Long Legislate Poems

Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

Read More

Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

Read More

Poems about Poems (I)



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer
~~~underwater~~~
watching the shoreline blur
sees through his breath’s weightless bubbles...
Both worlds grow obscure.



Muse/Goddess
by Michael R. Burch

“What will you conceive in...

Read More

State of the Art (II)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer 
~~~~underwater~~~~
watching the shoreline...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

Sandy Hook Call to Love
by Michael R. Burch
 
Our hearts are broken today
for our children's small bodies lie broken;
let us gather them up, as we may,
that the truth of our Love may be spoken;
then, when...

Read More

Last evening I noticed another disconcerting Trump headline.
This felt and smelled more like a deadline
for disintegration
than a lifeline,
a bootstrap, if you will,
toward integrity of health and regenerative safety,
which I thought was front and center
in our...

Read More

To manipulate laws to disqualify voters,
Vote multiple times, or give dead living voice,
These are acts of a traitor! Man’s born with a choice.
Should political virtue be building consensus,
To hate when you don't win a kind...

Read More

The Freedom Caucus

Like staunch sentinels they stand 
Around a center speaker, a white-haired man 
With microphone poised and voice steady
To speak of a vote and not being ready.

“We have bad news regarding the bill
To fund...

Read More

Speechless at Auschwitz
by Ko Un
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

At Auschwitz
piles of glasses
mountains of shoes ...
returning, we stared out different windows.

Ko Un speaks for all of us, by not knowing what to say about the...

Read More

POEMS FOR POETS X

US Verse, after Auden
by Michael R. Burch

“Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.”

Verse has small value in our Unisphere,
nor is it fit for windy revelation.
It cannot legislate less...

Read More

PROFESSOR POETS

These are poems about professor poets and other “intellectuals” who miss the main point of poetry, which is to connect with readers via pleasing sounds and the communication of emotion as well as meaning.



Professor...

Read More

Where would be if they seized everything we own? Our houses or our apartments to be given to their favorites! Leaving us with only the clothes on our backs! Starving the seniors, harvesting the organs...

Read More

TranSpeciated GeNomial Code
emerges icons of regenerative poli-eco-normic syntax,
Earth nature’s kinder nurture
surrounded less primally by dualdark dissonance,
absence of Tao balanced perennial time
as 4-equidimensional revolving networks
potentiating WinWin ego/ecological grace.

Oh, your face,
what could this mean,
bionic ecologizing space?

Prime Relational...

Read More

Poems about Poets

Elemental
by Michael R. Burch

for and after 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...

Read More

It amazes me
They say all men were created equally 
But that’s denied throughout history
Theirs starts with constitutions revolutions and bravery
They tell us ours is gangs chains and slavery
It’s pretentious 
And I’m offended
You started the race...

Read More

The policy of hate and date,
You may not like but it’s the truth,
The bitter truth mate!
Was it a lone wolf terror or was it a coordinated fight?

Who cares since it targeted souls
Despised by night.
But you...

Read More

~the Fear of Never~ A DRINK TO REMEMBER!


   And the fire catches every time, my heart needs a sip
I bear no shame pouring, poisoned pabulum whisky down 
Lost in a place with hungry...

Read More

Dueling Americans
love drawing blood from a distance
Crossing swords with their dogma guns ... 
a test of mettle:
Who will bow first
to the pressure building in their lungs
Bipedal zip-lip back-to-back walkers,
bivalve mollusk closed-minded talkers
Fifty paces then turn......

Read More

Hey Mitch McConnell...
about all this talk (I hear) about indefatigable (Phila/ Philly-buster)

Police sirens wail doth punctuate the air
ear splitting soundclouds blare
another typical arrest
(guilty until proven innocent if ever)
so much for Black Lives matter protests
biased accusations...

Read More

Broken England
By Steven Cooke

My Brave ancestors of England,
Look away, for I offend thee.

For your England is no more.
Decay eats away at this fallen empire.
Your people divided,
Its laws weakened by Europe’s power.
Its leadership, protecting the few.
The...

Read More

Four pages of parchment to write a constitution;
Relief bills numbering 5,593 is tyranny; not a solution.
It is high time the tyrants in Washington,
Sat down, shut up, and lay down their guns!
Please do not think this...

Read More

We have the left; we have the right.
In the political arena they both fight.

Always claiming to be on our side,
With ferocious rhetoric, opponents they deride.

Vote for us, to be saved from a vicious clan’s
Reckless and...

Read More

If gazelles on the savannah could vote
They'd vote for muzzled tigers, then they would gloat.
If wolves outvoted sheep, let's think what stops:
No more wool sweaters, no more lamb chops.

If crooks in the cities could legislate
There...

Read More