Long Overlooking Poems

Once,
or twice, 
maybe thrice,
surely not
not fractal

A clan of crazy ecofeminists
conspired within an 88 unit residential castle
in their historically converted 
sometimes hysterically clueless condo
colonial-red predative brick 
badly bald aging building

With a sometimes soggy south walled school,
but...

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Medieval Poems IV



IN LIBRARIOS
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.



Brut (circa 1100 AD, written by Layamon, an excerpt)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R....

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Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

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I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
    ...

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I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

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The Council room, back on the fifth floor of the Keep, was quite busy upon their arrival.  They stood just outside of the door waiting for the councilman to complete the business at hand...

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7 am morning time. Damian was 
Awakened by his father's phone
Call. "Damian get out of bed, on
Your feet man. We have to attend 
A conference at 10 this morning."
Damian responded, "Right" and
Sprang to his feet....

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Selena...Sarah the Sorceress
Russell...the Ghost of Never-land
This year has not been mine
Death laughs at me as he steals my grandfather from me
while I plead emptily for him to take me instead
yet I fail to realize I'm...

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The noise aboard the motor boat reminds me that I was not alone
The high perspiration smell from the young couple sitting beside me
caused me to remember the green wood’s in Virginia and the squirrels
chasing each...

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The Sandless Sand Castle

Let me tell you about my eldest brother.

I am: the "Scram!", the "Beat it!", the "What you looking at?!", and the "Turn around and watch the movie!", younger brother. As you can...

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The Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel)

‘Iron Lady,’ of sensual beauty in the ‘City of Light:’
(La Dame De Fer: Bienvenue a Paris, France!)

Built to be the world’s tallest structure at 300 meters,
As the gateway entrance to...

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Life for a child at this seaside Village, wild and free
A band of misfits come together, boys and girls
They Gathered overlooking the village, a day of adventures waited
Through grassland over boulders, passing fisherman’s cottages
Clothing colours...

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Days like these...the days that drag on and on
If only it was quiet everywhere
if only it were quiet inside my head
Too bad, so sad
this carefully orchestrated area of noise
is just part of the elements that...

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I must tell you of a yarn 
About the Prince’s barn 
It sits on a hill 
Overlooking an area where there was so much kill 

Today it is a place where one goes to find...

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The Things Never Said
The terror…
The only things ever said about my daddy’s WWII service were that he’d been to New Guinea where he’d ridden on a truck full of soldiers by a river without a...

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« Porto-Vecchio », song by Julien Doré

(Note : If there’s a melody that can slither/sail past the ear-drums imperceptibly and settle permanently in the hypothalamus, this’s it. The sustained tempo in a low key and...

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Deep, deep, deeper ...

A dark so fluid I am lost
Swimming, choking, in ink
Still, I dive, soaring down, down
Faster and faster as I dive

I breathe now, sucking in light
And brilliance and purifying joy
I fill my being...

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A stone round standing fortress crowns forever beauty
The name translated to english Grianan means sunny spot or sun temple
The land bows down inspirational the view 
seat of the high kings dating back to 1700 B.C
Overlooking...

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WHERE THERE IS A WILL

It has been over three months now and still no Grans will
Through the letterbox; comes another, got to be paid bill
  
As the insurance didn’t cover for my Grans Zombie...

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His love silences the lonely
In a moment of insecurity, his love
Promises to hold me
When the darkness whispers
My name, 
His love expresses the beautiful
In shimmering stars, a moon
Flowing with dreams, 
His love remembers to be with...

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Our son CJ celebrated his 40th birthday,
Immediate family invited to Ramsgate
In Natal, to celebrate this day in a special way,
A guest house was rented by our son,
Which once again became our fate!
By the sea, what...

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Showering white light illuminates 
  Bright-Moon Bay;
   In the overlooking Moon-Inviting Pavilion,
 Li Bai had raised his twinkling, rich amber
Coloured wineglass
    To invite the same reticent Moon.  ...

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kaisers, kings, emperors fight for territory
  dispensable bodies left in the ground on foreign soil, unreturned
  militarisation of memory and folly
  an Irish nation half-wrenched from a bloodied and wearied empire
 ...

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When I think about
what my body would most enjoy,
wants to feel
right and left employed
then right/left regained again
to mind walk 
restorying therapies ahead

While wandering images back
to when I knew,
or at least actively hoped,
no one I know
has...

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