Long Outspread Poems

The Tender Weight of Her Sighs
by Michael R. Burch

The tender weight of her sighs
lies heavily upon my heart;
apart from her, full of doubt,
without her presence to revolve around,
found wanting direction or course,
cursed with the thought...

Read More

The tale below was carved one night
upon the stone, by candlelight
...most won’t believe, but some just might
.........most won’t believe, but some just might



            ...

Read More

Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

Read More

The sun, resplendent in its blazing might,
Burns fiercely o'er a barren, lifeless waste,
A desert dry and vast where earth is scorched
By searing radiation, deathly bright.
No sign of life but one lone phoenix flies,
Soaring precarious, close...

Read More

after dark April 26th, 2022

Prometheus bound out the heavens
to strike fear in the hearts of men and women
reminding us mortals how like oxen yoked
(together via a wooden beam forced
to undergo strenuous labor)
unlike most elderly residents...

Read More

Is not ‘Mother’ the sweetest word in the dictionary?
She's one’s closest friend, companion, and guide.
How can I restrict her within the frame of a poem,
when my entire world circled around her once?

As I think of...

Read More

Truth... Is It true?

From somewhere lost atween stolen time
Some things left forgotten was remembered
Darkness moaning for lights to shine
Indefinite yet enticing to have feelings desired

Once was love I see… ever once was love in reality
I...

Read More

Ben Sana Mecburum
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you’re like nails riveting my brain?
I see your eyes as ever-expanding dimensions.
You are indispensable; how can...

Read More

I waited
Under the outspread foliage
Of the banana tree, 
With ripening fruits dangling precariously, 
Wondering, 
With eyes set on the earth, 
Wishing I understood
This everlasting madness.
To what end would man go,
To what end? 
A mystery it...

Read More

The Age Of Misrule

Life is never more as normal as it should
Days to only ponder in wonder where tomorrow leads?
My darkest of dream has long since left its root
Where sleep is no longer an open...

Read More

At first light, I awoke feeling revive and lively swell
Yet no words am to describe what I’m to foretell
I knew you were alive from words of my overseer
And ceaselessly I seek to be reunited with...

Read More

Your tarnished grey paint on a rotting wood canvas.
This melancholy greeting from an entrance to exploitation.
Why I keep meeting you in that gloomy terrain,
Why I trudge through rain and grime to slave for you,
Is all...

Read More

"Bugger the "Group" mentality. I say burn it up with a revolutionary act, start your own Group. If you didn't exist, there would be no world. You are your own world, your own Cosmos, you...

Read More

I dance when my eyes blink
I dance to touch your soul with an indelible ink

I dance when my heart sings
I dance to give a caged bird its wings

I dance when my soul sobs
I dance to...

Read More

is when he of the Mount of Olives
whom you believe keeps the night watch
catches you by surprise with a wash over your spirit
like Baptism, when he suddenly exists "de facto" 
as you are walking, just...

Read More

“FAKE” Festering Marital Spite Only Backfired...

More than a bajillion painful eons
after pledging troth
with thee missus,
whom I definitely blindly wed
comprised great ta ra ra boom
de ay ye blood red

boomerang/ domino pizza pie
effect pronouncing lead
din saucy impact...

Read More

I wish I was a tin man
Out there cutting wood;
I'd rely upon the lube can
To keep my elbows good.
All day I'd task and toil
Until it's time for tea,
And then I'd take a squirt of oil
To...

Read More

Loosing (lou sing) the damn rumors...

Torpedo style full speed ahead
keeping me in suspense,
what salacious gossip
gets browned, buttered, rolled
down the alley and bred
into unsavory tidbits,

these souffled ears dread
to hear hard boiled morsels
poached, scrambled, whipped
donning barren falsehoods
zeitgeist...

Read More

Why The Willow Weeps

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a beautiful park in a sunny valley.
In this park there were three Willow Trees. In those days the Willow was a proud...

Read More

Slowly
 Very slowly
 Fall a white feather
Against the weight of earth
 On the  ground covered in dirt 
It lands there 
To be seen 
By the blue eyes 
To be hold 
By a bare hand...

Read More

An audience in the overhanging trees 
glean upon the sight darkening light appease. 
Free spirit blotting out the sun shortly ease; 
dancing image in the shady shadow seize. 

Glean upon the sight darkening light appease;
nesting...

Read More

This was my entry for Milt's last contest, sadly he passed away before he could judge it.

My lines of romantic Sonnets open a window to my heart.
I write about lost loves and tragedies that trouble...

Read More

I cannot stay wi' thee, my love
	This long and chill Decembre night
The wynter stars that burn above
	Cast forth their shrill and hollow light
On ev'ry hamlet, ev'ry dell
And of the coming battle tell
	And tho' I'd bravely...

Read More

**Inspired by the band "NightwisH" and the cover of an EP record. So many shades 
of silver created a haunting feeling that never let go of my mind. **

My eyes close and I NightwisH
Sliding into...

Read More

When a Man Loves a Woman


When a man loves a woman,  he believes
And frees his heart from being self-contained
To feel emotions in depth he conceives
With a lover's rush quietly restrained
In lonely corners of his...

Read More