Long Lees Poems

Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here...

2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves...

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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 XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

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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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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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"The Sleeper and The Supernaturalist"


The Sleeper
shone as she walked 
through the Woods

shining alive 
like nothing
natural could

caught 
in the moonlight 
unaware

the innocent
red-caped roses stared
the trees whispered,

"beware, beware"

barefoot softly 
the Supernaturalist 
transfigures instead

from under shine 
she bares...

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Ford's Theater, April 15th, 1865...
Petersen House, Washington, D.C.

I admit to own a passion
for the Civil War in general,
and the life and death of
the sixteenth president in particular
between a hard spot of whiskey
and draughts of arrack;
nonetheless...

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"Laureate"



Laureate 
speak now lofty phantom
to my mind

guide my hand 
I write I write I write

receptor of communication
things that are not mortal
Luminiferous aether 

sublime 
not normal writ
medium calculating in the script

In that other time
there you hold...

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Petersen House, Washington, D.C.  

(i admit to own a passion for the Civil War in general, 
and the life and death of 
the sixteenth president in particular).

between a hard spot of whiskey 
 ...

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Poems about Poets IV



The Princess and the Pauper
by Michael R. Burch

for June Kraeft

Here was a woman bright, intent on life,
who did not flinch from Death, but caught his eye
and drew him, powerless, into her spell
of...

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...Ideally Primed To Write...

Fallow wing on figurative
     awk kill lees heal
of: "My on call (Uncle)
     Muse Never Sleeps"-
     which hoop fully

  ...

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I can’t see your face for spirits move mysteriously                  But terrible evil is haunting, this dark place ...

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Oh Prince of Darkness gilded gold
your heart to hatred you have sold
dispair is your path and lot
for the worship you have sought
 
Into the fall you did man lead
through the veil of his need
through the...

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" Imagine a place where there is beauty, bliss and plentifulness for all. It is nothing short of utopia. Though we are far from realizing it, isn't it thrilling to imagine a version of the...

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On the anvil that’s the dorp
The noon-day sun beats down.
So between twelve and two
Life in the place is suspended.
Doors to the stores are ‘toe’
And in their dusty windows cheap 
Mannequins sleep with open eyes.

The air...

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Yes, I am thinking about the human race
Please note that race has ‘four letters’
And most four-letter words
Can cause problems, ills, havocs and wars
Race is to describe what fills up the space
It is a trivially descriptive...

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DIE THE DEATH!
(Dona eis requiem sempiternam)

Die the death and transcend vanity
O poor vernal flesh and bone,
Waned out of this primal valley
And sink like the moon beyond the coast.

All expectations, ‘tis the greatest
Reclined at the backdrop...

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Feelings of my heart, pouring like a foss
To the queen goddess of Pothos and Himeros
Before her alluring reflection I’m nak’d
My bones, flesh consum’d and spirit possess’d
With a fuddled heart fallen out of ease
Drunk of love...

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"Broken families beget culprits, and late remorse can never set things right"
~ By Poet.

Scenes reel back casting dark shadows,
Of the fated day I had to leave my home,
Handcuffed and guarded by cops on either side,
Despised...

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Once,
I saw rainbows 
Across the tear washed sky,
Their iridescent gleam 
Slanting down on the waters below,
Buds burgeoning on every branch,
Flowers opening their delicate folds,
And summer bees spiraling around
Gathering nectar for frosty days.

All in partial haze….

Saw...

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He wrangled with his world, found a way to cross the seas
on merchant boats brimful of slaves, bound for British shores.
Innumerable are the things that we shall never know;
amazing, those things to which destiny holds...

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In the tawny twilight hours at the edge of the void life,
perched on the sea shore of foaming contention,
with the coffee cup full of fulfillment in hand I see
the dusky desires reach the drowning horizon...

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I can understand why you came down on me that way,
It was my self destructive pattern you were trying to break.
So used to sabotaging all the good things in my life,
I’ll fight against all my...

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Have you ever heard in your mind
the sounds that silence makes
the silence that spreads like music
as in splendor a dewy morning breaks
silence that clings to a Florentine fog
as lone cyclist a cobble street snakes

the silence...

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Once you sailed upon the dawn 
to grace the eaves of Pomona's verdant lawn,
but now in splendor you have drooped;
no longer shall you unleash torrents from your tongue.

Oh, white-hot zephyr of the morning,
How I wish...

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