Long Plumed Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems VI



An Illusion
by Michael R. Burch

The sky was as hushed as the breath of a bee
and the world was bathed in shades of palest gold
when I awoke.

She came to me with the sound...

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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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Rejection Slips

With over 5,700 publications if I count poems that have gone viral, I suppose I shouldn’t complain … but I do have some poems that have never been accepted for publication. Here are a...

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Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems about the earth, climate change, global warming, extinction events, and mankind's role on an endangered world ...



Polish
by Michael R. Burch

Your fingers end in talons?
the ones you trim to...

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1
Though still within our infancy, 
we strive to thrive, but woefully 
we flash and flaunt our 'primacy',
display our trophies pridefully.
 
Our terra firma ecstasy
destroys survival's harmony,
lays waste to life on land and sea.
Mankind, thy name...

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I will admit I was a tightwad, though that fact shames me now,
As never changing mountains, often colorful mists will allow!

I never meant to be unkind, but only endeavored to be practical,
Like the moon exiting...

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All my life I had loved music, and rapturous harmonies thrilled my soul,
As the sound of a wild driving beat, causes eager feet to take control.

As a longtime concert pianist, I'd been fortunate to follow...

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I was a skilled, dedicated CIA agent, helping to preserve national security,
By searching for and garnering information, as silvery rain ensures purity.

Days were spent perusing foreign material, or viewing international news,
Like walking a maze of...

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When empty bubbles of stillness brimmed the place
Upon an emerald carpet of meads, she genuflected with gathered grace
Of languished bones and reverence plucked from nunhood hearts.
Mighty potentate dear, the wonted beseeching starts. 

Oh! May the...

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GLIMPSE 

My heart a pouch of rich wine overlays yours
A drop of blood spilled over an arum lily
It waits with longing intense, retains no tears
As it remembers its cringes of final fear when it
Jumped into...

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Not too far removed
From penetration fully Roman
Mysterious strangers appear
In form of a red-plumed omen
Clans laughing on the run
We are thumbing our noses
At laws made for justice
And order for the masses

Force of the strongest
The only law...

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COLOURFUL LAMENT

I combed cool waters of your 
baby blue crystalline Jewel as you 
waded waterfall waves washing 
my stellar rainbow rays 
Arching it melted into the warm 
womb of transducing tangoing Earth

Her Violet Flame devoured...

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A POLLEN PUFF WAND 

Puff, puff, a pollen puff
That blows from a single rose; 
The Field Fairy blonde, waves her gold wand 
Constructed from giggles and bowes. 

Butterflies know when springtime is late 
And the...

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Beware of politicians whose active manifesto
Is always to speak ill of other candidates and opposition parties.
They are the real problems!

Beware of political goons and rumour-mongers, spinning allegations 
Twining civil questions, yakking all day but never...

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*Image of Smallest Dog by Bio.

The Small Dog from Shansi

There was a scholar from Shansi City,
Miffed by folks he stayed in an priory,
Peaceful, but bothered by its many bugs,
So he bundled like a baby in...

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she got on about three stops after I did 
I was sure she was conversant in ballet 
by the way she danced up the steps 
and delicately deposited her passage 
into the device next to...

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Surrounded by tropical treasures
large plumed birds called in 
strange and beautiful ways
only to be answered from another 
a long way away,
flowers with bright petals provided
a blanket of color with a dazzling array.

Cascading water forms a...

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You lay in the wooden cot,
a broken sparrow,
Crushed. Bony. Frail.
Hair once plumed gold,
greyed to clumped feathers
like ragged  trampled wings,
strawed out on the dank pillow.
Face once blushed pink plump,
Jolly kind of soft with life,
Sucked to...

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Tropical quadra plateau, Amazing bright sunny,
Glided waterfall Carrying happiness in their gunny.
Long nodding flower's joyously plumed,
Everbody waving happily, the herald bloomed.
Eureka, I love this heaven on earth!

Hazy perished hills, houses trenching at the outskirts,
Swaning over...

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* For Carol Brown's Story Time Contest

Feathered serpent was more than an Aztec legend
Depicted in multihued native art
Sculptures, paintings adorned humid cities
Spiritual sketches messages impart

Quetzalcoatl, a venerated god
Plumed leader was said to have sailed away
Prophecies...

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You possess me with those eyes of pyromania
a tidal wave of temptation thrashing into my need for euphoria
romanticized on appetite for agile reckoning of kiss ravishing, harnessing my hysteria,
plumed with lashes lent from love's wings,...

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You possess me with those eyes of pyromania
a tidal wave of temptation thrashing into my need for euphoria
romanticized on appetite for agile reckoning of kiss ravishing, harnessing my hysteria,
plumed with lashes lent from love's wings,...

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Swift bee, the gilded messenger of bliss,
    Begirt with golden stars of Heaven’s span,
What draws you to the clover’s gentle kiss?
    Sweet nectars, that the strongest drinker can
 ...

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Passions of a Peahen



“Love”; said the Peacock
“Asks many things of you;
“Should you in your plumed and feathered finery
“Feel the deep shades colour
“And a thousand eyes
“Spread vibrant, valiant
“To look at you
“Questioning dark blue, green shimmer, purple...

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