Long Owes Poems

Lady’s Favor
by Michael R. Burch

May
spring
fling
her riotous petals
devil-
may-care
into the air,
ignoring the lethal
nettles
and may
May
cry gleeful-
ly Hooray!
as the abundance
settles,
till a sudden June
swoon
leave us out of tune,
torn,
when the last rose is left
inconsolably bereft,
rudely shorn
of every device but her thorn.


The...

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Winter
by Michael R. Burch

The rose of love's bright promise
lies torn by her own thorn;
her scent was sweet
but at her feet
the pallid aphids mourn.

The lilac of devotion
has felt the winter hoar
and shed her dress;
companionless,
she shivers—nude, forlorn.

Published...

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Sonnet LXXXI-LXXXIX

Day, and Night
by Michael R. Burch

The moon exposes pockmarked scars of craters;
her visage, veiled by willows, palely looms.
And we who rise each day to grind a living,
dream each scented night of such perfumes
as drew...

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Villanelle: No man can on his own escape written fate

         For Thiru-Valluvar, the “nameless” author of 
the THIRUK-KURAL

Note: In my previous posts, especially on Canto 38, I...

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You, Mariana—deepest trench of my knowing  
   I call you by name not to possess it
but because it is the only prayer  
   I have ever known how to...

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Unquotable quotes: Teachers – XXI

The pupil, the bitch and the walnut tree, the more the teacher beats them, the better they be.
In the old days, teachers were born to the métier like poets; today softwares...

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I refused to pick up this pen and vent the words etched in my mind
An invisible ball to float upon my thoughts like a sing a long as each letter forms a sentence I prolonged...

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Each day’s (we’re alive) one more leaf that has fallen
from tree (Fate’s collusion?), our edifice grown
with the help of light garnered from sources outside
of our provenance, moisture, and minerals,
‘cheap’s’ turned to ‘gold,’ not by Chemistry’s...

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"Perspective of an Invisible People"

Struggling for over four hundred years
Drowning in rivers of tears
Throughout the country's history
Accepting black people, still a mystery
Since the country's discovery, we've been abused 
Standing with strength, will prevent us from...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XIII

Davenport Tomorrow
by Michael R. Burch

Davenport tomorrow ...
all the trees stand stark-naked in the sun.

Now it is always summer
and the bees buzz in cesspools,
adapted to a new life.

There are no flowers,
but the weeds,...

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Damn bad reputation counts 500 plus paw whet tick stints

The following fictitious poetic vignette attempts a feeble tale of one ordinary day in life of anonymous miscreant.

"I don't give a damn 
about my bad reputation."

I...

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Might God Exist if Truth’s a Friend?

Is the faith God exists a faint hint that One might,
does belief (that One doesn’t) suggest God’s not real, (1)
aren’t both vain (those who hate, those who worship a...

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The fine art of making excuses

which achievement, deportment,
endorsement, and indictment
(more serious than rigging an election)
jump/kickstarts (a divine comedy of errors)
not reason enough
to be deported),
but necessitates more than a facile effort
linkedin to a working knowledge
of familial...

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!
Hey there! How are you doing?
I just wanted to tell you that
I believe flirting is how love finds
a way to show that, even though it's as old as death,
it remains as new as a child
and...

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Nothing  to see here people keep it moving.The child just couldn't say Thank you. He must have thought I was gonna give him some fish... but I was only teaching him how to do...

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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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Somedays there are no

words to ward off grief

I really tried.Maybe

I got caught up maybe

I ignored the signs.

Sign's saying

"you needed a relief ".

Maybe I was reading your eyes

wrong- or maybe your

lips could not say the words...

Maybe...

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For my Dear Friend Robby, though you may never read this...it's for you. 

When you have been cold for so long 
You sweat under blankets for hours
And still feel the chill ache between the bones...

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Pythagoras while playing the Lyre one day ,
Formulated his musical theory as Historians say !
Just as distinct notes were produced by the varying
lengths of the Lyre strings ,
So did the planets , revolving in there...

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Out of the mist… In a cloud of smoke… Dragon is at it again!
Yep, He’s out to protect Innocence, Truth, and the American Way!
He grabbed his Superman cape, AGAIN! I thought I’d got rid of...

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]=           THE STRANGER MAN  (1)

Once a foetus when I began the venture
And sloughed from the cove of the womb
Now closer the monstrous possessions 
I...

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grabbing at straws the luck of the draw
some live big some live raw
a few like gods on hills of gold
every things fine just do what were told

A man on the corner needs something to eat
money...

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EARLY POEMS XIX

Bound
by Michael R. Burch

Now it is winter—the coldest night.
And as the light of the streetlamp casts strange shadows to the ground,
I have lost what I once found
in your arms.

Now it is winter—the coldest...

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~I don't need, In case you haven't heard~

I don't need to strip for no crown, unless you desire large breast
Casarah, there's no need to be deluded by money hungry psychics, 
Reading leaves from a tea...

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