Long Ohio river Poems

Ali's Song
by Michael R. Burch
for Muhammad Ali

They say that gold don’t tarnish. It ain’t so.
They say it has a wild, unearthly glow.
A man can be more beautiful, more wild.
I flung their medal to the river,...

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Burn
by Michael R. Burch

for Trump

Sunbathe,
ozone baby,
till your parched skin cracks
in the white-hot flash
of radiation.

Incantation
from your pale parched lips
shall not avail;
you made this hell.
Now burn.

Keywords/Tags: burn, earth, environment, fire, future, nature, natural, planet,  climate, pollution,...

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Herons fragment the mist,
appear and disappear while remaining motionless.
The skiff rocks as a coal barge trundles past.
A dewy sky shivers.

Nowadays he just sits in a boat looking at Ohio.
This morning the sun reached the top...

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It does my heart good thinking of childhood memories
When the only thing that was important were families.
Friends made at a young age have now become old friends.
But the family bonds that were made will never...

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Let me tell you a story...

It has not happened often in our neck of the woods;
I can remember only one time we've had snow on Easter.
The Ohio River had flooded earlier 
that March of 1964...

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This the truth will always be – 
amity between Sam and Abdalla; 
finding Bigfoot, 
gathering the ocean’s blue; a perfect wedlock; 
Hollywood; Fox News; Joel Osteen.
There is no place where freedom is not 
sacrificed for...

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River Findings

The Ohio winds around hills
and streams down the hollows
passes steel mills, brick yards and scrap yards.
It carries tug boats, pushes barges, and hauls
black coal stripped from the mountainsides. 

The Ohio’s littered banks 
are home...

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My Kentucky in Fall
 
Peaceful country roads winding through meadows and hills,
and golden rays kiss purple asters, tall ironweed and abundant goldenrod.
Gorgeous colors are greeting me despite the warning that drought 
would hold them back...

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‘You are the tea leaves I am the tea pot I the tiny snowflake                     ...

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It’s taken care of.
A friend of ours
who owns property by the Ohio river
has agreed to make use of her pontoon boat,
to take my ashes, to scatter them.

I have been working toward this, making plans,
arranging for...

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She’d kept the pewter dusted and displayed
since 1959.
A verdigris had leached out of the urn nevertheless
She had been hard on him, had forgiven little,
but felt much closer now.
The television became a corner coffin,
its screen a...

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The serious Train De-railment in Ohio has led to toxic Phosgene and other toxins to be burned into the air. Phosgene known for use in World War 1 and killed at least 100,000. Now, wildlife,...

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Small rolling hills, valley plots,
nothing regimented,
graves not scattered, but placed
among natural features.
It’s beautiful here
especially in the Fall.
The Maples are tall and burning bright.

There are new graves among the old.
I thank all of them
for being here...

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Gently sloping emerald hills, 
Old, gray fences brightened by daffodils,
Majestic trees ready to burst into bloom,
Strangers smiling and waving at me.
That’s my Kentucky.

Gleaming horses peacefully grazing
Behind white fences,
Old, leaning barns speaking of tobbacco and history,
Spring...

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Excitement filled the air as the calliope played
News spread the famed steamboat was near,
Its whimsical gingerbread trimmings displayed.

The whole town would rush to the esplanade
As the wildly anticipated boat pulled into pier,
Excitement filled the air...

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It’s Maysville Kentucky’s own,
Laurie Ginn writing her poetry.
Snuggled down in the hills,
There’s no other place to be.

With an active happy life,
Her heart overflows with joy.
She loves our Heavenly Father,
And has two 6’2” teen boys.

She has...

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Last evening, I noticed the Ohio River is sighing
As its waters flowed lazily toward the west,
I wondered if old rivers might fear their dying.

They tell me her fish are no good for frying,
Technology prevents her...

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Ever heard of the beautiful Ohio?
The writer in me wants you to know -
River life has its anecdotes
My granny, a German immigrant,
mastered that river in dinghy boats
to attend a Lutheran church.
I've crossed its waves on...

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My arrival beat the sunrise;
it was still dark at the small jetty.
I dried the wet skiff, mind alert
to the soon to be lifting light.

Nearby,
an unseen water bird
clattered into the darkness.
Startled, I looked up,
there above me
a...

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In my mind I travel the open road.
Whitman, Frost, Thoreau,
they got here and there before.
I also used to trek and track
there and back;
now I have this chair
and when I can
I place ii in a circle...

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My boat rocks gently under a reddening sun,
is it wrong to wish for a Viking burial,
to ponder a last journey West
into the dying light?

Strangers have always been my friends,
they intuit
the liquid and inflammable nature
of this...

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Gentle rolling hills, valley plots,
nothing regimented,
graves not in ordered row but placed
among natural features.
It’s beautiful here, especially in the Fall.
The Maples are tall and burning bright.

There are new graves among the old.
I thank them all...

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Cherokee warrior i am
First son of the chief
Named, Bright Cloud
After my ancestors belief
 
Bride i must choose
For my sons to be born
Ceremonial dress
Tee-pee adorned
 
My gift to my wife
A beast so grand
Lipizzaner so white
Standing 15...

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He sat on this patch of turf,
and if not this exact place a piece of a place nearby.

Naturally, I try to feel his companionship.
Did he write a line of poetry on this small island
or was...

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A bottom land
where green is thread through 
with a trailing mud.

A late fruited decay seeps and smears 
these low meadow pasture.
Pot-bellied dewdrops hang,
strung upon spawny strings.

Here toadstools labor to open 
upon cadaverous stems.
Tractor ruts have...

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