Long Luminous Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

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ETERNAL RECURRENCE*


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“I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before and
 I hope to return a thousand times after.”  GOETHE 
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1.

Once upon a time, 
The Lord...

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Imagine your favorite faith community,
whether sacredly vocationed,
or, more prosaic, secularly employed,
is also home to your local Green Freedom Party,
intentionally multipartisan.

This community intends to remain compassionately faithful 
to short-term local
through long-term global
public and climate health
of all...

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Half a dozen plus years ago the following became a near reality

Countdown to homelessness – 
mars this earthlinked sole Harris - son
panhandler would would register 
pyrrhic victory won.

10…9…8…3..2..1… 
Found me linkedin at the end of...

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I esteem your presence
Glowing with glee 
At times, you do say things without thinking 
I’m the god of distress – 
You’re leaving me breathless 
Cutting me down like I’m some decaying tree
You don’t see how...

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Love murmurs in my ear that to be hunted
is infinitely more enviable than to be the hunter.
                  ...

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“Before The Firing Squad”



the firing squad 
came dressed
in faux smiles

the intervention cake 
was spoon fed, like honey,
by mother superior

to the lesser bee,
with self-righteous
magnanimity

she wore the badge
Devil’s Advocate, proudly,
without any clear authority

casting bloodied 
nasturtiums around the...

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I
How long have I been doing this
Throwing my time & money
Into a hole
Filling up notebooks
Mining overheard conversation
For lines
Squeezing the sponge
Of my wine soaked
Mind
Into the bucket
Of poetry
And now here we are
Gulping down the
Lead tainted water
Like Romans
Romans
Forced...

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Dregs and tumors of decay
co-arise therapies 
for humoring healthy
wealthy life.

Those who stand on tiptoe do not stand firm;
Those who stand with equal weight,
bipedal-planted, do stand resiliently firm.

Those who strain their leftbrain stride 
do not walk...

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The Monster


With evil in hand they travel the land,
Forever searching for the lonely man.
His name unknown, but his story has to be told,
And now he lives in the darkness all alone.


Beneath the moon, his only...

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It's styles of a nameless brand pristine day
an exclusive star-sheathed shadow after 
overwhelming luminous glare fainted
a somewhat true-to-life footpath in
a back of structured quaintness

Encountering myself at a passionate spring
oozing its life gliding o'er its rocky...

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RightWing evangelical Capitalists
competitively invested in StraightWhiteMale privilege,

And win-ego/win-ecopolitical LeftWing
multiculturally democratic
prominent LiberalLovers
of EarthRights ecofeminist solidarity

Might together stop
to polyculturally notice

Capitalist competitive debates
do not remember
or co-invest in win/win Left/Right dialogue

Seeking bilateral resolutions
also bicameral-interior solutions,

Capital-fed RightWing fundamentalism
of Either/Or reductive
secularized...

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Without form and void, 
The world gave a lunatic gaze. 
Lack of luminous light love bought,
Darkness did give her a chase. 
Open to no one was her, 
Water beneath and air above. 
Open to someone...

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"The Well of Tender Moorings"



Deep as the coolest deep dark well
Seeking sanctuary in thy fathomless ocean,
The immaculate buoyant waters of thy untamed soul
I lie between thy corporeal shoulder blades and muscles
Bathed in thy efflorescence, the...

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In the obsidian abyss, I melt, feeling the warmth that embraces me,
Awaiting the flight deep within me, a dream without any hope to measure.
Beside my own self, inseparable in this boundless world,
In an eternity without...

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(Lights dim, a single spotlight illuminates Judy Garland, center stage. She wears a faded housecoat, her eyes holding a lifetime of stories. She speaks directly to the audience, her voice a smoky whisper)

Judy: 
They christened...

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Awesome to witness this extraordinary phenomena 
The famous  rare' Ring of Fire' right over Africa!!
Today the sun's a terrific ruby ring in Tanzania
A fiery stunning cerise circumference, special effects, credits Creator Allah
As the luminous moon...

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I was an irrepressible and happy young woman, and graceful ballet dancer,
Who lived for twirling on a world stage, as red berries are shrub laughter!

I had practiced for so many years, striving to become the...

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Let me narrate how Death came ‘pon this Earth, 
Said sage Vyasa to Yudhishthir, shattered
By Abhimanyu’s death, ‘Oh vain my birth 
Should a young dream die and lie scattered’.

A story it is from a Golden...

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REINCARNATION

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“I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before and
 I hope to return a thousand times after.” GOETHE 
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1.

Each soul an ambassador was and is...

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Futility of Contention
absorbs into Utility of Contentment.

To preserve wholeness, mutually accommodate;
    yielding preserves whole.
To become straight, you must begin bent;
    bent potentiates straight.
To become filled, its best to begin...

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AUTUMNAL

            Clean clear cerulean sky calls Autumn after rainy season.
              Curtains...

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You should have a getaway, my friends all said,
They said I earned it, so why sit home instead?

A real vacation would be the nicest thing yet;
Go see the peachiest scenery you'll never regret!

I listened very...

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You can’t expect miracles in the eyes of men 
We must wait patiently with heartfelt acceptance
You will not look back & slip into your comfort zone again
We MUST gain eternal freedom & experience 
The attitude...

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