Long Monument Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems VI



An Illusion
by Michael R. Burch

The sky was as hushed as the breath of a bee
and the world was bathed in shades of palest gold
when I awoke.

She came to me with the sound...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear...

once starlight
languished
in your hair...

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret,
a pain
I chose to bear...

unleash
the torrent
of your hair...

and show me
once...

Read More

Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

Read More

My stalker arrived ripping our flag crawling over veterans memorial plaques aiming through an assault rifle from across the street her anniversary of the murder meant to end my life 20 years later in shambles...

Read More

The Daily Star Thursday issue...

announces Summer Solstice 2024
regarding purr ray zing planetary earthlings
paying obeisance to god/goddess of the sun 
Thursday, June twentieth
at 4:51 Post Meridian
Eastern standard time
will find Earth's North Pole tilted
closest toward sun. 

This...

Read More

The daily star Tuesday issue...

announces Summer Solstice 2023
regarding ray zing planetary earthlings

Wednesday, June twenty first
at 10:57 Ante Meridian
Eastern standard time
will find Earth's North Pole tilted
closest toward sun. This demarcates

most daylight hours of the year for
people...

Read More

A poet of a thousand words
The pen garnished by the flame
Like a sea no desire knows
And love becomes the same
As poet to my love for thee
I confess between the lace
Of time and every sorrow made
I...

Read More

War shapes the warriors it touches, leaving behind vestiges that linger in their lives long after the battlefield fades from view. In Recon Marines: Searching for the Real Enemy, we are thrust into the unrelenting...

Read More

THIS IS QUITE INTRIGUING TO SAY THE LEAST MY JAN 6TH NEIGHBORS ARE FIXATED ON BREAKING IN MY HOME FIR SPORT NOW USUALLY RIPPING MEDICAL RECORDS OR JUST TAMPERING WITH MY COMFORT SUPPORT POODLES CUTTING...

Read More

ANTHONY AND YOLANDA WE HAVE NORMAL DAYS GOOD DAYS AND TRYING ONES EACH REWARDING IN ITS ON WAY O DRIFT BACK ME WEARING WIRES PREGNANT FOR THE FBI BUYING WEAPONS AND DRUGS FROM JUNK SICK...

Read More

Embrace The Lines

Vitality marks gently stretch your soft skin beyond the wildest dreams of
beauty unbound where children had once or thrice embraced your womb
the soothing waters cushioning and cradling three miracles three water 
marks engraved...

Read More

The daily star announces Summer Solstice 2022

Tuesday, June twenty first
at 5:13 Ante Meridian
Eastern standard time
will find Earth's North Pole tilted
closest toward sun. This demarcates

most daylight hours of the year for
people living the northern hemisphere.
Just shy...

Read More

BEGINNINGS

The WORD was there before the dawn of time
the Trinity communed in sacred tongue
with sounds unheard, unspeakable, sublime
they uttered words of their unending Love.
With power in God's WORD the world was formed
and from His mouth...

Read More

Introduction: one of the nice aspects of having an oeuvre as a poet is the ability to see where you have changed over the years. this is such a poem where i can see the...

Read More

“The ribbon is cut
 The die is cast
 The cement is dry
 Yet nothing lasts
 The brazen rewarded
 The hero a fool
 All reason outdated
 New fury the tool”

A journey presented
Your ship to go far
With...

Read More

You know when you are growing up

The stages you go through

Make you the way you are

They help to make you...YOU

The people who you deal with

Whether family or your friends

Are very influential

And they're with you 'till...

Read More

Tavira 

Tavira is my town
The place I call my home
Rich in history
Much like me
Many secrets does it hold
Ancient times still apparent
Different people now
A different time

How many footsteps have trodden the cobbled streets?
With donkeys or on...

Read More

........Cactus
....Water Towers
Isolated desolates
Wrapped in spikes
Fluted aqua Greys
Or in military green
Reaching the skies
The desolate cacti 
The desert fingers 
Withholding blaze..
Desicating breeze..........
.Blistering freeze..................
Where not a blade....................
Nothin' germinate......................
Them root in dust.....................
Wasteland, gravel.....................
The fluted barrels......................
They shrink in dry......................
Bellow up...

Read More

Busy month my family very sunny here in Lakeland during covid July 1st  2020 filled with plans for the 4th of July and celebrating my husband and I wedding anniversary my granddaughter loved baking...

Read More

I awoke early that morning

to an unfamiliar familiar sound.

I rose from the bed with cacophonous singing

ringing in my ears, separated the curtains

with the breast stroke of an Olympic swimmer,

and opened the blinds to the on...

Read More

Crazy Horse Monument

Up there! On the Black Hills Mountain, 1
A work in progress sculptured in granite,
Of a stern faced warrior, strong and determined, 2
Unadorned in a war bonnet, with his hair flowing in the wind,
And...

Read More

silent issues

humanity
and the hypocrisy
of soft tissues

openly
running out of paper rolls
secretly
disgrace on humanity's cheeks silently rolls

there's a monument
on earth
to the unknown soldier

there's a monument
in the firmaments
to the unknown child 

a well known secret

a hood by night...

Read More

"Gospels"

 

Gospels are lost on a god
words are never hidden
under rocks 
unturned stones
for the hiding

Poets caress swords
a legend firm in their hearts
undrawn they hold it out
as victor for witness
and target, practice

to fall on love 
brutally...

Read More

The beautiful days were here again, as sunshine lit blue skies,
And I was happy with my work, which had seldom held surprise.

My job entailed overseeing, the raising of national monuments,
So that all could remember, a...

Read More