Long Ophelia Poems

I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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slang..
up-dogged = when you chip in to keep a conversation trend going
fit = gorgeous
buje = unexplainable glamor
football minute = a minute, that with time-outs, that lasts a half an hour.
crute = cute but cringy
women's-rights =...

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Awakened and degenerated, I feel I am clashing somewhere 
The clouds appear and then depart, just another face amongst billions  
Millions of colors of the rainbow at one point I thought I was rare...

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POEMS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE by Michael R. Burch

Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

a tweet
by any other name
would be as fleet!



Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

Remember, doggonit,
heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean...

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POEMS ABOUT POETS IX

Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

a tweet
by any other name
would be as fleet!
@mikerburch



Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

Remember, doggonit,
heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean sonnet!
So if you...

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Talent
by Michael R. Burch

for Kevin Nicholas Roberts

I liked the first passage
of her poem: where it led
(though not nearly enough
to retract what I said.)
Now the book propped up here
flutters, scarcely half read.
It will keep.
Before sleep,
let me...

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Safe Harbor
by Michael R. Burch

for Kevin N. Roberts

The sea at night seems
an alembic of dreams—
the moans of the gulls,
the foghorns’ bawlings.

A century late
to be melancholy,
I watch the last shrimp boat as it steams
to safe harbor...

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Forever in the wind, the gale, the tempest gone……
though, lingering caress of cheek and thigh remains		
as does the precious memory of fires glow.			
Winds leavings lesson, shreds the sheets of time’s retreat	
and, at last, the snow...

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Season of dream haze and arctic signpost.
Chill and chap brood whose scattered offspring plummet thermal values as welcome mat for “whiskered” chimney guest awash with bounty.
Thief of sun filled days without a twinge but that...

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After my life fell onto black days and down in a dark hole of nothingness,
Before I knew you wanted something to do with me after all,
Crystals shining beautifully in the night sky might as well...

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It was just before sunset in an early spring. Three horseback riders, 
by chance, came together in the field by the wood and were having conversation. They were a lady and two gentlemen, well dressed,...

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I sing the songs of childhood
A forgotten time...
Before illusive fantasies of womanhood
Before hearing of the murder of my dreams
By the hand of my lover
Who demands of me
Things I cannot give
Forcing issues of loyalty
Between people I...

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Annabelle Albatross’s amazing aquatics astound audiences at Atlantic airshows.

Bill Beaver’s barrel-rolling barely bumps bobbing buoys.

Crustaceans crowd cramped coves.  Charlie Crab cowers, camouflaged creatively.

Dennis Dolphin dives deeply dragging down desirable delicacies.

Elegant electric eels electrify everything....

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I was reading Michelle MacDonald’s superb piece of art “Sea Shanty”
Secretly, under the haiku master Katherine Stella’s “Yum Yum Tree”
When smiling Carol Brown, invited me to her grand “Surprise Party”

The charming lady of the soup...

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I'd like to help you
but I'd have to go
far far out of my comfort zone
become accident prone
I'd have to face the bullets
and I have no bullet proof vest
on my chest
It's naked and bear
It's not that...

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TO BE OR NOT TO BE HAMLET'S QUOTE FROM HAMLET, WRITTEN BY SHAKESPEARE

Hamlet spoke these words at a low ebb of life
How would he do it, perhaps with a knife?
To be or not to be...

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SLIPPING INTO THE WRONG PASSION PIT

                  Loving wrong is nothing new --But pierces all the same
  ...

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Ya know baby you're usually right
Center cut, intherace, that's your place
On target, red carpet, gotomarket
Hittin' the bull's eye, 'n baby, I'm your guy
Smack-Dab babe
Like the Nile, you flow the right way
Like Carlyle, know what ta...

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The Dreams of Library Ladies

Library ladies could it be you sometimes dream
With books (and children) all put in their place
Do you imagine an alternate library scene
A view transformed to more exotic space

The British Museum, perhaps...

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Deep in a forest a river flows
and there floats Ophelia, in death-
There is a deep silence, a hush and beauty in the landscape,
deep green water grass and drifting jade moss
so soft and delicate like satin...

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Deep in a forest a river flows
and there floats Ophelia, in death-
There is a deep silence, a hush and beauty in the landscape,
deep green water grass and drifting jade moss
so soft and delicate like satin...

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"No more romance" she said
A seductive brunette trying to hide her age
And get what she wants
Come as a guest
Leave as a paramour

It's not my fault
No, no, no way. Look at her
She have already ransomed her...

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My Lord, you dance between two Queens, confused
a mourning martyr and a morning dove
both cleaved of hope, of thought, of voice,
or so the multiples of men would think.
But I'm no less the babe, no more...

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Dappled light plays on a mossy bank
as the tranquil waters of an idle stream
meander dreamlike through summer, 
thick with nature's bounty. The only sound
on the pregnant air is the stirring of a 
dragonfly's wing as...

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She was taken away from me,
At such a young age,
We were just newlyweds,
When she fell deathly ill,
To an unknown sickness.

The doctors could do nothing,
But hope that the sickness would pass,
Each day; she grew frailer and...

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