Long Missives Poems

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

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“The Remaining”

PROLOGUE:  “Terra Firma and The Bitumen”


"The slow descent into Hell
Had led Her mind to escape to Heaven
Her firmament was Her Mind
Her body just a Shell"


Heaven for Her existed in The Dream
She called Her...

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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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"The Pages"

Missing all those years
like a page you could turn, 
a book you could throw casually aside, 
to be eternally forgotten in electric shady libraries;
at some point you turned around, 
and remembered, what you long...

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“Before The Firing Squad”



the firing squad 
came dressed
in faux smiles

the intervention cake 
was spoon fed, like honey,
by mother superior

to the lesser bee,
with self-righteous
magnanimity

she wore the badge
Devil’s Advocate, proudly,
without any clear authority

casting bloodied 
nasturtiums around the...

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“Sacred Lakes”



There is magic 
in your shaman bones
stories shaken like strange mojo 
busy under cover of autumn leaves 
turning burnished topaz gold 
idling unrushed roll over

in honeyed slumber

turning back hands
to face a time of 
blushing...

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Placed 8th in :
No. 1264 New Poem Only Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand

                   The Light Of Nativity

...

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“Die Another Day”


“Your mission, should you so deem it,
Is to infiltrate ALL Fluff Clusters in K.A.O.S. Headquarters
And bloody well steam it!”


“The Place is a hazardous mess of a trap
Over run with Double Agents, ulterior motives
Amorous...

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Since you asked me directly,

I can tell you about it, only indirectly.
The weeks and months and years
now that it happened,
and still happens from time to time 
when I am really paying attention and ready
to play.

It's...

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“The End of Summer”

In those days 
they watched for signs
in the heavens

numbers connected
the ways that 
weighted the scales

written in the stars
a woman gave birth
to a dragon’s tale

in a beehive cluster
distant, yet,
oh so familiar 

Praesepe, 
in...

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Sabali

Listen in,

The Solomonic thoughts of revolutionary minds strike like lightning in the rain, and prophetic missives pour from my spirit like Yah‘s word hit a vein. and I pray that when I pray for you...

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Invitations to the Gala
issued by a grave impala
were highly sought out missives 
by the bold and the submissive 
Those omitted uttered curses
shook angry fists or heavy purses
Had they but known that
the price of  admission
was...

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hear the phrase all of the time,
‘It doesn’t fit the narrative,’
used in news, academia,
and in political missives,
a phrase that I find curious
since so many do seem to yell
that the narrative they’ve chosen
outweighs even the world...

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"Lemonade"
 


Agency sent me to 
the territory of 
Lemonade dreams
where secret rendezvous
were disjointed 
and criminally spent 
shooting the cool breeze
she blew hot and cold 
covertly coquettish 
while they waited for 
absent common sense
to repent in...

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My "FAKE" Genealogical Knighthood

Unbeknownst to me if royal
gilded crests comprised
my rusty dust caked coat of arms
hence, I take liberty successfully farms
productive crop to contrive fictitious
Medieval Age forebears
with favorable charms
strong agile hands

hurling crude accouterments
centuries prior to...

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that will neither revolutionize whorled wide web,
   nor pollinate like fecund human loam
viz - it mine neurological nuances here
   within Schwenksville, Pennsylvania,

   my present home,
town pulsating with
  ...

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It was my first journey by train all alone. When dropped at the station by my cousin, I saw a huge crowd waiting at the station. Like a drop in the ocean, I quickly merged...

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Beethoven to roll over,
     dee composing
     (sans my zany brainy adherence
     to "FAKE" information I eschew)
and essentially single handedly grew
the contemporary paradigm few
off...

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TwentyFabel5
SPAM
Profile Changes
Marking time in pencil life is not a pair of pants or shirts worn out on elbows 
when the chance comes to dance under the shorter rung of limbo peculiar to the 
nocturne creature...

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Path to Hell
By Michelle Morris
09/02/2023

They cut down the trees
No more paper was to be had
No more personally written letters
No calligraphy or beautiful script

They shut down the electricity
No more advances in technology
No more communication between us
No...

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The poor man’s name was David Dorn,
he was murdered by rioters,
trying to defend his friend’s business,
but the reaction quite disturbed.
The media wouldn’t say his name,
all mention of it soon was dropped,
since Dorn was a good...

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"Grenades"

When Humpty fell off the wall
she stood over the mess
that bad egg left
like a marauding architect 
she was holding two pistols
the smoking guns 
of a life peripheral 
stitched up surreal
where the heart
sits in the middle
like...

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Sometimes in churlish chains
Fed up with ribald refrains
On my mind inflicting pains and strains

In the morning, afternoon and night
When from life I gain no delight
Sinking into sorrows on the flight

From illusion
Conflated with delusion
Carved from collusion

Between...

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And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, 
That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration 
when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, 
ye also shall...

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