Long Nile Poems

Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

Read More

Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

Read More

I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

Read More

Identity Apples

iam a fat skeleton, resurrecting 
from the sad memories of dada 
and dark mysteries of aminism 
iam buganda 
i bleed hope 
i drip the honey of fortune 
makerere, think tank of africa 
i dance...

Read More

TITLE:
       Xenophobia

Heed the warning
This isn't for the faint of heart
Verbalizing my deepest yearnings 
They're bound to be a bit tart...

Because where I'm from is called the Bible Belt
Where folks...

Read More

Old Pharaoh had enslaved the Jews; he would not let them go.
So God devised a mighty scheme; his go-to guy was Mo.
His brother Aaron was the voice, for Moses talked real slow,
So he would wave...

Read More

The Stela Epic by DR. Mohammed F A Alrazak

The grains of sand, the drops of rain, makes the stage for souls to play 
The prints of feet on rocks were wonders and arts as the...

Read More

* This poem was written for a contest originally, but was used by Professor Anne-Marie Thornton of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, to teach her WAR POETRY class in the spring semester of 2017. My...

Read More

Her small angelic face ...

Once a place where broad smiles bloomed like butterflies on marigolds,
is streaked with the furrows that countless tears have etched into the
layers of dust and dirt and explosive residue that now...

Read More

Alexander The Great was born in Macedonia in 356 BC, led to believe
From a boy by Olympias his mother, and to conceive
He was born of the gods, legend inferred he was the son of Zeus,
Ruler...

Read More

Zulaikha:
What a bird you are, o red-billed Bird, 
you don’t eat reddish mangoes!
By eating which ash, will you exist then
in this bower of fate?

Yusuf:
That there is any fruit better than the name of God
and any...

Read More

The Edges of Rhyme 

I wrote the playbook, watching what they took 
While the earth shook I could not look 
In the direction of the Big Book 
Like a fish caught on a nasty hook...

Read More

* I’m honored to say that this piece was used for a “War Poetry” class by Ann Marie Thornton at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. Many thanks to her and the students for their questions...

Read More

This poem is featured in Dr. Ivan Edwards' upcoming anthology, Resonance of the Soul: Flowers and Harmonics, published by IEME LLC. The book will be available in e-book, softcover, and hardcover formats upon release. Available...

Read More

THE DEATH OF TUTANKHAMEN

                 I.

The king is dead--and layed within his place,
  and night has fallen as it...

Read More

THE DEATH OF TUTANKHAMEN

                 I.

The king is dead--and layed within his place,
  and night has fallen as it...

Read More

Spring flowers you grow & bloom, watered and snuggled within our bed
I knew that my skull was filled with cogs that spun together in my head
I knew early on I made a series of promises...

Read More

Deva Ossig, the landlady (and property owner) turned rogue

Just a couple weeks shy 
and seven years ago to the day,
I still remember contractual obligations
our previous residential abode
724 West Railroad Avenue, 
Bryn Mawr 19010 zip code
volatile...

Read More

In golden chains of bondage, was the royal queen
Brought forth, force to kneel, before the newly crowned
Pharaoh of Egypt!
Branded a heretic, a blasphemer of the Gods, a traitor to
Her people, unworthy to wear the serpents...

Read More

Pedestrians are moving ups and downs the day can define the differences he experiences in the bathroom, cars buzzing their noise, around my understanding I cannot keep on thrusting for answers which has to be...

Read More

“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...

Read More

When potable water nearly disappeared,
good faith communities
for healthy living 
water,
Earth,
people,
plants,
soil,
air,

Fire-breathing resistance churches
and calmer rapture temples,
synagogues,
mosques,
green post-millennial sanctuaries,
Gaian ecofeminist fire-circles
gathered their members and neighboring allies,
republican nationalists,
green democrats,
ecosystemic libertarian zeroists,

To discuss and discern
which potential Presidential
and Vice-Presidential candidates...

Read More

try me if you please as you are out spreading the disease
plagued by thoughts of granduer with affectionate melancholy
sparkling array of blissful care through the air
my very soul permeates a reason for being amidst the...

Read More

Often times I wonder if I may have missed 
a greater calling or purpose in my life.
As a young man I was frivolous and non-sensical
when it came to asking the most important questions:
“Why am I...

Read More

Written by Adebayo Olamide(Aesthete),Prince Joe and Ajibade Abdullah(Pen Talk).
..................................................................
9th Of January,2017.
................................................................
.
Who would hold my heart,
Now it's reeling off, almost?
Adufe!
My praise queen,
Only in your palms,when drop,
Will it survive the fall.
.
You praise the queen bee,
Her elegance,a perfect...

Read More