Long Portraits Poems

Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

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“It is the custom of scholars when addressing behavior and culture to speak variously of anthropological explanations, psychological explanations, biological explanations, and other explanations appropriate to the perspectives of individual disciplines. I have argued that...

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The Old Dark House

This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All...

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This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All Hallows’ Eve
before the...

Read More

This tale of “The Old Dark House” is one that’s replete with a
most horrid sense of pure evil and macabre, and is worth being
retold each year during the deep-dark hours of All Hallows’ Eve
before the...

Read More

Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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7 am morning time. Damian was 
Awakened by his father's phone
Call. "Damian get out of bed, on
Your feet man. We have to attend 
A conference at 10 this morning."
Damian responded, "Right" and
Sprang to his feet....

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The hearts of white men are silently fuming
The spirits of  angry widows steadily   grow bitter 
The bosoms of weeping mothers  open wide
While the relics of the past kept washing upon our...

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Just as honesty plants seeds of integrity
so too
vulnerability plants seeds of honesty.

My primary vocation
in this my gay grandfatherly retiring age
is to parent mindbody challenged adolescents
of diverse colors
as ecotherapeutically as possible
to optimize their and our wealth
of...

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In a universe far far away
There lived a penguin, whose thoughts did weigh
Heavily on his mind.
He thought of a vast array of things big and small
But there was one facet he thought of most of...

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Daylight breaks through the gate and a bright light shine intensely on my face from a distance. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I fold one arm and held on tightly to the...

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Hilda my partner turned in her bed as the early morning train hurtled by at breakneck speed sending tremors round our dwelling.
Those long flowing tresses embrace the shafts of first light so enthusiastically.
An otherworldly spot...

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WOMB OF ALL BEGINNINGS


In the delicious womb of all beginnings 
we learnt to giggle electrons
to bear all things 
without nusturtiums, pink lilies or doughnuts 
warm gurglings of God’s dream for us

Morning glories were waiting 
deep...

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If you’ve read any of my delicious, hand-crafted vignettes and listened to us talk, you’ll know that my roommates and I are critical thinking swifties who spend hour after hour talking about anything and everything,...

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Picture portraits of us together in the placid plantation of peacefulness that is lit with emotionally righteous wit
Pleasant sounds fill me up and thrill me…ascends my frown into a smile 
Going back to my roots...

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Things can be intimidating within this future of life as we know 
like a luring spiritual souls path intricately lingering
departing its everlasting glow 
Nullifying life’s hardships 
Prospering life’s greatness 
Alluring as my mindset is trying...

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He has been hiding behind the shadows staring at the world with his thick lenses; He has been hiding behind the shadows with the mirror staring back at him while his spirit composes a silent...

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"Auric Obsidian - The Face Clean Behind the Gun"


You drew me into your new world, 
the corridors of your mind 
fitted me perfectly imperfect 
into the portraits pegged onto your wall 

an unsuspecting target 
from...

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I’ve got a mate named Marty who went through the school with me,
but like most teenage scholars gave the teachers buggery,
and when it came to penning words, Marty wasn’t very smart,
but put a brush into...

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Sitting on a stack of old portraits
Feeling like an ill fated king, destined to be dethroned
Lonely and long since forgotten
At least that’s the narrative my mind conjures up
Whether it breathes truth, as always
A matter of...

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My love, let us live this paradisal evening
dressed in wispy clouds of red
and tailored in strips of orange embellishing the horizon
where shades and shadows embrace your face
as the last glimmer of daylight falls
leaving a raptured...

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James Joyce:
In winding streets of Dublin, I did dwell,
found Ulyssean tales to weave and tell.
In this modern age, voices rise anew.
What themes thrive, Margaret, in works like you?

Margaret Atwood:
Ah, James, your stream, like a cerebral...

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My love, let us live this paradisal evening
dressed in wispy clouds of red
and tailored in strips of orange embellishing the horizon
where shades and shadows embrace your face
as the last glimmer of daylight falls
leaving a raptured...

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PROLOGUE:

For what's in a name,
That Shakespeare untamed,
A lyric gained fame,
But when it became,
A different ball game,
For one who's insane.

Yet if twin Yanks say 'Gogh' , 'tis equivalent
might meant, to be, like 'goes',
Dutch disagree, cite, annunciation,
could...

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"5" 

benevolence and favour
seemed to be absent
in the world 

grace, a name 
whispered before 
a meal shared

5 fingers 
on each hand
steeples, hiding people 

games played
in reverence
as a child

war paint 
bleeding 
signs

in the footprints
the number of...

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