Long Owlish Poems

Interesting
how dominant or repressed,
predative or victimized,
winner or loser,
positive or negative,
show up in so many paradigms
of light,
beauty,
truth;

And/Or predetermined
prejudicial shadow
stories
too bipolar--

Not enough dipolar both/and
complementarity,
cause/effective co-arising nuanced circles
[not lines 
much less militaristic vanquishing bold squares]
recycling civility,
repurposing cooperative humanity,
destiny,
integrity...

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Poems for Poets VIII


Fireflies
thinking to illuminate the darkness?
Poets!
—Michael R. Burch


BeMused
by Michael R. Burch

You will find in her hair
a fragrance more severe
than camphor.

You will find in her dress
no hint of a sweet
distractedness.

You will find in her...

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High noon in Fort Laramie, the summer sun is oppressive.
A whalebone corset digs into my body’s tender parts.
Peering from the shop, my hand touching the pane
of dearly brought glass, I feel the vibration of incoming...

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Poems for Poets VII



Sweenies (or Swine-ies) Among the Nightingales
by Michael R. Burch

(for the Corseted Ones and the Erratics)

Open yourself to words, and if they come,
be glad the stone-tongued apes are stricken dumb
by anything like music;...

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Urges ushered Est’bel out of her abode –
a cottage cobbled together from cobwebs and clapboard – 
and she scuttled forth,
her nesty hair tousled
by a leaf-laced breeze

In her bony hands she clutched
dregs of a nightmeg broth
in...

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aye savor the faire genetic blueprint 
   extant unique to each of us 
   with this quite alimentary aire 
   including (that almighty, 
   bottom, cushiony, dimpled,...

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You regret your foolish disclosure, as you confessed to be a cold hearted lover for she was 
lost of hope n’ sacrificed herself from this crest for her love for you consumed her totally, 
though...

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Animals animals all we are
Have come from the jungle that's oh so far!
Happily happily we came dancing here
With many lessons that you all have to hear.

I am the ferocious lion king
The song of Valour is...

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Scratchboarded stars of liquid light pouring in like rain 
beneath the cupola of heaven one sentinel of night 
A solitary figure stilled by the mutany of a willful hoot 
his head is bowed as he...

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Hospital forest pricking me not so lightly
Owlish creatures staring at me 
Not as a person 
but a body
One they knew they could not save
But they needed for experimenting
I flinched whenever I saw them
Knowing their intent...

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The ox and the moron kidded each other
with crazy questions one lazy afternoon:

     "Tell me, oh, witty Moron, 
          what is an...

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Cruising southwards to LA from Sac
a midnight filled with songs ‘n Luna, 
light-etching hills in a black infernal…

It was a leviathan’s back on which I
felt the tires unrolling a chilled grief ~

Owlish-full, a hypnotic moon,...

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Remnants owlish wisdom wafts through nighttime’s purple sky.
Fox settles down with her kits, against a nurturing oak stump.
Meadow and forest perform their nightly slumbering rituals.
Vigilant deer mama is resting in a bed of fescue next...

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My mortal soul meets an Immortal Angel
My dark Angel, of a specie , so rare
Beautiful within, dark only in shell
Your pretty Owlish eyes erase my fears
...

Your smiles soothe my spine, like fogs do on hills
Esteemed...

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A mottled feather glides,
then pirouettes to the forest floor.

Above me a deeply depressed owl
plucks at its plumage.

Birds of prey are too intelligent
their eyes swivel on lit-up neurons.

Sometimes it all gets too much,
what with the constant...

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