Long Parodies Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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Sun setting over the dark green fringe of a shivering lake on the last day of winter
An old man still unbent sits on a deserted wooden bench
   with the load of his cares...

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Grab Bag Poems and Epigrams

POEMS

Less Heroic Couplets: Dark Cloud, Silver Lining, Dupes
from “Love in the Time of the Coronavirus”
by Michael R. Burch

Every corona has a silver lining:
I’m too far away to hear your whining,
and despite...

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*Image of Paradox of a Mindfoolness.


Irreconcilable Paradox

The midnight sun casts about clear shadows amidst a
     twilight noon, 'tis yesterday.
The windy gale brews, astir none to wake the quietude,
   ...

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the worldly folk armies of the twice enchanted for common tragedies                        ...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (III)



Songstress
by Michael R. Burch

Within its starkwhite ribcage, how the heart
must flutter wildly, O, and always sing
against the pressing darkness: all it knows
until at last it feels the numbing sting
of...

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Nobody wants to hear a boring story.


'specially when voices drone, monotone 
like an ancient documentary recording
 
or there’s so much "peace" and "happiness" 
you begin to doubt sincerity 

and the lack of any message 
results...

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I held my arms out to her.    
Waiting for her to hug me.    
I miss you today. I whisper.    
Such a moment of jubilee.  ...

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Yesterday as I was going to my chair
I saw a cat not sleeping there!
He was’t asleep there,  again today
Oh how I wish he’d not be away.

At home at last after beers - three (or...

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Once upon a stranger
A girl A well intentioned woman
With open and adorned soul
Askance behind silvered eyes and sighs,

Revealing her concealed seraphic smiles
In an unending sequence.
Yielded in gleams in day dreams,
With folklores and odes chronicling her...

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Behind the mask there is a frail and fragile me
Enigmas clothed in conundrums; that the naked I can’t see

'Behind the mask is concealed, my authenticity
Examine my history to unravel my perplexing mysteries

Behind the mask it...

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Who in their right mind wants to hear jumbled words
tumbled turds baking in the desert sun
pay dirt run, that children gather for fuel
poor mule gets used from both ends.
Growth tends to be slow here.
Show fear...

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[Written last year, or perhaps the year before
But youtube was awash with parodies in a
Similar vein. Unless I didn’t look properly, I
Haven’t posted it before... so here you go...]

      ...

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Masticate this thought for me, reader.
Basic stories of characters with settings and plot.
Occasional works of obscure fiction written in flamboyant diction. 
Maybe television shows or whatever media your mind chose. 
Why does life and fiction...

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My life has been fairly stable. Rarely does an event “change my life” in any significant way. Marriage, children, one’s job. Of course, these alter one’s life course, but when I think of a life-changing...

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First version

I hope that I will seldom be
On some sinking ship that's on the sea;

A ship whose captain and whose crew
Have found much better things to do

Than stay and try to rescue me
From going down...

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My poems are conceived, not within the womb,
which long time now has been devoid of seed.
My poems are born from a need to be heard:
my thoughts, passions, sentiments and beliefs.

They start as fragments,
flecks of ash...

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No, you’re brain does not have a viral inflection                          ...

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Value of kindness and compassion towards other beings,                           ...

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Atop The Table


'an empty verse'
and empty hands
~understand~
The glass in hand
can drown out ten- 
thousand and ten;
Hearts, 
~emptiness~
'  '
looking for
?
a 
f
l
o
w
e
r
  ''
    ''
      '
  ...

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Atop The Table


'an empty verse'
and empty hands
~understand~
The glass in hand
can drown out ten- 
thousand and ten;
Hearts, 
~emptiness~
'  '
looking for
?
a 
f
l
o
w
e
r
  ''
    ''
      '
  ...

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SONG TO MOON

Moon ! Light of Shadows 
    Luminosity of strengthening black bows
       tears of trite nights
         ...

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I tickled funny bones of five Souper men
So I gave thought to trying it once again
In the order they replied
My sarcasm was applied
As I gently heckled them with ink and pen

First, Tom Cunningham, who "liked...

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