Long Reflex Poems

Family Poems

Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than...

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Poems about Children


The Desk
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes.I wonder how
he learned at all...

He...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers II



All Things Galore
by Michael R. Burch

for my grandfathers George Edwin Hurt Sr. and Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

Grandfather,
now in your gray presence
you are

somehow more near

and remind me that,
once, upon a star,
you...

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"Smooth Big Cat"



He was one of those guys you just knew would be a dud. "Be nice", she said to herself.

She met him on the upswing from the abyss of a dismally closed final chapter....

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The language and images of Mario Vitale's poetry are so closely bound to the natural cycles of seasons, of generations, of the body's functioning, that is surprising to realize how many of his poems deal...

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Unidentified extraterrestrial(s) willingly abducted me

As a divergence 
from the apocalyptical, dialectical, 
geomorphological, judgmatical, 
metaphorical, philosophical...,
I share an out of this 
(webbed wide) world,
light hearted anecdote 
ye may find far fetched.

Believe me you,
an unspecified number of...

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Unidentified flying object abducted yours truly,... 

a willing experimental subject 
to escape untenable married life.

Upon falling into a deep slumber, 
the following subconscious 
somnambulant scenario arose 
allowing, enabling, and providing 
temporary alleviation from 
outa harried...

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I once spent a week in the drunk tank
couldn't handle the spirits that I drank
the cuisine wasn't half bad
we even had a few laughs
but I had to guard my butt with a shank


……………………………………………………………………….


It used to...

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AN ANECDOTE FROM THE PAST...

Names of places and persons have either been changed or omitted to protect identity.

It was a late summer’s night warm and balmy,
Camping we were high in the lofty mountains;
I was lying...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s HOMAGE TO PAUL ELUARD by T. Wignesan

(Note: Here, I retain EM’s translations into English from Paul Eluard’s poems and his source language quotations from “this vital spirits…” onwards, for, according...

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The sky is blue  gray the hue white with stars looking at the view from the heavens view the earth cam view the encased truth view a wicked plan from the moon to earth...

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Since I first put on the greasepaint, smooth as cream on morning toast, they said I had a gift for making people laugh. Natural as breathing. Effortless as falling. Born to perform like a bird...

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I, A. Robbie - Ham guilty for gobbledygook...
and ruffling turkey feathers!

An innocent A1 miss steak kin kith
once, a former main lion resident 
living social where Tigress and Euphrates 
converge and pool into Lake Wobegone ...

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In numerology twelve has special meanings - they’re twelve days of Christmas, twelve months in a year, and Taylor Swift’s had twelve number-one albums. All we care about at Yale, are the twelve days until...

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Hypothetically, what if I (a born again atheist)...
tentatively took page from playbook of devout believers...

Allowing, enabling, and providing
cautious optimism to abound
thus easing grief instead
reason to rejoice found
once corpse cremated
or buried underground.

Whereby reincarnation will eventually...
mitigate grief...

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake and darling buds of May and summer's lease hath all too short a day. Sometimes too hot the...

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Catapulted into seething temperatures beyond the imagination 
risking excitement in escapades that may seem inane,
potential hazard weighted against predicament predestined,
at some future stage I might peer backwards and reassess,
initial impetuousness under caustic supernatant thumbnail,
maybe I...

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Early in the MOURNING I usually went out,
To ride my bike on a FLOUR filled route.
BUTT because of the WHEATHER, today I changed,
A nice ride in the evening I had arranged.

I found myself riding THREW...

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Saturday, Saturday
'Why'd you do this to me'
was my first question, my first reaction
a reflex to point myself the victim
point myself an inquiry I had no response for
I wanted once to see her
to know her face...

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As a youngster he had dreamt of moving to a potato farm in Ireland

To escape from the brown rot of German post-world war II contamination

Just another plot on the map to sufficient existence and to...

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Women remind us of our animalistic side,
A deep reflex, carved into the layers of our subconscious,
A primal call, pulsing through every vein,
So hidden, and yet so visible in their eyes.
In the flow of consciousness, I...

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He was coming.
He was coming fast.
He was coming to pay us a visit.
A brooding, lethal monster 30 miles out.
He was coming straight at us
and nothing or no one could stop him

Our house was on the...

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Children's Poems VII

These are poems for children and poems about children and their mothers, fathers, grandmother, grandfathers and extended families. 



Sailing to My Grandfather, for George Hurt
by Michael R. Burch

This distance between us
—this vast sea
of...

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Perhaps it was a bit of old moral Navy nostalgia misting from Dad's brow as he taught us moral just rule.
At times in my life, honoring my father and mother; one of the ten commandments--...

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Spencer just turned 7 the other day.

My wife and I adopted Spencer after many years of trying to add to our family the 
old fashioned way; then, after a few years of trying to add...

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