Long Mislaid Poems

Various Heresies 4

I, Lazarus
by Michael R. Burch

I, Lazarus, without a heart,
devoid of blood and spiritless,
lay in the darkness, meritless:
my corpse?a thing cold, dead, apart.

But then I thought I heard?a Voice,
a Voice that called me from...

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    Dear Father,
    
     I just wanted to write to you today to tell you how much I love you.
     ...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV Part Two
                 II

The first signs reek tell-tale
Buffer-to-buffer...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

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Hearthstone Of Thy Fathers Love
Fatherhood exuberant and renowned is how you boys made me feel.
Exquisite was the taste of my tears as I felt the sensation of joy in both of your first cry’s!
The days,...

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Don't mess with me I'm an the epiphany
 I'm about to sneeze, I ain't no sleeves
Better watch it
Yo, yourself check 
yourself relinquished yourself 
wrecked yourself
 to be built I'm blessed
 admitting it or not I'll...

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We have tree traditions,
still accessible in diverse backward
and forward
reforesting cultures,
of planting a commemorative tree
when a great and portentous series of loving events
comes to its untimely rest.

Recently
my middle son's lifetime friend
decided it was time to travel...

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The older I get, the more I forget the names of colors.
Would you call this paint amber, burnt ochre, or clay?
Would it were the same with all of my dolors.
But age hasn’t washed any of...

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Enough Angelina, drop the bouquet of harebells.  
The flowers wilt as your graying hands stiffen. See, how grave
is our newborn son. We gift him a black crêpe layette.
Say Darling Edward, say, Golubushka, make me...

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“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,...

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The Ghost Train

North Wind, it was a howling, the sky was black as guilt
Malevolent the sheen, where upon her  moonbeams spilt
Through the murky distance, her belly glowing bright
Roaring down the line, she was roaring...

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Night of the full moon

Whale fish are most adept at swimming around in a shot glass but glass goblets are preferred by dolphins whose long dorsal fin opts for wide open rimmed spaces. Stingrays desire...

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“Stroke-a-back
stroke-a-back
someone’s going to touch you
in a moment from now,
I’ll draw the snake
but I won’t end it.”   
                ...

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Book cause I spend an inordinate amount of time reading...

out loud.

As a hypothetical argument 
yours truly doth not aim
to be unfortunate recipient
of misguided, misjudged, and mislaid blame,
nevertheless I make dubious claim
and baldly recede (ha –...

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“What is it?” said Raisin. Rum said, “I don’t know,
Let’s find us a hill and watch that thing go.”
Walnut said, “Hold up; I’ve seen one of these,
It looks like a wheel, but it is, in...

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Behold the abominable annals of the Storm domicile,
A living, groaning edifice of lumber and bureaucratic despair—
Where Allen Storm, the paternal prodigal of procedural pedantry,
Treads upon its creaking floors with the rigor of a misfiled memo,
And...

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She crept through darkness
In the graveyard she dug
Looking for her love
Her one and only love

Her heart pumps scarlet drops
As her eyes search for the sorrow
Of black birds flying
Soaring through the gray clouds

She walks alone
In an...

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I endure the pang of solitude...the sigh of a forlorn love
Time is no healer, every sand of time brings in moments
I hasten to go- halves with none but You, 
My confidant, my best soul mate
To...

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In The Image Of Dust To Dust,
 Kipling tribute poem

In the image of dust to dust
    rests the dark mankind fears
      yet in its horrors, face we...

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When you sort decades of electric cables from that box hidden away

It reminds of disentangling neurons haphazardly fired at random

	It’s a beautiful day and you’re in it among sea saw and hammer


Hundreds of screws in...

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We decided to turn Paradise into real estate.
Trouble was, we weren’t too sure where to find it,
Though experts had located it somewhere
Slightly west or east (left or right, looking north)
Of a point midway between the...

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Married for eleven years
It began simply, with daily tears

It wasn’t always bad
Yet on most days I felt terribly sad

The good times were great
No indication of our eventual fate

Together we spawn two children
Early in life they...

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If I had it once and now I have not
Then what was it I had and now I have not
Could I touch it or hold it and feel,  I fear not
It was neither cold...

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A raging sun raised over the sky so bright, kindled upon
The earth desired for thirst, the first ray hold upon,
By the crops reaped over the farm so baked -
Steamed by the nature so distressed,
The flared...

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Blasphemy…cloud over their hearts of gold
Their value gradually diminishes…their weapons turn to mold
Serenity…deserted them and neglected them like orphans 
Their joy rapidly wears out…they mislaid their abundant portions

They yearn,
“RESTORE the walls of Jericho!”

Anguish…shadows over their...

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