Long Kernel Poems

The Tender Weight of Her Sighs
by Michael R. Burch

The tender weight of her sighs
lies heavily upon my heart;
apart from her, full of doubt,
without her presence to revolve around,
found wanting direction or course,
cursed with the thought...

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Poems about Poems V

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

There is a small cleanness about her,
as though she has always just been washed,
and there is a dull obedience to convention
in her accommodating slenderness
as she feints at her salad.

She...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

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Self help addict needles unsuspecting reader 

Expounded late today April 27th, 2023
since being written
countless years ago
maybe a baker's dozen
as thee doodling cock doth crow 
scouting about for carrion 
scavenging for dead animals 
and rooting about...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: LIII - Tongue Teasers

Whether the glass is « half full » or « half empty », what counts is WHO « drank" the "other half », the « better half » ? Lucky...

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Niitthaar Perumai, The Fundamental Role of the Ascetic: Canto 3, K29 and K30 of the Thirukkural by Thiruvalluvar
(In these kurals, I give both the "unrefined" versions using connective particles and modified post-positions (in Tamil: according...

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Growth should be the ultimate criterion,
nucleus and kernel of every annual pledge,
for myself and other people who might gain,
from a heartfelt commitment such as mine,
that monumental new year down the clock aptly named,
global village stepping...

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“Liber Novus”


Life is read
it bleeds continually
we simply need to stop
and breathe forgive

ourselves for tripping
over misspent thought
too caught up and enraptured 
in the chapters we imagine

we always dream
best beginnings
and tidy arduous ends
unicorns in black matter

Life is...

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Who am I?
This is a question that unable, I am, a definite
Answer to give
For
Buried I find myself,  under layers upon layers of 
Beliefs and prejudices that centuries past, have 
Deposed upon my helpless and...

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Upon exiting side door nearest
to our single bedroom
(few dozen strides to access way
out apartment - complex edifice),
I unexpectedly encountered
(on August 30th, 2021 ~10:15 pm -
née namely heard but did not see),
a small screeching creature
whose anatomical...

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Lines more lunatic than the sun – 4

your body 
that’s fond of tv-soap

with its un-worldly moonlight 	and worldly tricks and posterings
as if  		it wants to plough
a thin winter 	that is attached firmly		with a mermaid...

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Part Two

           a hardly flickering oilwick open trough lamp lighting
limply other framed coloured pictures of Ganapati
two half-empty troughs of kunkunum and vibhuti
on the half-opened cicatrised...

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A fine mist of rain falls silent 
on his thin, sharp-angled face. 
He picks up the pace and tilts 
his head to the wind. He walks 
through the plundered slumber  
of crumbled poverty, abandoned,...

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April 16 Why I am not a Christian Easter Thoughts

On Easter Sunday, I often think about Christianity 
I don’t understand why anymore would believe such nonsense

The essential story makes no sense
An imaginary all powerful deity...

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Ben Sana Mecburum
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you’re like nails riveting my brain?
I see your eyes as ever-expanding dimensions.
You are indispensable; how can...

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You may have heard folks speak about giants,
it certain circles that some call ‘plain nuts!’
among cryptozoological types
they’re speculated upon rather much.

And every few months on the internet,
at least if you’re into that type of thing,
you...

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It was said of old, 'Truth lies open to all', but today 

               perception is  all; no one is perfect...

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1.
This is Truth that to you, mortals is now speaking, 
I’m the one that in the kernel of everything that exists resides,* 
That no human has ever seen**, up to this very moment and
No one,...

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The human body was built with a stretching ability. Skin and muscles are very elastic and prepared for adversities. Bones can be fractured and broken, but mends back in time. Ache me; bend me; mend...

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Pure Fantasy 

Authors disclaimer this is the only poem that eye must disavow all attempts of 
actual emergence no murder will ever be done... 

The Central tower has a clock the people gather in the...

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A light mist of ethereous rain falls 
silent on his thin, sharp-angled
face. He lengthens his stride and 
leans toward the wind. He walks 
through plundered poverty; crumbled
by the weight of exodus. Abandoned
to the blood-rough nails...

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Ah, the fortitude of a circle
the circular wisdom 
of  spring to summer  fall to winter  
the spinning wheel’s twist of threads -
at once both self-reliant and reliant

my soul to embryo  seed...

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On a shattered pebble beach my kernel,
becomes this dervish dancing to the maniacal symbol rash tune,
of inchoate monsoon grass beat timpani,
that’s dimly frowned on by sonic virtuoso,
but terms like briny carrageen sea sweep gain purple...

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Written: September 21, 2023

Immanent yet transcendent Contest        Sponsored by: Unseeking Seeker 
God is both fully transcendent and utterly immanent – extensively beyond us but genuinely with us. By...

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Every flower has its own color
With annual observation,
this we springtime discover

Give a womb kernel cede
of acknowledgment
To the spectrum birthright
of each other

We are all one,
tho’ from a different umbilical mother

Notice the bloom of time,
come rain ...

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