Long Mete out Poems

Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

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Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 1

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

He'll heal his heel.
They sow so they sew.
His aide aid with an ade.
You saw a ewe eat a yew.
I ate on the ait eight...

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I saw it lying there curdle up
It’s little body trembling, its tail shaking 
And it appear as if its hind leg is broken
I put it to stand up but it fall to the ground
And cry...

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What is it to dwell in the realm of melancholy? Is it merely a cloak of desolation that we wear, or rather a wave of sorrow that engulfs us, rendering us incapable of envisioning a...

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Musings at Giza
by Michael R. Burch

In deepening pools of shadows lies
the Sphinx, and men still fear his eyes.
Though centuries have passed, he waits.
Egyptians gather at the gates.

Great pyramids, the looted tombs
—how still and desolate their...

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CATULLUS TRANSLATIONS 4

Catullus LXV aka Carmina 65
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Hortalus, I’m exhausted by relentless grief,
and have thus abandoned the learned virgins;
nor can my mind, so consumed by malaise,
partake of the Muses' mete fruit;
for...

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i.
At the centre of the world:
Back in the Roman days of yore--
A voice echoed, that decreed
To a crowd of commons, lost and unsure:

"Our rivers run dried, the Wrath of Gods,
Needs must be pacified
By human blood,...

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The Bad, The Ugly and The Good  (aka: Bad, Badder, Baddest)


The Bad
I am the gun-toting, God-fearing Ganja Gangsta.
I’ll smoke you, pray for you, then have my daily siesta!
I answer to no one, and fear...

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First, I was a horse,
proud, fierce, untamed.
testing the texture of one continent,
competing with the winds and tornadoes
to achieve the ultimate granular vortex,
testing the manhood of the Cheyenne,
twisting the blistering ropes of the Sioux,
defying the white...

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Charge d'affaires struck by lightning bolt

While high falutin dip low matt
flying his kite insurgents
planned coup d'etat
clear out of blue, a devilish
forked, jagged, knifed
dagger "O" type electric current licked

more'n the pants off harried envoy
clear rants heard
all...

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I stare at birds flitting branch to branch chirping happily
but birds flitting branch to branch don’t touch me anymore
my calloused senior feelings come more frequently now
just like my urge to pee

Sad, pitiful, stupid stuff enters...

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Ironclad choke hold tightened
around pencil necked geek
stranglehold noose asphyxiated
courtesy mailer daemon freak

specifically America Online
server gremlin sought out meek
resplendently attired as Doctor sheikh
wordsmith scouted out as weak

cussed link within human league
surprisingly springing thru Lenovo
external screen, simulating...

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"I read the news today, oh boy" - Beatles 

apocalyptic revelations spinning 'round inside my head/have me tossing keep me turning wide awake upon my bed/so much hating too much lying chaos just outside my...

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Kiss of Judas, Translation of Pierre Emmanuel’s Le Baiser de Judas by T. Wignesan

In our century where one sells father and mother
Husband his wife and wife her husband
And who doesn’t with ease dispose the only...

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My heart will gladly express gratitude for yielding.
The day's fulfilments grasp an epilogue wielding.
At the point when my eyesight would rest placidly.
Distress is being waged elsewhere so abjectly.

Through the ambiguity, a sparkle of spirits is...

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The fusion of indecision and imprecision robs lives of vitality
Freezing minds in a state of petrified fear
That slays sagacity, perspicacity and versatility
In circumstances where room for a tear

Lives and survives in dreams and screams
Born from...

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Guilty pleasures
has you on a Siberian Ferris wheel,
spinning rapidly
Gulag suicidal libido
urges you to cock the trigger and squeeze
Keep repeating the nightmare:
Six torture chambers
Six gas chambers
Six motel rooms
with five vacancies
It's your last chance to exit
this cursed...

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SONNET(S) ON WISDOM and AGE
When I was young my folly knew no bounds.
Though some may say the perimeter’s been extended.
I now confess my ignorance, giving me grounds
To think that some false knowledge has been amended
Full...

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“we look for that that does not come and go
it cannot be organic form, subject to decay 
thoughts and beliefs are fickle, how little we know
yet come what may, our inner child continues to play”


The...

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I want to be a poet to write those words which rhyme
But it seems I'm having trouble with tempo, tense and time
How do the poets do it rhyme words so undisputed
They neatly find the perfect...

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"Criticizing others is akin to criticizing God" 
"Moment we are critical of our critic we become a critic"
Quote by Author
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words pierce the soft heart, stay there forever
Mind recollects them oftentimes in life
Spoken words for lifelong...

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Ag?? (hunger)


Izunna Okafor dere ab? a


Ch??? ch??? ka ? na-atà n'af?
Nw?? nw?? ka ? na-am? n'?kp?kp?
Ag?? b? aha ya
? kp?? ?gan? ? za g?

Ag?? b? echete ebeme
O nwegh? nne, nke o ji enwe nna
O nwegh?kwa...

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In space, I fail to mete my worth
          Whene'er I look back at my Earth
           ...

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    I sought my truth within the sky,
 The squally blue, my wings to ply,
A thrust on thermals, carried high.
 And yet, the gospel that I found?
    My feet...

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