Long Marveled Poems

For ten months now I’ve brooded over coming second place
in the pickle section deeming, it no less than a disgrace.
It was written plain and simple, so there can be no excuse,
that the pickles in this...

Read More

Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

Read More

ETERNAL RECURRENCE*


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
“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 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


1.

Once upon a time, 
The Lord...

Read More

HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

Read More

(Apropos Of A School-Day Happenstance)

There she stood on the edge 
of the cliff of loneliness—her
tiny eyes staring out into space.

As I cautiously approached her,
I softly asked if everything was ok.
She replied that everything was fine;
that...

Read More

The Sun had risen to greet the day
    and marveled at such a range of wondrous things.
Where below the warmth it brought to bare
    was causing a Thrasher's heart...

Read More

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...

Read More

The name of my sidekick was Benjamin, a fellow church member
An ornery, brown haired boy who had nothing in common with me
Save for his sudden sense of adventure and exploration
He asked me, “Laura? Have you...

Read More

What is it that makes a feeling? Why are some words soothing? We have heard poets, in lyrical ways, describing the delights of stars or waterfalls or rainbows. They awaken in us the wonder of...

Read More

THE FORGIVEN
1. When it was the time to be the end
and everyone had gone into the ark to be counted
then they came two by two,
a girl ox and a boy ox
a girl elephant and a...

Read More

The scarlet sky is bleeding with benevolence
Peace is overruled by vain, dreadful violence
Horrendous volcanoes erupt the moment you kiss me goodbye
gods of gold and gods of silver fill your eyes…that’s no lie
Upgrading unlimited contentment on...

Read More

Every morning
When I glance into the mirror
I look deep inside
Deeper than my subtly-thinning hair
Deeper than my raven beard
Deeper than my mocha complexion
Laden with marks
Of life's wear and tear 
And high cheek bones
I see multitudes
From across...

Read More

We’re in NYC - at last - on Christmas vacation, and it feels like a pardon.

It’s amazing what can happen in just a few wild and change-filled hours. One minute, seemingly, you’re in a picture...

Read More

Peter (my bf) and I were in Paris, about three weeks ago (I was on Spring break, he was on vacation from work).
‘Headstart for Happiness,’ by ‘the Style Council,’ was playing low somewhere.
“This is the...

Read More

Busy getting ready to go to a meeting
I was looking through my closet for something to wear
My 20 year old daughter, Shereen, was in my bedroom
Showing me her new clothes
I marveled at her
What a body
What...

Read More

“The Lord will show Me, 
Has shown me, where your mind lies….”

I began to wonder if I was lost in that statement to him,
That fear and desire had blinded me to rush such an assertion
Upon...

Read More

I lie here watching all the glorious places pass by along my journey. 
To be sure, my course was set many years ago making my passage measured only in terms of near or far. 
At...

Read More

I was an accomplished librarian, who took pleasure from written words,
As opera singers find their pleasure, in the halls where music is heard.

I was well matched to such absorbing work, knowing it was worthwhile,
Like stars...

Read More

“Childhood only exists”
“While its innocence lives”
“In time, it is stripped away”
“By what, our invidious reasoning gives”     WIZDUMBs by JA 223           ...

Read More

THE CAVES OF JUPITER
        Part  I.
In the days of the dark of Jupiter
the great King Daeth ruled both day and night,
for his was a mind set free...

Read More

Yamaha impressed me the first time I laid eyes on her glistening blond maple wood, her stylish body details, her long fretted mother-of-pearl inlay; lobed with golden keys. Her voice called to me the first...

Read More

The sixty-year reunion
of the class of '55
was quite a celebration
for the ones who had survived...

First came prissy Pomeroy-
then Milford, Meeks, and Moody
who like old crows, perched and cawed
at busty old Miss Trudy

While Trudy curled her...

Read More

"What Next, Mystery Babylon?



The World 
burns with a fever
tongues of Babylon
sing too late 
they sing like 
a river run dry 
divining rods 
searching for 
the last drop
of truth
throats cut 
and bleeding out
their  legacy
the innocent...

Read More

I sat upon a wooden bench 
    to rest my weary limbs.
And marveled at a Thrasher's voice
     who sang a pastoral hymn.
Where joggers passed in groups of two...

Read More

I once spent the winter 
Near the town willow creek.
It wasn't adventure 
I attempted to seek.
The cabin elevation 
Was 5000 foot.
My goal that winter 
Was to finish writing my book.
The first winter snow 
Had covered...

Read More