Long Pawn Poems

“Come on, let's get introduced to my play mate in a palm.
Linda, these are Joshua’s true other selfs.” 
Lelia emitting a peculiar chuckle.
A comic situation arose where I changed my voice for each of my...

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Dear people, 
    (Am i?) Mad it’s a conformist state?
A status that perpetuates people to pair, to compare, to prepare, 
to perfect, before performance, …?
    -sure hard to try...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

This was Rilke’s last poem, written ten days before his death. He died open-eyed in the arms of his doctor on December 29, 1926, in the...

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A Bagpipe am I,
My drones point to the sky!
I am magic they say, since the wizard ‘spelled’ on me that day.

He gave me the gift of immortal time,
I could travel through centuries,
T’was a gift.
It was...

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Each year as Christmas rolls around, as I buckle under the pressure and stress of shopping for gifts for people that already  have everything, I find myself remembering that Christmas of 1954.

Dad had joined...

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I’ve Been So Lucky in Life! (1&2)
(Only Raped 5 Times Metaphorically)

Poem’s Introduction
My poetry has always been about transparency. It’s about letting go of an effort to be liked by others, and allowing others to gravitate...

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I Could Not Do It Before
By Dr.  Tina Medina

I could not do it before
I dare not shut the door
My heart yearned for something more
I loved you to the core
Even though I did not keep...

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Once pawn a time...

About four plus weeks after
frazzling fiasco from friggin fraudsters
white knight still mourns swindled money
Lynne Costello Senior Civil Investigator
(assistant to Philadelphia attorney general)
unable to recoup forfeited funds.

While holed up in castle keep,
(albeit fetchodit...

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Let my ears deceive me but I hear it, can't bother to drown it out
the taunting laughter at my misery
Fictional should they be but the reality has cleared the camouflage
which hath once shrouded me
Exposed and...

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Once a pawn a time within castellated bishopric

We purchased 2020 Hyundai Elantra
at Enterprise Car Rental
1207 West Ridge Pike
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania 19428
April thirteenth two thousand twenty three
witnessed greatest amount of money
I spent at one time.

The following day...

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Make Do and Mend,

Years ago we had jobs
We had fun and money in our pocket
Things were much better then
Once you could go out the door
And never ever lock it

But still so many struggled
To buy food...

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Archaischer Torso Apollos ("Archaic Torso of Apollo")
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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An old man arose as most often do
    in a state of tension and stress.
To the bathroom he ran... or was it the loo,
    his bladder he had to...

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We've been taught the terror of triumph from where the heart looks...
General Caesar Sir, 9th Recon reports that Pompeius Magnus has fled by sea to Egypt,
also, the body of Captain Crastinus has been laid on...

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The moon was neither full, nor was it not
She shone down radiant lighting the misty ole night
The waves lapped the shore
As a gentle breeze streaked my face
Alone by the sea, clouds, the moon and me

The...

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Hear my poem announce, then refine and restate
its life lesson suggestion Surrender YOUR Fear!
Yes, Surrender Your FEAR, watch stick rafters release
(note: I’m ‘Missing, Roof’ too, and I still love my life)
see life’s cobbled roofs fly,...

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In the beginning after God had finished creating this land.    
Satan boldly challenged the heavens for the absolute control of man.
Gods’ architectural blueprint stretched for ages across the sky 
He watered the...

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THIS THOUGHT THIS TIME
This is the time. To put forth in writing the words that plague my mind. An inevitable forthcoming of thoughts internally suppressed, I have thoughts that beg to be told from a...

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Kind Of Blue (For Miles Davis)

Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx Ny 1991


Before they could lower Miles 
into the damp, dark ground
Two of the PALL BEARERS
Thought they heard musical sounds

Before the Preacher could say
Turn your BiblesTo Acts, 
The...

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"The Formidable Gambit"



Silence 
calculated and distinct

conspiring with rules
plays within the 
confined squares

of a strict and
ruthless mind
preying on all moves

untraceable 
unpredictable 
irretrievable 

in the opening move
the long-legged fly
is caught in the web

silvery and slippery 
life remains...

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Whar art thou dame of my dream?

Eagerness readily overtakes me prior 
to succumbing to nightly slumber. 

Tis boot a blink when eyelids become relaxed 
adrift abed invariably occurs counting backwards  
from one hundred –...

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"Life is like a chess match 
To win you must be swift and able to maneuver 
Yes, life and the chess match are very much the same 
Once the king dies, no others continue the...

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A boy and board in Brooklyn
bedeviled by the breath of baroque battles
bemused with a belligerent brain beauty
and befriended by battlefield bravado, 
the chessmen championed his ego
wickedly warring to a visionary's voodoo,
those soldiers of black and...

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