Long Lightest Poems

WOMEN ...

Truly amaze me ... they possess the super-human
strength to birth a child - one of the most painful
and demanding physical and emotional feats of end-
urance known to our species - yet they have the
self-confidence...

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The Original Sin: Rhyming Haiku!
 
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
-Michael R. Burch
 
The herons stand,
sentry-like, at attention ...
rigid observers of some unknown command.
-Michael R. Burch
 
Late
fall;
all
the golden leaves turn black underfoot:
soot
-Michael R. Burch
 
Dry leaf...

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Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There...

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Vampire Poetry

Pale Though Her Eyes
by Michael R. Burch
 
Pale though her eyes,
her lips are scarlet
from drinking of blood,
this child, this harlot
 
born of the night
and her heart, of darkness,
evil incarnate
to dance so reckless,
 
dreaming of...

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Vampires
by Michael R. Burch

Vampires are such fragile creatures;
we fear the dark, but the light destroys them...
sunlight, or a stake, or a cross—such common things.
Still, late at night, when the bat-like vampire sings,
we heed his voice.

Centuries...

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Then from Dyndoeth came another question,  
     “Now that we know the animals are capable of moving through the sky, what about the sleigh.”
     “Have you...

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Long before you were born, long before your great grandfather was born, in the time when magic was approximately eight times more plentiful than it is today, there lived a family in the remote part...

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The Creatures had gathered at the usual place
    to hear what the candidates would say.
It was time to embrace who would make their best case
    and so be declared...

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Haiku Variations
by Michael R. Burch

This is a poem composed of haiku-like stanzas:


Variations on the Seasons I
by Michael R. Burch

Lift up your head
dandelion,
hear spring roar!

How will you tidy your hair
this near
summer?

Leave to each still night
your lightest...

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'BRRRING BRRRING' said the telephone

“Oh hello” said the wide viewfinder to the telephone. “How are you today?” The telephone fell silent. Very silent. It had no battery with which to call, speak, shout or do...

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Hey There

Giving so much 
I can't see you
There
with your husband4
That should be me
We tested the waters and the great sea
found a sailor.
Nearby I fixed the dog: he'll never love again
Lusting beast, he'll never love again.
I...

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Dad looking at that weatherboard house, Old Tooters home,
A thrifty man.. us to him did his brother send,
Saying that the place could do with a mend;
The roof had red patches of pitted rust, the cost...

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“Where is the Lover?”



Where is your Lover?
He is in your smile
where he kissed you
when you were fast asleep
bodies pressed into
burning heat
the fruits of passion 
tasted hours ago
before you walked out 
the door onto 
the white...

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These are my early poems, or juvenilia.

Stars
by Michael R. Burch, age 22

Though night has come,
I'm not alone,
for stars appear
—fierce, faint and far—
to dance until they disappear.

They reappear
as clouds roll by
in stormy billows
past bent willows;
sometimes they...

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‘I wish for his head, on a silver platter’
Mother whispered to daughter
‘Go dance my love, grant me the golden trophy’

‘I love you, mother,’ confidently
She took to the grand floor
Made it her playfield, a heroin
They were...

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I worked today and I didn’t think about you at all
I was happy when I came home
Ha! Home that’s a joke isn’t it, yeah . . . 
I’ve never been home, never been, for never...

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The Spring Queen....... 
Delicate blooms 
Fresh and new 
Emerging colour too 

Her dress..... 
The colour of new green, 
finished off in blue 
Edged in snow drops 
They follow her too 

A walk through the trees...

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A south wind carries magnolia petals
and butterfly wings, wafting through thoughts at dawn. 
I share sweet expectations, peace 
in mellow morning dew, holding fast to the hush like a treasure 
of rediscovery in bright monarchs...

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When I look down at this pen in my hand, 
I ask myself how much power does this pen have? 
Well it only has as much power as my heart allows . 
So my heart...

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Embrace by letting go, remember while forgetting
turn fire to ice, pay the price for something free
and just let me be in my little world of insanity:
where gravity collides with space, fish swim in it
where time...

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In spite of the choice that I made to be wed
The call of the sea was the voice in my head
The wreck of a ship that I bought on a dare
Was ripe for a trip...

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Were it not a thing impermissible, 
I'd take handfuls of all these silly bits of 
Simulacra, and detritus, dross and debris:
The minutiae and impedimenta that are all these 
Constricting, confining rules and bylaws, codes and...

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Our lives produce such struggles
to which we must rise!
And often we find places
that from which we would run and hide.
But just remember that Your choice
will bring the happiness you seek... 
Just Be the Brave one...

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his kiss haunted her, howled at her, it edged through the crowd
just to daunt at her, this was a cold she had never known, blown
winds through creaky shutters, shuttered thoughts of fireside talks 
and walks,...

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I am stifled, stagnant, stressed and seriously strung 
from streetlight to streetlight
There is nothing left, my energy is kaput, gone. 
My creativity is something I barely remember.
Until I get home to my refuge in the...

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