Long Marker Poems

Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

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I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
    ...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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The preparations were almost complete when Lumi reappeared down stairs.  He seemed preoccupied and burnished an all encompassing smile across his face.
     “Lumi... Lumi,” Joulupukki had to repeat himself to...

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My thought for this day,
although still early,
is respect for hope.

Respect for our interdependence
and respect for our challenging differences,
important, yet hopefully not as powerful
as our interdependent love for healthy life.

Yesterday
I noticed a brown cardboard box
in the...

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8. Transformation

Yielding to those who have mastered the art
Of grasping one's place in existence's grand scheme
Life’s constant challenges never depart
But humble diligence will grow the dream

In passing from childhood to adulthood
Innocence to responsibility
Firm new role...

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Day 1:
Indistinguishable from the next
Yet placed in a pocket
Decisions made to be kept
Yet I feel I give nothing
For I am a stone after all
It's my life's work
To ponder my worth 
So tiring I mostly sit...

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This became their routine for the next four days, until on the fourth night they were looking for a clearing in which to ground the deer, when the marker became so bright in front of...

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Part I

Rock n Roll came through the slave trade
The Hippies and Moonies said “We’ve got it made”
“Rock n Roll sounds came from the jungle” [Lennon said]
The blues helped through the struggle
The rhythm and the movements...

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(alternately titled: idolizing childhood's end
today April 25th, 2021
generates elusive warm treasured memories).

Akin to significance my eldest sister
felt toward her “Willies” –
(totally tubular fuzzy bendable contrivances
analogous to an outsize pipe cleaner)
until she became a tweener
my Matty...

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Dear Sue,

I am remembering our strong negative responses
to the young woman who surreptitiously read
her aunt's very private diary,
filled with vulnerable statements
of the most intimate nature
and transparently lusty spirit,

Yet, though secretive,
then took a bold black marker
and...

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These are poems about Ann Rutledge and her romantic relationship with Abraham Lincoln. 

Winter Thoughts of Ann Rutledge
by Michael R. Burch

Winter was not easy,
nor would the spring return.
I knew you by your absence,
as men are...

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In the cottage Dyndoeth spoke with Joulupukki.  
     “I simply do not see any way that you can accomplish the goals you have set in the amount of time that...

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The Castle On White Otter Lake

That rustic, old log castle
Stands facing the lake.
Built by hand, by one man
To acknowledge his presence,
In a changing world, he felt
He could not participate in.
And so chose to live like...

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Gateway town, Mississippi and Missouri river flooding confluence,
with its celebration of manifest destiny, its looming, iconic archway.
Stainless westward marker, its culture flowed southward for influence
within the lawn-jockey, pink flamingo neighborhoods of moral decay. 

T.S, Eliot,...

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My Little Boy Lost
by Katherine Huffman
Hello? My son, are you here?
I can't see you, I can't find you, why aren't you near?

As I walk the streets in search of you, 
I feel a pull, a...

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Mitchell: Good sirs, my word was fair. No discrepancy stains the pages of my ledger. The fifth tier is a sub-basement beneath the cellar floor of the temple’s vestibule. Any woman who is not tagged...

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Written words
Lines and verses
Poetry
Fragments of an author's soul
Frozen ink on paper
Entombed emotions
Imprisoned ideas
Trapped thoughts
Sentient silhouettes
Paper phantoms
Paper ghosts

School during a civil war
In six easy steps
A place of learning and reason
A propaganda soup cauldron
A refuge of normality...

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I say I want peace
Yet I hate my brother
It's not what I was taught by my mother
She said get along with one another
But that's not what I learned from my father
His propaganda soaked in like...

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Beneath the ash its morals face defeat
as segregation separates is corps.
The scars outline a union incomplete
and wounds define its failure to restore.
Though rally calls have filled a Nation’s heart
and motivation fueled its vast machine,
supremacy held...

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IMPRINTS
(Part 1 of Trilogy for My Father)

His shoes by the front door make me cry,
like his glasses resting atop an
unfinished crossword
and his toothbrush in its holder
the bristles still damp.
And I wonder...

Did he brush his teeth...

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It was many years ago that I sat there on the floor
With Aunt Allie and my cousins, we knew what was in store.
The clan was gathered there around the Christmas tree
Just eagerly awaiting their Christmas...

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My heart hit the wall like graffiti spray.
Shakespeare could have cast you 
just as you had cast me.
Playtime was rushed to sleep with resistance, 
as cinderblock thoughts tossed and turned 
until drifting became corroding numbness...

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April has come but March still lingers, this is the reality of the east winds,
April and May, a the time for poets, as they write off the tyranny of reality,
Fickleness and uncertainty, has always been...

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You are God’s Art Work. When you understand this; you understand the importance of being and the importance and beauty of another’s being.
Imagine a child of any age, with his or her coloring pencils drawing...

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