Long Paler Poems

Erin, for a girl who embodies Ireland
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair—
bright carrot—and her milkmaid-pallid skin,
her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children—some conceived in sin,
the others to avoid...

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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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POTW 28 January 2018

Prologue:
A beautiful extra-terrestrial female researcher is sent down to a remote island to observe earth and beam her findings back to her planet. She’s strictly forbidden to make any human contact. She...

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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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The Rosy Lay*

Ready for a kiss did sun rise, 
gleaming, shimmering in the April sky, 
had set to bloom bouquets of love, 
a rose among them caught my eye... 

And made me notice for the...

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“Nightingale and Roses”

the heart burst open
like a canary cracks open its cage with a song
listening to the nightingale with roses
flying like a throatful soul escaping 
from somewhere deep within,
soaring out the cavern measureless to man,
that...

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Trompe L'oeil
I use to be so sure of my colors
But now my vision is jaded
Perhaps it is obscured
from the THOUSANDS of tears I've shed

I taught you
the primary colors, RED, YELLOW, and BLUE
The shades of red...

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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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Jessamyn's Song (circa age 14-16)
by Michael R. Burch

16
There are meadows heathered with thoughts of you,
where the honeysuckle winds
in fragrant, tangled vines
down to the water's edge.

Through the wind-bent grass
I watch time pass
slow with the dying day
on...

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What The Roses Don’t Say
by Michael R. Burch

Oblivious to love, the roses bloom
and never touch ... They gather calm and still
to watch the busy insects swarm their leaves ...

They sway, bemused ... till rain falls...

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‘so glad ya made it out alright,’ she says.
‘i’m feelin’ a whole lot better knowin’ that the crops’re bein’ taken care-uh.”
you nod, smile politely
and step out of your car straight into drying mud.
‘i just don’t...

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Part 2 of Guilt is a Foolish Coward...(just wanted to make a fancy title for the 2nd chapter...hehe)

You don’t fool anyone; you’re a disgrace
Yeah, I’m talking to you, guilt…in your face! 
You’re as bitter as...

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As soon as I landed, Radju, I concluded that these people live like Gods –
Fairy tale like empty airports, queer roads and on them driving cars handsome studs.

One-piece glass in windows and Dutch ware toilets...

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Sappho, fragment 155
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

A short transparent frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

NOTE: This is a translation/interpretation of an epigram by the legendary Sappho of Lesbos. Pollux wrote: "Sappho...

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Shortly after the quake Francie began
experiencing the familiar morning sickness
that had plagued her when she carried her son .
She had hoped to be spared but just as she began her third month as last time...

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When Irish eyes are smiling,
And the gymnast smile extends to curve her petal-red lips,
That's when she'll let her waves fall down with the grace of 
a faerie.

If in a wheat field the sheathes would glow...

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..He didn’t return to the patriarchs,
he just e-mailed them a resignation,
they gave their regrets, but they understood,
fifteen years was tough in this occupation.
He bought a small place outside Rapid City,
out in the broad prairie, for...

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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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Sappho fragment #2
translation by Michael R. Burch

How can I compete with that damned man
who fancies himself one of the gods,
impressing you with his "eloquence" ...
when just the thought of sitting in your radiant presence,
of hearing...

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Matsuo Basho: English translations of Haiku about winter, cold, rain, rains, frost, frosts, snow, snowflakes, wind, children, childhood, hail, hail stones, winter life. 

Mushroom-gathering,
rushing to beat
cold evening rains.
—Matsuo Basho, translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Ceremonious
hailstones
assail my...

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Here are six tales of six relatives of mine
Now all have passed in the passage of time
Mostly seen through the eyes of a child
Poetic licence used for I’m no Oscar Wilde
~~~
Aunt Ada and Aunt...

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Because She Craved the Very Best
by Michael R. Burch
 
Because she craved the very best,
he took her East, he took her West;
he took her where there were no wars
and brought her bright bouquets of stars,
the...

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Sometimes I don't switch on TV, the radio stays dumb
and finishing a newspaper can leave me feeling numb.
What is it with this world of ours, where did it all go wrong?
How could the higher-ups elect...

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My days in the streets of despair took me from scanty shanties
Intermittent through dreams drinking the syllables of books
Cast before my eyes, I was at the bottom of nooks and crannies
Hiding in barren valleys of...

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