Long Procession Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There...

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Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

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Athenian Epitaphs II

These are ancient Greek epitaphs for lost family and friends, including dogs and other animals ...

Now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of the night: 
his owner's faithful Maltese... 
but will...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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1.

                                  ...

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Queen Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ll
Her seemingly eternal monarch--God has now beckoned
Balmoral Castle, reigned over the United Kingdom
"God Save The Queen" The British national anthem
21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022

“We are all visitors to this...

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LOVE POEMS IV by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about love, passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, romance, relationships and marriage. 



She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful
by...

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Walk see the mad woman a come
Walk a come she just a come
Listen to how she talk she is not one of us
She sound like an aristocrat and a sensational bureaucrat
The idlers screamed from the...

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The problem of PolyNomials,
equivalent or not?
with Not PolyNomials
hides a geometric bilateral 
not-no means yes 
polynomial assumption
that was profoundly channeled by ZeroCentric Bucky Fuller.

1 Polynomial v 0 NotPolynomial
assumes if we could distinguish NP from P sets...

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Everybody is singing a different tune
Everybody is dancing to a different beat
Everybody is praying to a different God
And here I am feeling very sad
I am here, you are there but I have no fear

The politicians...

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Alice, did th' afternoon grow long an' dull; 
As your older sister did read an' mull? 
While in your mind, boredom grew- 
That you'd grown restless no one knew! 
That's what came before th' fall-...

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...cont

She flew back to her nest that she so carefully tended and loved,
the angel close behind her.
“Why do you stay,” he said angrily.
“I have given you your wing.”  He stopped to think.
“I have offered...

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Coping with Agoraphobia well you are basically pent up 
in your home for me it finally took it's toil my therapist 
came to my home because I was basically limited spending 
hours in a room...

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“Small Addictions” 

bit by bit 
the hunger begins,
the time when everyone,
it would seem, is giving in
to those small addictions

inevitably they become
your sole purpose for living,
your entire self turned inside out,
those small addictions 
inevitably grow 

they...

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I stood at the back of the line and watched nature unfold in front of my weeping eyes. I stood at the back of the line watching them moving in droves from every corner of...

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The delegation arrives in a procession of handsome, barbaric lineage
rugged in animal accoutrements and subdued in the presence of the future's skin,
the women, fine in wild beauty are bejeweled in beads, white and blues
that accent...

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Mommy, if I make up my bed
Which consist of old Sunday newspapers
Could I have, can I have a slice of bread
And if I sweep the floors with my bare feet
I'm so hungry mommy can I...

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Meet at the Cemetery
This is where I live
Meet me at the cemetery to make your final bid
One suitcase and one long gown
This is where I am bound
Bones and bones meet  with bones
Dead bones, dried...

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Candy floss, seaside rock, smoothies, and flags sporting
Union Jacks
Replace the old traditions of striped deckchairs 
And Kiss-Me-Quick hats.
Chipwicks for our salt and vinegar fries
And their pole-and-line freshly caught local Cod;
The Vintners Parrot: For thick sizzling...

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When I was a history teacher, I had a passion for the subject,
Like the twilight descending silkily, as day and night connect.

Each day was a new adventure, as we explored different ages,
Broadening young minds. I...

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These are modern English translations of Chinese poems of The Shijing or Shi Jing ("Book of Songs" or "Book of Odes")

Shijing Ode #4: “JIU MU”
ancient Chinese rhyming poem (c. 1200-600 BC)
loose translation by Michael R....

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See them dressed in colors soldiers, regiment, British royal guards, guard bearskin, grandier guards, Buckingham palace guards dressed in scarlet red walking behind the queen’s casket and reminiscing the dead. Their tall bearskin hat almost...

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 "she carved her own road . . . "

                         ...

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Bands of sunlight
Streamed through the curtains
Woke up to a glorious spring day
In Lowndes County Georgia 1918
Little Sara and Clint jumped in our bed
For morning hugs around
A day to remember
Filled with love, legacy
Our people

Slipped on my...

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