Long Quicksilver Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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The First Valentine Poem

Charles d’Orleans (1394-1465) has been credited with writing the first Valentine poem for his wife in 1415. Charles wrote the first Valentine poem in the first year of his captivity while being...

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Zen Death Haiku

Brittle cicada shell,
little did I know
you were my life!
—Shuho, translation by Michael R. Burch

Returning
as it came,
this naked worm.
—Shidoken, translation by Michael R. Burch

As dew glistens
on a lotus leaf,
so too I soon must vanish.
—Shinsui,...

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Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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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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Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear...

once starlight
languished
in your hair...

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret,
a pain
I chose to bear...

unleash
the torrent
of your hair...

and show me
once...

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LOVE POEMS I by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, a first date and dating, a first crush, a first girlfriend and...

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It is so hard to let go of love,
lovingly.

It sharks, 
unpeels more gut more quickly
than reel or reeler ever lost
in all those years of lazy inches
in and out:
casting,
winding in and playing out,
hardly fishing, rarely catching
anything
from...

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I There’s only a few things I take seriously 
One of them is writing furiously 
Cleverly spinning verses 
Inked in cursive 
Certainly no stranger to adversity
Head nodding
Word dropping 
non stopping
Versing with an urgency
Invasive with my...

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Cross all your Salem's in foreshadowed Shalom,
do the math and burn, 
brightly back at Cairo, Memphis, Jericho-less nonetheless turn,
and those of paths now undaunted, not undone to aftermath of storm.
In the land of the free,...

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not in the heart again
for chrissakes it's like Swiss cheese
decoffinated please I'm a yet ambulatory zombie
off his medication as usual
alternatives to logic 101 with Prof. Spike
far too much work for a dead end
saw his only...

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Written: September 12, 2023
Ocean Poetry Contest                             ...

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God … Is The Greatest Poet of All
God … Is The Greatest Poet
God, Speaks … And Leaves Us In Awe
… Astounded and Author-Devoted ! …

Yea … We are Humbled and Thunderstruck
and Sublimely Mesmerized
on His Sacred...

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Smart Phone And Sleep Walker

Going viral in the social media that is Whatsapp..
A cute little girl in bed engrossed in playing her smart phone in the night..
The hour was late, she was to be fast...

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With every gust of wind, secret taboo,
secreting a web a cocooned prison 
of liquid knowing, flowing,
emulsifying impossibly old and new.
In the beyond of the known, stair-stepped, 
desert bone flashed into 
your consciousness a confident cajoling.
To...

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Erotic Errata
by Michael R. Burch

I didn’t mean to love you; if I did,
it came unbid-
en, and should’ve remained hid-
den!

***

Less Heroic Couplets: Marketing 101
by Michael R. Burch

Building her brand, she disrobes,
naked, except for her earlobes.

***

Negligibles
by Michael...

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I feel so strange these days
Hollow
Disembowelled
As if the core of me had been ripped out by invisible hands
And scattered to the wind like desert dust
I am like a ghost
I drift – wraith-like – through the...

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All My Children
by Michael R. Burch
 
It is May now, gentle May,
and the sun shines pleasantly
upon the blousy flowers
of this backyard cemet'ry,
upon my children as they sleep.
 
Oh, there is Hank in the daisies now,
with...

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The night is silent,
A cool, languid breeze
blowing in from the sea,
The sluggish waves
swooshing the shore,
No soul in sight,
Nary a sound,
And, there we lie on our backs,
Bone-ass naked
on a deserted beach
looking up at the night sky
awashed...

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The firelight was fading
The shadows grew in size
In the distance if you listened
You could hear the faintest cries
Of coyotes and of timber wolf
Signalling the end of day
Howling at the growing moon
Keeping night spirits at bay

The...

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Come As You Are
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Come as you are, forget appearances!
Is your hair untamable, your part uneven, your bodice unfastened? Never mind.
Come as you are, forget appearances!

Skip with quicksilver steps...

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So Malcolm has been flirting,
like a player with next to no faith                  
he gets wet when it is...

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Behold the pulchritude overhead exalts to about a spread. 

It is o full swift which greatly outstrips thunder and gale added, 

Yet ocular to sigh from more than a score of hillocks afar. 

It is...

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For years she had slowly slid from well cared for home 
to musky boxes and rugs.
Sitting in a chair, watching old movies,
pretending the devastation around her had not occurred.

Her senses deadened, she neither saw the...

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Beneath the veil of twilight, time lets its shadow fall,
It trickles like quicksilver through the unseen hourglass,
The silent ticking follows us, we, the children of earth,
Try to halt it with the song of remembrance, but...

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