Long Leapt Poems

Poems about Dogs

This Dog
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Each morning this dog,
who has become quite attached to me,
sits silently at my feet
until, gently caressing his head,
I acknowledge his company.

This simple recognition gives my...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems V

Poetry
by Michael R. Burch

Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.

They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both...

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The Making of a Poet
by Michael R. Burch

While I don’t consider “Poetry” to be my best poem—I wrote the first version in my teens—it’s a poem that holds special meaning for me; I call it...

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Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

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The State of the Art (I)
by Michael R. Burch

Has rhyme lost all its reason
and rhythm, renascence?
Are sonnets out of season
and poems but poor pretense?

Are poets lacking fire,
their words too trite and forced?
What happened to desire?
Has...

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Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp...

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A new day begins and new promises made
The child guiding his way
Finally warmed he seemed less afraid
As through the snow they slowly made headway
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     “Who is this child?” he whispered to...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 4 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

A water cannon screeched around the corner on two wheels
Four and twenty Terror Bugs were nipping at its heels
Their acid blistered paint work but it...

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Was it a cruel twist of fate?
Sneering, laughing chance?
Perhaps something I ate?
A bad bout of happenstance?

It wrenched and tore at my gut,
A sickening, sober, foreboding sign.
Wretched chance it was not,
This time was by insidious design.

The...

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Wovoka in the Feverland

In the Dying-Grass Moon came another winter to claim the old and sick.
This was when the first messengers came
To the desolation known as Pine Ridge.
They came riding in at the end of...

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 After graduating from UF, in the early '80s I wrote the book, lyrics and score for a musical adaptation of Moliere's farce Le Malade Imaginaire ("The Imaginary Invalid") and have decided to post five...

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Ali's Song
by Michael R. Burch
for Muhammad Ali

They say that gold don’t tarnish. It ain’t so.
They say it has a wild, unearthly glow.
A man can be more beautiful, more wild.
I flung their medal to the river,...

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Continued from
‘CATONITA STRIKES - PART ONE’
A Freezer Mice adventure


When no-one was around they did the finger-clicking thing
And grew to human size in time for what the day might bring
Their guns were charged and ready and...

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Continued from FREEZER MICE

The cat had travelled straight from hell, a hell beyond the stars
The cat that theories claim once levied genocide on Mars
She now seeks vengeance on descendants of the primal shrew
Whoever knew that...

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Three cousins played a “game’ of war
A map of Europe spread across the floor
No adults there to keep the score
As each of them wanted more and more

Three of four empires lay upon that map
As they...

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Rum was feeling playful so he went to find a mouse
He looked in every nook and cranny right throughout the house
But all the mice were sound asleep for it was dark outside
And then Rum saw...

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Raisin gave the globe a tap to make it slowly spin
“Rum,” she said, “it’s quite a big wide world we’re living in.”
Rum looked up from lapping milk and wiped some from his face,
“Use your nose...

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The knight of knights, Sir Lancelot,
From far away in Camelot,
Went by a way that he knew not
And thus, by chance, spied Astolat
With sunset's gleam upon her tow'rs:
T'was there he met the maid Elaine,
With hair as...

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Don’t bee late for Flight-school


Ok…Are you sure you have got everything that you need?
There is nothing you have forgotten?
Nothing you want to get before you leave?
Are you sure you don’t need to use the lavatory...

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Number forty seven - White House occupant against all odds...

regarding President elect 
Donald John Trump.

As a cruel joke to self,
I imagined myself as a Republican
for that one glorious day
voting for the candidate
who clinched the nomination
as...

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With the Trolls passed out on the grass...the regrettable task
    now fell to the brave Talkalot.
He moved to the gate and taking a sip from his flask...
    he stared...

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Amidst the chaos of chalk and dreams deferred,
We ask ourselves, where can we find the spark
In this labyrinth of rote and rigid words?
The burden we bear, a future stark

We've trudged through dusty classrooms, yearning
For wisdom...

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Forever is only a moment lost without champion the cause Anderson mister burnette blossom barachatta Barbara Streisand globally Hussein ghost minnows shady lane candles blue stay real vanderbuilts vaults of favored few points topless blunt...

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[Just a little note to help maintain the peace on Soup.          
To cause no animosity among our friendly group
I myself am partial to some tasty asian...

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Fork git about spooner hiz ham

And join (singing the words 
in the next paragraph) whether alone
in a traffic jam
basting, cooking, then eating a lamb
prepared by thee missus
a superb culinary madam.

“A Ram Sam Sam” Lyrics
A ram...

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