright.
You...

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I'd give anything today, 
Anything to feel that burning fiery love 
The kind that'll make any woman swoon, 
The kind that portals her straight to the moon 

I'd give anything today, 
Anything to feel that...

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An aromatic breeze
mingles fragrances of lilac and rose
with the spicy scent of your auburn hair
releasing whiffs of Balsama, 
an ancient perfume Caesar gifted to Cleopatra.

My hand finds yours, and we laugh in unison,
our lips yearning...

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Out of my seven girlfriends
Six and a half are married
one is conscientiously married
to her inner, juxtaposed situation
the second is married to the innuendos
of a rat race,
sitting all day without a back rest
even on a gloomy...

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The Composition of Shadows
by Michael R. Burch

“I made it out of a mouthful of air.”—W. B. Yeats

We breathe and so we write; the night
hums softly its accompaniment.
Pale phosphors burn; the page we turn
leads onward, and...

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It’s a place for affairs,
A gathering place
That for centuries has graced town squares.

The Market—it’s social,
Brimming with culture
In cities or towns, on mountains or coastal.

There—barter's real,
Through each offered pence
These gateways for shoppers and deals.

So imagine the...

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Cut off diffusion from its gate
that mast confusion insulates
its own conclusion, while sedates
affinity, binds not God's state!

And strings of justice intimate
life's own true standing contemplates
the aggravation is relate
encumbrances soul's restorate!!!

So cut me off from solaced...

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Following the rhythm of the universe,
slipping into slumber, entwined with soul,
pristine presence, feeling blissful and whole,
draws into heart, a melodious verse.
Silence insulates us from thought forms terse
and within womb of space, we have no goal,
save...

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