Long Milder Poems

Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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Along the desert SANDS of what seemed to be a 'no man's LAND' in Eastern Mesopotamia, there was discovered a KING and a people group of unknown language and ORIGIN. No one ever knew for...

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Lisa and I finally tested covid-free! When we saw our results, we began an impromptu dance that felt like levitation.

Although my covid case seemed much milder, Lisa’s been nothing but supportive. Why just yesterday morning,...

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I was in a love affair with art, which had lasted for most of my life,
As beauty graces bush tree and field, whenever hued blossoms are rife.

I started painting at a young age, and had...

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In the what seems to be a 'no man's land' in Eastern Mesopotamia,
there was discovered a king and people group with an unknown language.
No one ever knew for certain where this king or his kingdom...

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It was springtime in my nursery, an industrious time of the year,
For spring is the time to be planting, so luxurious flora appears.

As the sole owner of a nursery, there was quite a bit to...

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Grown man? With kinda light blond hair but not yet white nor silver.
Everyone walking by seemed normal but you milder.
Your face was pale like snow.
Why did you stand in my kitchen?
Why did you take the...

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Yes! Satan is the God of this present age! Just take a close look at the entertainment industry! The beautiful young women are dressing up like prostitutes! In fact street walkers wear more clothes on...

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What Happened to Them?
by Nasir Kazmi
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Those who came ashore, what happened to them?
Those who sailed away, what happened to them?

Those who were coming at dawn, when dawn never arrived ...
Those...

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Even in our winter season the soul of the coming year bursts through hard thick frost,
Even in high piles of purest white snow, buds grow for our future of the next summer,
Blow flowers stir and...

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The first was handsome and direct,
and try he did to please--
with bright bouquets of fragrant gems,
in hopes my heart to seize.

I gathered from his grand approach
that beauty was his charm,
to bloom a bond through gorgeous...

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So, you plan on going on a mission to the moon and I hope to see you soon; so, you plan on going on mission to the moon and I will meet you at noon...

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I see that our beliefs in race and profiles, defiles.
	Perpetuates hate, stereotypes to our brain matter.
I see corporate greed and pockets get fatter.
I see the will on the eyes, the glass as it shatters.
I see...

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Frank James ‘Been Living Too Long
(1843-1915)

The old man signs autographs, telling young boys how a lifetime of crime never pays,
You heard from his legends he robbed a few banks in his younger and turbulent days;
He...

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The old man signs autographs, telling young boys how a lifetime of crime never pays,
You heard from his legends he robbed a few banks in his younger and turbulent days;
He works at the fairgrounds, he’s...

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I will board a plane
and visit the grave
of that brave soldier
who left his country
to defend the principles of liberty
banned by a heartless dictator
who praised a pure race.

In ocean-washed Normandy
the fierce battle went on for days,
American...

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'Dirty Laundry!'

Tell me why hearts compose when all poems are born
in a world full of wastrels (where weakest get slain?)
There are bloodstains besmirching blank sheets we would use
for bleached pulp comes from trees that won't...

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Gather 'round me, my dears,
I'll continue the tale
Of a princess and her pirate lover.
Of her crown unencumbered,
They pillaged and plundered
As they wandered the seven seas over.

Crimes maritime were elating
And invigorating
'til Jack noticed a bulge in...

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All that we accomplish for ourselves perish with us; all that we do for others and the realm endures. Fear of the path leads to fear of death. A person who is truly alive is...

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Life's Tough? Chill Friend! Try a Nap!

An afternoon nap (for hour after one's lunch) clears the cobwebs
that make eyes' lids sag, that cocoon good intentions like they were
more butterfly's wings (1) God might hatch on...

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Sonnet 18: William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot...

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S/He has heard something
somewhere
somehow
about sacred ecology

Wondering if this might capture
her own personal
and political 
co-arising consciousness
empowering
overflowing feelings
for deep systemic theology

Unconditionally regarding 
Gaia's original enlightened 
liberating intent
empowering conservation, 
resiliently resonant ecosystems
of Sacred Goddess Eartha

Embodied iconic health
co-arising ironic...

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pickle a paper and print paint playfully pointing pins
Knitting needles in a fish and chip shop is about as useful or as necessary as eating a soup with a spade. Dramatic are the arriving interludes...

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Far in the distance voices are calling out her name.
Grown weary of winter, she hears them exclaim,
"Spring, please come early and rid us of the cold.
We long to feel sunshine's touch in rays of gold!"

She...

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