Long Nakedness Poems

Poems about Poems V

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

There is a small cleanness about her,
as though she has always just been washed,
and there is a dull obedience to convention
in her accommodating slenderness
as she feints at her salad.

She...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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"Sick Art"



I walk the streets
still and quiet
I do not lie
I do not betray
what the heart belies
pickled kidneys 

I am a ghost
of my former self

ears lent to hear 
the sweet music
of the sounds so fraught
caught up...

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Dear John,

All day
yesterday
I loaded up with a cascading river
of mixed anxiety and anticipation
about what to safely and kindly,
transparently and vulnerably
compassionately, so non-violently, share,
what to communicate;

Which narrative tributaries to choose
within this vast spacetime stream
of choices
directions
felt depressions...

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"I am a painter and my eyes are the paint brushes I had if I look up with my open eye I see the Horizon I see the clouds to be continued
Oh shutter as I...

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??1 Kings 22:17 KJVAAE??
[17]  And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master: let them return every...

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Perfect love is perfection,
it is rare,
if such love exists at all
it must thrive beyond boundaries of my own experience
either receiving,
or giving.

Could this perfection of synergetic harmony and confluence
we have grown to love as love itself
become...

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Summer Memories
Summer Realities

This, the first day of summer, two thousand and two, finds me,
slipping back into what once was my desire, my need, my reality.
This step back into, and into times passed, has allowed me...

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Science is Fiction

Sir Popper popped the answer to the question of and whether science
holds truth and where and when for how long facts remain value’s 
         ...

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I thought to please a man/boy you were to give and never take, that you use your body to make them happy, to put that smile on their face
It’s sick I know and twisted that...

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The weather was fine today so I decide to go outside and play
I didn't have a plan but I was consistent with the weather man
I stepped out of the house and walked down the empty...

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Once upon this time
I was listening to the Christian Fathers
retell traditional stories
of God's election and predestination.

Predestination
is like being born into royalty,
power,
privileges of humane Earth's regenerative grace.

Election is more democratic.
Selection based on God's vote for mercy,
apparently,
because...

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"The In-Between"

I ripped the pages of 
that tired old story 
from the heart, a body of work

buried the misdiagnosed slanders
then wiped their mouths
with the back of my spoon

the feed they found,
passed the disingenuous time;
some found...

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God not wanting to be alone
From breath to dust, life was blown
From the dust, birthed a living soul
Man full of life, never to grow old

A garden created by God's own hands
Much to offer, a promise...

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The great poets begged for muse and not for moments stolen.
We lesser mortals cup in hand beg, not for attentions’ span nor
cause to celebrate, but Time; a worthy goal.
Seconds spent pondering half-held slow bled moments
shuffling...

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“belles lettres” 

It’s a slow drifting
off, that moment 
before you dive 
into the dark

you surface 
to find a boat 
surrounded by 
shining pearls,

Styx, a mirror 
reflecting 
otherworldly stars
hypnotic, 

you trail
your long 
pale slender fingers 
in...

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He stared at the empty sheet in front of him. Everything had been said. Minstrel’s nightmare and it was only ten in the morning. Writer’s block. A poet arrested in void with nothing left to...

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Filthy and foul I found you, 
garnished in grime, 
drenched in dust,
polluted in your own putrid blood,
orphaned, alone, helpless.
Pity overtook me to love, 
to cleanse you of your stench, 
to let you live.

As you came...

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January 25th 2009



   I hope that you know Moneca, in a New York heartbeat, I would forget every negative word, ever negative act, ever negative reaction, every rejective  gesture, ever pain filled...

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LETTERS TO MY LOVE
I
My love; it has been a long time since I wrote you a letter
Flowing from the rivers of my heart
A poem of your unfailing love which has halted my soul
And has captured...

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THE VOICELESS.


Under the oak tree we lay awake waiting for the coming messiah

Waiting for the good time of his government

We are tormented and suppressed all day long with no cause.

And our body bore our pains

Men...

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Did I say What I said You said

You said looking a little forlorn
						a little redundant
	the contradicting crosses in your eyelashes
   thrusting forth the brazen prophet in you for the day
   ...

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Eroticism -
             a supple spine in a wanting curve
       and a foolish fever simmers a scarlet heartbeat...

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Sappho Translations II

That country wench bewitches your heart?
Hell, her most beguiling art’s
hiking her dress
to seduce you with her ankles' nakedness!
Sappho, fragment 57, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Sappho, fragment 138, loose translations/interpretations by Michael R....

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Poems for Poets VI



Caveat
by Michael R. Burch

If only we were not so eloquent,
we might sing, and only sing, not to impress,
but only to enjoy, to be enjoyed.

We might inundate the earth with thankfulness
for light, although...

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