Long Pines Poems

Beckoning
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Yesterday the wind whispered my name
while the blazing locks
of her rampant mane
lay heavy on mine.
And yesterday
I saw the way
the wind caressed tall pines
in forests laced by glinting streams
and thick with...

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Randomling 1:  Matthew Macfadyen

I believe I'm in love with Matthew Macfadyen
He inspires in me a terribly bad yen
But as poetry goes
His name 'spires woes
Cause nothing rhymes with "Macfadyen”.


Randomling 2: Birthday Wishes
  
For my birthday,...

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On that night the moon seemed hidden from her starry brothers
The kind of night not suited for the fighters nor the lovers
I ventured out only to put out the low burning lamp
When there I saw...

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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XII

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly,...

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FIRST MOVEMENT (Minor Key)

Times such as these test body soul and mind
So should our thoughts be pain and dark confined
Or loosed to concentrate on brighter things
Like furry puppies, flowers and girls on swings

In this bright...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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Book Three of the THIRUK-KURAL on Un-Authorised (concealed) and Authorised (religion-ordained) LOVE: Cantos 109 THAGAIANANGKURAITHTHAL to 133

(Note: Love between mainly the wedded pair from the standpoint of the fair liana-like “lady” of the pliant bamboo-shoulders,...

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Will you, won’t you join the dance,
We like to dance here every night,
Moving slowly at the speed of light.
Won’t you give yourself half a chance,
Even two left feet are alright.

The Bipolar Coaster is an excellent...

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Everything I know...I learned from children’s books 

One day I ran to Grandpa and I looked into his ear.
“Mommy says you’re pretty smart…do you keep your brains in here?”

“Oh, It’s too dark. I can’t see...

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Now in my decline from a time back then
  I remember the days in a life when I was ten,
when we lived in a shadow much greater
  at the foot of the mount...

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One day I ran to Grandpa…And I looked into his ear.
“Mommy says you’re pretty smart….Do you keep your brains in here?”

It’s too dark in here. I can’t see a thing…I don’t know what to do.
Grandpa...

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Now, if you’re going to Laughing Pines,
I’d laugh and say, “You can’t get there from here”.
Should you go remember to forget your baggage behind.
Just pack a sense of humor and an open mind.
My dyslexic directions...

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This is my modern English translation of Paul Valéry's poem “Le cimetière marin” (“The graveyard by the sea”). Valéry was buried in the seaside cemetery evoked in his best-known poem. From the vantage of the...

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The Castle On White Otter Lake

That rustic, old log castle
Stands facing the lake.
Built by hand, by one man
To acknowledge his presence,
In a changing world, he felt
He could not participate in.
And so chose to live like...

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...and then just as suddenly, constellations appeared in a daytime sky, framed by white pines crawling with multicolored caterpillars.  So from this day forward, they would search the sky for more star pictures. They...

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Written 3 September 2023 For
With Each Morning Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Martin Bram


                       ...

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Sounding like the goosebump tickles,
on the edges of naked breath,
awaiting the solace of prickly feelings
hesitant as the gossamer gentling
each hue of delicate blossoms and blooms,
each bud caressed by the night’s quiet dew…

Glistening like the star...

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Imperfection follows me through the wilds
Forests of failure, feelings flowing
Breathless darkness, consuming the dreams
Erasing the joy, destroying the wonders
Coloring the hopes in silence that flings away
Music and dance, poetry and promises
From the heart who listens...

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I remember…

Waking up with an eagerness
That can only be felt, never described
By mere nouns, verbs or adjectives –
This was a feeling more precious than gold,
More electrifying than that string of lights
Placed so perfectly on tender...

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Standing all alone in the woods;
eyes shut, I feel the lilting light.
Sun dodges needles through the crown,
beams land on my skin softly so.
Brisk breezes quicken and rustle.
Bristlecone pines ever sway slowly,
while pockets of air blush...

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“The Autumn is old; The sere leaves are flying; He hath gathered up gold, And now he is dying…Old age, begin sighing.”- Thomas Hood


In the amber hues, kissed by scarlet
Soothing whispers in laughing hearts,
Music, trembling...

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I sit here steeping in the History 
of Our Land, a class, my eyelids dense.
Our Flag hangs in the corner of the class
Red and White folds in deluge, licking the
framed portrait of our Thomas Jefferson,
our...

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I love spending nights on the lake.
Once the oven-like sun disappears,
things get suddenly quiet, except for
the occasional hoot of an owl, crickets, frogs
and the soft lapping of the lake on the boat.
When the moon rises...

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Tragic, When Innocence Was Lost And Love Fled
(Youth, Dreams And Reality Series) poem number 1)

 
Like lake June swans once so were she and I
Passionate romance money cannot buy
Coupled and in heart's fervor we stood
Giving...

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