Long Pilgrim Poems

I have this faith deep inside that my Father, my beloved Father, can mend my broken dreams
There's a purpose for us being on Earth
It serves us well to be good examples for the future Kingdom
We...

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Agony be to society's demise
Labels are for fools, not for the wise
Play the familiar tune of in-unison serenity 
Fatality won't come any time soon, thankfully...

Homeless people were on the news not to long ago...I weep...

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Instruction
by Michael R. Burch

Toss this poem aside
to the filigreed and the wild tide
of sunset.

Strike my name,
and still it is all the same.
The onset

of night is in the despairing skies;
each hut shuts its bright bewildered eyes.
The...

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Sneaking into the museum to avoid the sudden rain
Raisin said, “I don’t want to get soaked right through again,
It was bad enough when that truck through that puddle dashed
And you and me - but mainly...

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Villanelle: No man can on his own escape written fate

         For Thiru-Valluvar, the “nameless” author of 
the THIRUK-KURAL

Note: In my previous posts, especially on Canto 38, I...

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Thanksgiving, 1971,
a parachute pilgrim approaches Northwest Flight 305
as Dan Cooper, anonymous businessman,  anarchist airborne, 
black suit, black sunglasses, a black tie
and a black briefcase broaching black motives,
Portland to Seattle, prison or criminal pantheon, 
before...

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With you, the twilight changes, wandering through the silent dreams,
With you, destiny wanders, hopes and promised goals.
With trembling boats at the shores, love urges us to be
Hostages to the droplets of waves and kings over...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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Looking Forward to Tomorrow 

Verse 1: I had searched around for the love of mine for an awful long time 
My heart is on fire with gracious desire
Don't drag me down with your lack of...

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Silently he sat in darkness, flinching at the sight of light.
Which created a glow reflecting on his balding head.
His cold glare did not help my nerves, 
so I simply stood there observing his silence.

His philosopher...

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Hey Jude, love is like a butterfly - just let it be.
You've got a ticket to ride, go where you should be.
Love is a revolution it shall set you free.
Don't live a life of sorrow...

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Dear Sam, hello it’s me, don’t fret
old friend whom I have never met.
I wrote a letter time forgot,
you may ask why, I ask why not?
A sad meditation of late
on our nation’s new police state -
its...

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LET GO OF THE LOOSE LADY:
This is ANDERSON WALKINGSHOES... 
VERSE 1:
Have you undertaken any perspection,
Vividly over her actual perception?
Sometimes I get stuck to conflictions,
As this issue yields confussions.
I'm never okay with your conviction,
Though it comes...

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Villanelle : Never political but spiritual the ancient Indo-Chinese pilgrim ties

       In Memory of the late pathologist (and amateur Astronomer) 
Associate Professor CHONG Siew Meng, National University of Singapore*


Never...

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In the vast ocean of my thoughts, I try, I swear I try,
To open my soul like a nocturnal flower,
To become that companion you can easily find in the night.
But often my ears are burdened...

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Am I just another antiquity
An artist who finds a natural home
Among the paupers whose graves are marked with serial numbers
Instead of headstones?
I hate gimmicks and dismiss them
Like any other moment of mediocrity.  
The truth...

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At Peace And In Sweet Awe Of Bronze Shaving Of New Rising Moon

Night, its darkened whispers had come, its silence had fallen
there in the midst of Nature with its deep woods a'callin'
campfire burning and crackling,...

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It's too hot and humid for September!
Even dust specks descending in the room's sunlight
are beads of sweat running down my sides.
I bring pencil, crossword and ice tea 
to this chair and table, these angled shutters,...

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I thought you the Master of Expression
               Your verbal dexterity
     Word play, a rarity: perfection
  ...

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“Azure blue sky dreamer.
Where you bound today of mystifying  days?
Can you hear me through that enigmatic fog?
Your Milky Way incarnate hyper trance phase.”

“Fellow wonderland  adventurer.
I’ve been pole vaulting otherworldly golden orb frontiers.
As I...

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The Foe

With strong arms, the warrior raises his crimson stained sword against the mighty Foe.
Death for the cause emboldens me in a strong clear voice he shouts.
The Foe peers down with its fierce coal colored...

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In my dream
Thomas Jefferson pops out a pilgrim
in The Jeffersons family,
proprietors of Chinese laundries
on the best end of Main Street’s forested path
emerging toward Sanford and Sons 
and Daughters Recycling Dump.

Here, midst polyglot stone soups
both informing...

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O This little piece of earthly paradise alas is finally mine

This little piece of my very own garden of Eden
carefully preserved in it's natural state has not
yet managed to become defiled by mortal man
and yet...

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Lust of the flesh is sin.
Sin is lust of the flesh.
Try repeating this one once.
What word was miss-pronounced?
Hearing is believing.
With fellowship and greeting.
Duffing our sacred billow caps.
To gifts of public speaking.
Thin ones borrow.
Plump ones lend.
Relieved,...

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In the dark of the night, 
when all are sleeping, out of sight,
the Oggles come out to play. 
For they love to flirt, 
in the rubbish and the dirt,
a curious courtial display.

For Oggles mate for...

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