Long Parka Poems

Poems about Things that Break II
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter.
 
 
 
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
 
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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IMPRINTS
(Part 1 of Trilogy for My Father)

His shoes by the front door make me cry,
like his glasses resting atop an
unfinished crossword
and his toothbrush in its holder
the bristles still damp.
And I wonder...

Did he brush his teeth...

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The rain began to fall steady and slow.The fall rains that ushered in the real drop in temporatures.

Having assembled her pine boughed canopy to dissipate and scatter the plume and the partial entrance covering the...

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Pulled on the parka, and turned my face to the cold street.
Half running, half slipping, piece of toast hangin' from my mouth..
man oh man am I late...

Two and half blocks south down Jerome to the...

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I can't sleep, my body gives me its usual wake-up call;
it's certainly the burden of the Christmas' season,
stretching my resources to implement its reason;
and this budget crisis won't keep me from spending it all...
some folks...

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Long ago, in the fastness of the north
lived a people known as the Inuit.
They lived in perpetual darkness.
Although they had heard of light from Crow
they at first would not believe him.
They made him repeat this...

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Please help me forget
The stubborn nostalgia of a long'-gone ardor
What magical pill have me to get-
To ease up this cussed disorder?

Our sweet long-gone ardor of the days
Was as sweet as perfume of roses
And as enjoyable...

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Everything I buy to touch or taste
is made in China, made in China
leave alone my china set, even my toothpaste
is made in China, made in China.

From my pencils to my stencils
to the golden locks on...

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When winter months become morose
And everything around is blue and froze
Gets disheartening even for the eskimos
Their morale starts to dwindle and decompose

They tread most lightly on cautious tippytoes
For fear their neighbors will become bellicose
They bite...

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Oh, was it in this dark-Decembered world
we walked among the moonbeam-shadowed fields
and did not know ourselves for weight of snow
upon our laden parkas? White as sheets,
as spectral-white as ghosts, with clawlike hands
thrust deep into our...

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She watched her move
	The potted Chinese Hibiscus inside,
	Sliding it over the not yet frozen ground,
	Hefting it slowly over the six wood back steps,
	Resting and breathing,
	Hands on hips.
	Each year she would think of helping.
	But she didn’t...

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On Snow Shovelling

A foot of snow fell by night
With no let-up in sight.
(“Brrr, it’s cold out there.”)–
A mutt rebounds past my window,
As I contemplate the morning weather,
While sipping my hot cup of coffee.

By the street-lamp’s...

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Cletus considered himself an expert angler, handy with reel and rod.
He'd landed ever'thing from wily rainbow trout to North Atlantic cod.
He'd fished the streams, rivers and lakes from sea to shinin' sea,
But he met his...

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Frigid, knife-edged winds from the northwest
sweep down like hungry raptors on 
pewter gray skies. Feral eyed, keen on destruction.
Late May. Sullen skies discharge sleet and glacial,
stinging rain. Threatening each newly exposed
green leaf and sprout. Frozen...

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At a giraffe, like height eye level view: from a cold icy frosty windowsill,
3 stories high. I see a city forest full of snowy powdery pillows packs stacked high with patches of icicles: all causing...

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I am an enthusiastic rainbow chameleon
until I am a cumbersome ox
Wait! Hold up! Stop!
I meant I am a excited spotted lizard

mercurial and fast moving
I slide from granite rock to mica rock
slithering in wetness, shaking my...

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Since the mind is unsteady, turbulent, obstinate and very strong,
controlling the mind is more difficult than controlling the wind."
(Bhagavad Gita 6:34)



Putting a parka on he hooded himself and walked into the beating rain 
heading for...

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If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes
Why live in the prairies? We have our reasons
At -50 you might say we hit our limits
Few places in one day, do you see all 4 seasons

Why...

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Looking great sitting there with her hood on
It’s a red parka, like the start of dawn
She holds her jacket as she looks around
Softly she bows her head, looks to the ground

Her skin is like ivory,...

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Nihonzaru waits for the sun, in the valley where steaming pools warm. This is the north, the far north of ice and snow and trembling bones.  He will survive as he always does. 

Thick...

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(Part 2 of Trilogy for My Father)

We stand on cemetery Astroturf
strategically placed to spare us the dread hole,
snow scaling the tops of our shoes
to compete with the ice in our hearts.

The old priest’s boots peek...

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THE EARTH BLEEDS

We need a little light and dark.
Our eyes but blur infinity blue,
as a cradle robs us of our spark
when we visualize variety’s few.

The white nest of my sparrow skin,
a scintilla reflection of the...

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Dreams as vivid as the,
Pure driven snow.
Untouched,
Watching as it,
Falls perfectly and flawlessly.
A blanket of white snowflakes,
Lying on the ground motionless.
A lonely field of white,
On the frozen ground.
When in the distance,
I see a figure in a...

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A walk through the woods on a wintry day
Making fresh tracks in the blanket of snow,
Bundled up in my parka, muffler, and gloves
Biding my time with no specific place to go,
Watching the sun shining through...

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