Long Lethargic Poems

FORTUNES READ the sign displayed
TRINKETS, CHARMS AND SPELLS
The store had not been here yesterday
shades of candles, books and bell
Drapes were hung from side to side
The windows all were dark
Where was this place a day ago?
Just...

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The scenery was magnificent, and the morning was slightly hot,
Our land cruiser was windowless, and sitting in a lovely spot.

The giraffes were splendid, and much bigger than I'd expected,
One could hardly gaze at the vast...

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#1
"It is a sin to kill a Mockingbird.
While playing games with rocks or guns, defray,
them, please, ...shoot old tin cans.  Each whispered song 
from Mockingbirds, can heal the wounds  of the day"

Virtues are...

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Dream state yields deep sleep personifications

Upon lying supine - eye shutter lids
into the land of Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,
where the sandman beckons and bids
dead to the webbed wide world,
yours truly immune to wakefulness 
despite being...

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"What a fine day for a picnic," my friends all said,
In the dog days of summer, with the hot sun overhead.

We would all go for a swim, and then have a fine lunch,
And would return...

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She Hasn't Killed me yet
                           58.

   ...

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Silently he sat in darkness, flinching at the sight of light.
Which created a glow reflecting on his balding head.
His cold glare did not help my nerves, 
so I simply stood there observing his silence.

His philosopher...

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[Before you read, here's something you should know. Parenthesis after the line means the definition of that line.]

Chastened by sudden change in mind - I'm exhausted, so stop treading my trail of thought if you...

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Picturebook Princess

for Keira

We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter! 

With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her...

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After swimming at Cherry Beach, I had been returning home,
With some very cool memories, of the sand and green foam.

On the drive back I had resolved, to take the scenic route,
Like the pathway down Magnolia...

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I so adored late hours. I was what you would call a night owl,
As fireflies seldom appear, until creamy moon is on the prowl.

I loved the quiet and peacefulness, and staring at a big moon,
Just...

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"You are a part of me
I do not yet know"
claims interdependent Valarie Kaur

And I wonder,
Is she speaking to me?
Or rhetorically asking any stranger
except me,
already known
because I feel her same unitarian way
already grown

Ego/Eco-centering balanced
symmetrically integral
as a...

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Come with me, take my hand and don’t let me go
Let’s feel our way through the ocean’s sand 
Drink in my seawater and keep swimming low
I’m glad our sorrows are but a small fraction of...

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Why I am here in Poetrysoup?

I like a seed carelessly thrown 
upon dirty solid black, brown rocks,
I strive, thrived to grow 
despite big rough blocks..

words... phrases... sentences...
They are screaming to be released
or climbing to burst...

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I'm breathing like the sun in black horizons,
but internal embers burn in invisible ignorance.

Tired from being constantly raped by life,
I've become ashamed of veiled emotions,
confused between him and her -
am I an oxymoron of feminine masculinity?

There is...

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His soul portrays the eyes of a wolf,
lost without his pack - banished from his territory. 

In his deceptive demeanour,
hiding his depressive state - he howls at the moon.

An outcast unable to dream,
he adorns a...

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RAINDROPS OF IMMORTALITY

Smiles were stolen from me long time ago
Days gone gray as storms rush to play: my...
They drain. Fervently, I called to the Heavens 
but it seems no one there. No one there!

I lullaby...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 3: EVOLUTION



Peers
by Michael R. Burch

These thoughts are alien, as through green slime
smeared on some lab tech’s brilliant slide, I grope,
positioning my bright oscilloscope
for better vantage, though I cannot see,
but only peer, as...

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Safe Harbor
by Michael R. Burch

for Kevin N. Roberts

The sea at night seems
an alembic of dreams—
the moans of the gulls,
the foghorns’ bawlings.

A century late
to be melancholy,
I watch the last shrimp boat as it steams
to safe harbor...

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POEMS ABOUT OPHELIA

Ophélie (“Ophelia”)
by Arthur Rimbaud
translation by Michael R. Burch

On pitiless black waves unsinking stars abide
while pale Ophelia, a lethargic lily, drifts by.
Here, tangled in her veils, she floats on the tide.
Far-off, in the woods,...

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Sipping aromatic coffee on my duty break 
I glanced beyond the hazy vapors
outside toward the isolated runway;
under moonlit sky giant aircraft at standstill.

Despondent like me they seemed outside,
Inside my zestful mind seemed free,
While I wondered...

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I was an experienced astrologer, for wandering stars held much fascination,
Luring in opal darkness of mystery, like beautiful butterfly transformations.

My days were spent charting pretty planets, alongside of faint, pearly stars,
Interpreting their effects on humans,...

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These are poems about animals by Michael R. Burch

Double Limerick: The Platypus
by Michael R. Burch

The platypus, myopic,
is ungainly, not erotic.
His feet for bed
are over-webbed,
and what of his proboscis?

The platypus, though, is eager
although his means are...

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Mystic sounds move slowly against  the face of the cragged purple mountains.  Towers of lost forgotten cities peek seductively through canopies of age old trees.  Grey mists hide millennia of secrets behind...

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"Cry Ugly"

My deepest private searing pain manifests as "Cry Ugly.”

Guttural moans race like a runaway train. The wail crescendos and peaks as a Banshee scream.

Tears race down my face… my nose leaks... snot and tears...

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