Long Leisure Poems

It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s Courbet: Elegy 8 by T. Wignesan

Blanches oeuvres ouvertes
résident dans les jours
la surface du banc de travail est noire
les géraniums-lierres
les fougères et les adragans
accumulent leurs oeuvres et jours:
La toile noire de Courbet
un...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems VIII

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school and college student. 

Moon Lake
by Michael R. Burch

Starlit recorder of summer nights,
what magic spell bewitches you?
They say that...

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Happy Fourth Of July, Or Happy Independence Day

On this day we celebrate and commemorate the birth of our nation, The United States of America's Independence from Great Britain's monarchical hold and liberty's triumph
Congress voting in...

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It was noon, he was in the bush, he enjoyed this type of living, he sometimes played with the animals just to make himself happy and spend some time, Leisure and embraced them all as...

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POEMS ABOUT EROS AND CUPID

These are translations of ancient Greek poems about Eros. Eros was the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. While today we tend to think of Cupid as an angelic cherub...

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So here's my question for this dawning day,
like a WinWin ruminating message in a bottle
floating through a LoseLose climate sea
felt still foggy from last night,
some mysterious how now;

One of many
health related strategic WinLose issues
tuning out...

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"Artificial Iris"


Orwell was lurking in the background, somewhere;
the dream was eerily familiar, 
the words and their meanings, read in Syntax,
once read between pages of hardcopy in school 
were aptly ignored - 

however, 
our Overlords were...

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Exhausted, yet I can't sleep
So glad that I don't want to weep
You're living your epic life 
While mine cuts like a knife 

Under the horizon,
I see the reflection of the sun
Over the rainbow,
I see a...

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In America June 14th equals flag day
and in Pennsylvania a federal holiday.

"...I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under god...

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                                Precious Moments

 ...

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(##background singers##)
Honestly, things are getting out of proportion (Do your part, man!)
Give me a portion of your love (a portion of your love)
You’re my ultimate luck, desire and devotion 
You’re as beloved and spectacular 
As...

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thermometer reads zero, a chilly breeze blows
  apple cores thrown, the blackbirds feed
  my multi-layered partner dons her wooly hat
  impatiently, she waits for me
  securing covid masks amidst my overcoat
...

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What if we live in and out
among and yet autonomously
with and sometimes against
LeftBrain dominant enculturation?

Colonization,
predation with ego-logical economic secular outcomes
too often predicting compromised long-term health
in exchange for conserving an evolutionary win/lose model
serving industriously degenerating corporate...

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The year that is about to make its last appearance 
before it dies and is buried to be only given a place 
in the history of our existence has brought  ?e joy, 
l° shall...

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Just as honesty plants seeds of integrity
so too
vulnerability plants seeds of honesty.

My primary vocation
in this my gay grandfatherly retiring age
is to parent mindbody challenged adolescents
of diverse colors
as ecotherapeutically as possible
to optimize their and our wealth
of...

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Precedent setting the stage for kerning and tracking piqued my interest

Just before logging off for the day,
and ready to boogie out of the joint
an email landed squarely in my inbox
cordially inviting me 
into the management...

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I can’t help, but feel kinda restless
Can’t sleep because I’m hopeless
You got to save me from myself, my restful dear
You are asleep in your melodic, swaying chandelier

Prayers please…… 
Give me starlit and moonlit ease
The sun...

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Your life is a sandwich with many layers
Your knife slaughtered me as you bewitch my mind with thought-slayers
Coming undone by this bleeding hate-love relationship 
You tease me with insults that make me wanna cry, but...

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As the sun shone in southern skies, I was finally on my vacation,
And I turned the pages of a magazine, with new fashion creations.

I lounged beside the resort pool, in a straw hat and sunglasses,
Sipping...

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Rebellious nonestablishmentarian Pennsylvania Yankee...
honored at freedom fête
of course in my dreams
where Tony the Tiger
roars Matthew Scott Harris 
ranks as one hip cat gr-r-eat
showcasing adroitness
with ability to turn a phrase
evident if we could arrange a tête-à-tête
where...

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I find imprisoning parallels
between early Nazi Germany
and early Roaring Trumpian 20s USA,
between fascist and fake propaganda,
between judicial patriarchal-privileged racist stockpiling,
between CEOs living above our democratically inclusive laws
while self-pardoning for agressions,
trespasses,
debts against a cooperatively co-investing society,
between...

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To this day, the breath labours on still 
Marrow birthing blood same as ever 
to keep this battered carriage oiled
The soul wills the flesh to hobble on 
and prays the spirit keeps aflame 
The game...

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