Long Outgrew Poems

Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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Poems about Poets I


The Wonder Boys
by Michael R. Burch

for Leslie Mellichamp

The stars were always there, too-bright cliches:
scintillant truths the jaded world outgrew
as baffled poets winged keyed kites—amazed,
in dream of shocks that suddenly came true ...

but...

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A crown that is broken cannot be fixed
It has to be replaced 
Changed 
Because a crown that is broken 
Cannot be turned into joy
So why exactly 
Do you make me sad 
You broke my heart...

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I am playing with my dollies
And my princess pram all pink
I'm nearly 5
A big girl now
No more nappies
Or plastic pants
I think

I outgrew the potty
When I was only three
My mum says it's because I am brave
Now...

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I loved my job as a botanist, which took me to many foreign lands,
Like the golden sun rises smiling, to meet all our natural demands.

I was always marked for this work, ever since I was...

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I was an active, vibrant, happy person, and I was captivated by the moon,
In the way that summer lovers, are ofttimes charmed by romantic  tunes.

Since early childhood, I had been enamored, of that limpid,...

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Come come come and dance with me 
Come come come and sing with me
A sweet aroma is churning in the air
enchanting everyone far and near
Nature is emitting  goose bumps upon my flesh
And I can...

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*** How Lady Learned at Last ***

For decades, Lady daydreamed, wanting a full closet,
A packed, complete fashionable style:
Shoes to hats, to crown the French Bob
Of shinny, brunnette tresses above her hazel eyes.

There’d be gauzy blouses...

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Deft "star student" and beloved dynamic daughter upon her twenty fourth birthday

I suppose... see:)?

twas approximately early/mid March
nineteen ninety six begat your fate
obstetrics and gynecology specialist(s)
signalled impending birth (due) date

about nine months later
December twenty second, and...

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Pain is everywhere
Springing from the crown 
Of the head and like jellyfish 
Expanding proboscis
Cover the whole body
Till the end of the toes
He collapses in epilepsy
And lays there on the cold floor
For the whole day
Till the...

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Pain is everywhere
Springing from the crown 
Of the head and like jellyfish 
Expanding proboscis
Cover the whole body
Till the end of the toes
He collapses in epilepsy
And lays there on the cold floor
For the whole day
Till the...

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Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. - C. S. Lewis

I’ve never been to heaven, where all is new.
So I can’t truly know what happens...

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Once there was a youthful, bubbly butterfly.
Who loved to fly under the sunlit azure sky.
        Colors of joy reflected from her iridescent wings
     ...

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I’m stealing through a twilit realm, the ancient pale of Whereis,
passing chambers of an Heiress
(though no need to feel embarrassed)
through a magic mystic mirror hanging curtainless.

A glimpse near naked alleyways (denuded by the moon) ex-
poses...

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When I was very young
All I really wanted
To be was an Indian.
My mother always read to me -
Stories of fairies and elves,
Of princesses and ogres, witches,
And brownies who did good deeds.
Poems, “Wynken, Blynken and Nod”,
“The...

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A winding road, up through the trees, finds California gold
The heart will race, and breath escapes, to see this land unfold!

Dad cherished, this, his boyhood home, a wonderland to view
and shared with us the years...

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When we first met,
I knew you were wrong without bet.

With my other head I thought,
After all I’m a male, sex I did sort.

Pathetic arguments I did ignore,
As long as after I could score.

Money was no...

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you pull my heart strings as I walk away, inadvertently.
I know that I will fade from your conscious, forgotten inevitably.
But a piece of each fades with our friendship, traits become memory,

Although…

 this may sound bitter,...

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The Wonder Boys
by Michael R. Burch
 
(for Leslie Mellichamp, the late editor of The Lyric,
who was a friend and mentor to many poets, and
a fine poet in his own right)
 
The stars were always there,...

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My essence spawned in a sunflower
And I opened my eyes
To blinding sunlight,
Enjoying its warmth upon my body,
Licking my lips at the way the winds 
Teased my hair
And giggled out loud
When the skies poured rain drops...

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My dreams may bother you.
My hopes and visions too.
But in kind words I'll always write,
despite the critics brew....
Friendship is free.

Never, given in hostility.
But in a troubled mind I see, images...
of you. In your skin you...

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To marvel how fast the world spins around,
or how the years have been sifting, (too quickly, I've found)...
This is not something new....from a mom's point of view
Some will say that my eyes have been clouded
Perhaps...

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What happens when your voice is lying 
But the monologue in your head believes you're not?
A full tank of gas, a million excuses to leave 
A conscience computing a mile a minute, hallucinations of reflections...

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