Long Merges Poems

State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

Read More

Imagine,
said Yin to distraught Yang,
never able to get quite enough of himself,
never enough time to fully become his ego-potentiality

Imagine this day opens a new rhetorical event,
a new day of conversation between Ego
and those you live...

Read More

Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

Read More

The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

Read More

This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

Read More

The more I read of systematic science and theology,
the less difference I find in their continuing distinctions

Like interdependent cognitive thoughts
and intuited feelings,
their side by divide expertise,
their mutually exclusive bilateral oppositions 
merge toward dipolar appositions,
full v...

Read More

"Universe to each must be
All that is, including me.
Environment in turn must be
All that is, excepting me."
       Buckminster Fuller

Evolving Universe to each must become
All integrity that is, including me.
Revolving...

Read More

“ We  are
                    What we eat“
         ...

Read More

Dead Man Tales
shards of glass pearl the emperor's rise,
his arms embracing upon our sins and lies, 

do not deceive yourself , my friend.
in the twilight of our beings our corruption merges and blends.

there is no...

Read More

Father’s Voice

Your ungainly question,
What is the meaning of Life?
reminds of another,
What is purpose to Beauty?
which reminds of,
What is meaning and purpose for Grace?
and Karma?

Not ugly, empty, meaningless death, perhaps?

Life, like beauty, evolves appositional responses
of meaning,...

Read More

Sometimes, perhaps often when we are young,
we fall in love without knowing or having experienced real love...
that's how we learn... painful at times... happy for a while... but as we grow, we learn.
And when it...

Read More

They stroll through the garden of time with lots of synergy combined; hearts merges in one and passion walking hand in hand; summer burst through the trees and the temperature rage in the sea at...

Read More

“Something Beautiful” 

Something beautiful befell my eyes
yet inside the silent child,
The Unheard, loudly cries 
ugly turn away, 

I hear it,

it cries in the mirror,
turn me away -
it cries, yet I am that I am forthright...

Read More

Since English language my mother tongue, no surprise...

etymology encurtains, encompasses,
and encapsulates healthy fixation
why I can spend countless hours
engrossed with printed material
courtesy select magazines or books,
plus aiming to craft satisfactory
poems or prose as an avocation
to share...

Read More

LeftBrain ego challenges
are also investments
in cooperatively struggling with RightBrain understream flow,
understories of recreative grace,
positively trending karma,
or against, trying to swim directly upstream,
competing with RightBrain's laterally co-arising flow skills of integration.

Our moment by ego/ecoconscious moment choices
are...

Read More

In the labyrinth of my mind, where echoes of ancient whispers intertwine,
I ponder, if my words don't define me, then what am I?
Not a poet by trade,
Nor an artist with vivid and divine brush strokes.
If...

Read More

“being mistook we burnt the book
thoughts rest, we dwell in our heart’s nest
touched by spirit, our body shook
by God’s light blest as we undressed”


In the live network 
of intricate unassailable design,
invisible layer on imperceptible layer,...

Read More

When an expanse of sands comes into view
you’ll see sparsely dotted weeds lying flat on the ground.
For soil is sterile and weather is harsh the weeds are not only unable 
to grow tall but struggle...

Read More

In a realm where shadows dance, the world will be but a howl of pain and ecstasy,
Where the purest among men, in their quest for sanctuary,
Shall find themselves teetering on the brink of weariness,
Facing a...

Read More

In the silent corridors of the cosmos,
where whispers of ancient wisdom entwine with stardust,
lies a realm unseen by the mortal eye,
where truths, pure and untainted, float like ethereal whispers.
Literal thinking, a shadow upon the sacred...

Read More

What do I opine of a good man?
                           ...

Read More

In air of awe,
...I write the pain of my heart,
each beat of tumult,
each throb of incite,
...which merges with my tears
in release of woe.

A cry of tragedy unheard,
...the final words of a dying bird
with clipped wings
called...

Read More

Remember when you learned to ride a bike…how the world was all brand new?
Have you ever stopped to think about the all the changes you went through?

Close your eyes…think back..remember how it feels…
You started on...

Read More

Here lies the gallon of horse’s blood
and soldier lies beneath this hope now dead,
trapped within mans sin
waiting for bayonets kiss.

In this moment of war, these seconds of time
the shadow of foe merges into one
and fate...

Read More

Once in a blue moon, in the circuit of the cryptic sky appears the transcendental fusion,
when the acquiescence of the sky emerges to display two heavenly bodies most exotic phases of union.

On those, mesmerizing venerated...

Read More