Long Postcard Poems

Enough!
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that I don’t want to die;
I shall be glad to go.
Enough of diabetes pie,
and eating sickly crow!
Enough of win and place and show.
Enough of endless woe!

Enough of suffering and vice!
I’ve...

Read More

Doggerel II: Doggerel about Doggerel, or, More Nonsense Verse

The Board
by Michael R. Burch

Accessible rhyme is never good.
The penalty is understood:
soft titters from dark board rooms where
the businessmen paste on their hair
and, Walter Mitties, woo the...

Read More

Postcard 1
by Miklós Radnóti
written August 30, 1944
translated by Michael R. Burch
 
Out of Bulgaria, the great wild roar of the artillery thunders,
resounds on the mountain ridges, rebounds, then ebbs into silence
while here men, beasts, wagons...

Read More

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems (I)

These are poems about World War II and the Holocaust, which is also called the Shoah in Hebrew. 



Epitaph for a Child of the Holocaust
by Michael R. Burch

I...

Read More

My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

Read More

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - III - Miklos Radnoti

Miklos Radnoti was one of the greatest of the Jewish Holocaust poets. He died on a Nazi death march, shot to death in cold...

Read More

China Tour Diary Moment #1
--------------------------------

KUNMING THOUGHTS


Sunday morning flight to Kunming city;
East bound to explore vignettes of China;
New vistas to sight, postcard memories;
Feast visual galore on tour agenda.

Yunnan province greets our earthly landing;
Brisk clearance and we...

Read More

Opa John

The caboose sits red—its iron spine cradles the earth like Atlas
rails stretching into nowhere. The stream murmurs softly
its voice threading through Ellie’s laughter like silver wire

"Do you see it?" I ask her my voice...

Read More

This was only our second date...

A Black Tie Affair...

...Set against an incredible view,
vineyards, waterfalls,
a plentitude of flower beds,
all just outside a charming postcard Town.

This indeed was a serious event,
anyone  who was anyone...
and my date...were here.

A...

Read More

We’re in NYC - at last - on Christmas vacation, and it feels like a pardon.

It’s amazing what can happen in just a few wild and change-filled hours. One minute, seemingly, you’re in a picture...

Read More

In the still waters of the morning’s glow, I’ve watched the
Frozen silence as the moon quietly melts away, into the chilling
Warmth of the rising run rays, that slowly spills across the lake shore!
Ever gently the...

Read More

Happily Never After (the Second Curse of the Horny Toad)
by Michael R. Burch

He did not think of love of Her at all
frog-plangent nights, as moons engoldened roads
through crumbling stonewalled provinces, where toads
(nee princes) ruled in...

Read More

I knew the day when I saw the sun shining through the rain
And I pulled my blue suitcase out of the closet
Searching for some sweet way to say good-bye to you and me

After such a...

Read More

Happily Never After: the Second Curse of the Horny Toad
by Michael R. Burch
 
He did not think of love of Her at all
frog-plangent nights, as moons engoldened roads
through crumbling stonewalled provinces, where toads
(nee princes) ruled...

Read More

Cruelest thoughts overwhelm
beyond the patrol
beyond the drowning sunlight
firelight creeping up my back,
grab your camera and attack
a moment that doesn't hear
the glowing blue
I should have kept in a faerie jar

ajar is my mind,
hinges broken, hinges built
100...

Read More

1. Non-fiction

The bathroom faucet gushes nectar
drowns my hands in never-laughter,
"Sorry" is a specter
when you told me "0" I felt disgusting,
hopelessly deluded,
naked.

Last night I dreamed
that New York City was nuked,
another Twin Towers Lost,
everyone radiated.

But then I...

Read More

It is a sun splashed day; the air is silent with the sound of waves 
from an ocean moving to the rhythm of crying gulls. 
The sand underneath my feet is warm and soothing. 
The...

Read More

The Silence of War

Behind the Curtains of a church window
Men in Prayer, orchestrated by sweat and Lice
Find relief from snipers gaze

Beside the cross sits the last candle
Flickering precariously, searching for sanctuary from the wind
But the...

Read More

They told you and promised your breath will expire
Your soul will go missing like the crackling fire.
They told you -- they advised -- to accept it and live
Use up the time that your creator did...

Read More

Poet: Ken Jordan
Short Story: Whisper
Edited by: Sparkle Jordan
written: August/2014 


                "Whisper"

      Each day, in the dewy break of dawn, I go for my walk, down"Tides End Lane," pass Coral...

Read More

Nearby runs a mountain stream, purified with crystal rays
Of sunshine, in the pines a wild wind flows downwards
Brushing against the thickets, oh what a beautiful country,
For which I dwell in, at serenity’s farthest edge of...

Read More

Last winter, I dipped my ink-blackened pen into the elixir of your playful sonnets,
Allowing your soothing voice to become the master of intoxicating brews,
Reviving a vibrant infatuation, a nocturnal carnival of desires,
Drunk on the symphonies...

Read More

Second Home by Rob Barratt

An escape from the rat race. 
Life lived at a slower pace
An idyllic setting they won’t be letting
The cottage slumbers , 
Like the electricity meter numbers
It’s early March. 
The house is...

Read More

A tad over three blocks down Merion Lane
on the left is, an idyllic Cape Cod.
I must've passed it a thousand times
my own picturesque, perfect, postcard place
couched in the right light, dappling rays
fresh-painted, white fence, ruby...

Read More

Paris the ideal place where a French kiss began
The country of romance and love
Love is a virtue we all long to endure
Romance and passion come along with it as well
This country is full of beautiful...

Read More