Long Omens Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...






Beast 666
by Michael R. Burch

“... what rough beast ... slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”?W. B. Yeats

Brutality is a cross
wooden, blood-stained,
gas hissing, sibilant,
lungs gilled, deveined,
red flecks on a...

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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...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

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"Salvage"


Salvage the fixating salvation 
unfurling from the wreckage
of a numb world twisted inside
treasure climbs swimming 
the ladder from the deep of all things 
reaching upwards travelling in a new time
of melting morpheme moments overlapping 
dissolved...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems about the earth, climate change, global warming, extinction events, and mankind's role on an endangered world ...



Polish
by Michael R. Burch

Your fingers end in talons?
the ones you trim to...

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Our lusty voice was in the tramp of narrow, winding,
     Scree-littered, deep-rutted roads;     
 Ravens, uttering guttural croaks, slow-wheeling above      
 ...

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Placed First in:
Can`t Believe It was a Na Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Silent One

                      ...

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1
Profound insight climbing the mountain
The higher you go the more beautiful view 
Opens up wide spread in front of you
You see the world under your feet
Overwhelmingly liberating experience 
Shocking overpowering, and scary
You play walking on...

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“The Apocrypha of Familiars” 

Wings hover 
light luminescent
revelling sprites dark pearls
Corvidae shades
of a family 

highly functioning
dysfunctional plural
morphing unobserved
perceived non-unique 
spiralling into shape

more black and grey
than white spills 
from their eyes
light from their shining 
hidden away

intelligence...

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O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

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K375 and K376 of Canto XXXVIII of the THIRUKKURAL Translated with Commentary

(Biographical details of an author, especially of someone having thrived in a land given to scant regard for documenting history in a systematic manner...

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"Chaos Theory"



The Message is sent on a breeze
Fire eats the wounds of a Mother

Her skin blisters
cracks and peels 

Her children inhale a different pollen
Drones bark messengers like Bowie's Diamond Dogs

Tables now turn
machines are giving orders...

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.                           Darkness    there   was...

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Then through the mist, the Sun was set ablaze
and all beneath its realm fell to their knees.
‘Twas but a fire that filled the coming days
as mortal ashes wafted through the breeze.
Her wreckage wailed in bellowing...

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Stolen golden treasure chest
Dead man lying on his chest
Discarded like garbage
Because we act like we all savage
Eaten by vultures
As greed transcends cultures
Lying gypsies 
False omens like eclipses
Fake prophecies
They packed their bags for those ill fated...

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for René Passeron*

             You may not grow old too soon
          if
Things you have known...

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Brief Prelude 
Diwali is a vivacious festival of Lights celebrated in India. It's big revelry time (akin to Christmas). The key symbolic aspect of festivity is lighting of oil lamps all around and indulging in...

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In the elliptical nights moonshine of night, a figure of lavender
And aged white lace, roams amongst the rocky sea shore, a 
Glittering phantom of beauty most fair, walking with an essence
Of smoldering evil and the...

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Beowulf Excerpts
anonymous Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem, circa 8th-10th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

LO, praise the prowess of the Spear-Danes
whose clan-thanes ruled in days bygone,
possessed of dauntless courage and valor.

All have heard the honors the...

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These are English translations of Medieval poems written in Old English.



The Battle of Maldon
anonymous Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem, circa 991 AD or later
translation by Michael R. Burch
 
…would be broken.

Then he bade each warrior unbridle his...

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Today, this black oak forest will become my grave. 

A crow caws in the distance and I swear it is calling my name. I have never believed in omens or curses but perhaps there are...

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Written: April 09, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Daniel Henry Rodgers

Quote: "Do not look back, no one knows how the world ever began. Do not fear the future, nothing lasts forever. If you dwell on...

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I was a world famous fashion designer, and quite enraptured with the new,
Like first caress of pink, peach dawn light, smiling at the full moon's taboo.

I adored laboring with colors I loved, in my fashions,...

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