Long Retains Poems

"Open Oceans"



Kneeling on pearls
wisdom preys

praying
preying

hungry hearts
count the days 

wasting away
in all that preying 

for prayers 
to be answered

children become
strangers

reading 
strange words

finding 
themselves puzzled

genuflecting to a deity
they do not know, nor wish to

fumbling
mouths closed,

swallowed hole
in the...

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LOVE POEMS III by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, relationships, devotion and marriage. 


Violets
by Michael R. Burch

Once, only once,
when the wind flicked your skirt
to...

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Fahr an' Ice
by Michael R. Burch

From what I know of death, I'll side with those
who'd like to have a say in how it goes:
just make mine cool, cool rocks (twice drowned in likker),
and real fahr...

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"The Book of Changes"

Thoughts arrived before words,
1000s of years before
the crossing of curves

always seen to be 
swimming upstream 
against the current

thoughts … and feelings,
in the flow, always arrive 
before words, they are cast 

in the...

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Each flame 
elegantly weaves in waves
flowing up from resources red cinder hot,
similar in warm color
temperature decrees
of beauty as integrity's truth
trust each surrounding flame.

Each flame 
unique in point of origin below
as ubiquitously flickering fading destinations above.

Yet...

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My protagonist today,
a Gay Black Religious Mature Male,
not quite ready for silver-grey Obama temples

Is off this morning
to a new full-time job,
8 to 5,
Monday through Friday.

He has been out of his calming,
regular custodial collared routine,
for over...

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To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen—
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me...

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America First
speaks a RightWing monocultural intention
currently championed by Trumpians
and Republican Aristocracy of Evangelism 
Tea Partiers,
by xenophobic paranoids
and sociopathic pharisee fascists,
by economically blind
deaf
and angry 
bigoted
terrified shouters;
just the opposite of dumb,
yet not cooperatively mindful either
of our global...

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Humbleness
(Free Verse)

Humble is a man who prefers 
To take fresh air in his garden
Than waste his time in a pub,
To be dressed in simple clothing
Than in expensive high class dresses
That bursts a whole in his...

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After enjoying a pleasant walk, I then spent an hour at a park,
And I relished the dulcet sounds, of cheery airborne skylarks.

The blooms were so lovely, all sultry in the fervid sunshine,
And the hummingbirds were...

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Jesus help me,
cried Mother Earth
to Adam's Sacred Son,
I can't be birthin' all these ego-dominating babies,
gettin' on,
you know...
Makes me sad.
From "Mother Earth's Laboratory Journal", post-millennially self publishing

Money, like fertility,
is sexy,
needing attention
to continue regeneratively thriving,
health icons rooted...

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It’s Monday afternoon, the first day after Fall Break. Several of my suitemates are here, relaxing a bit before we hit the dining hall and then scatter, like debris from a bomb. There are a...

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Mitchell: At this level, as with the rest, one might also find those who have stumbled down from a higher step on the crystal staircase from dancing too many tangos in their Manolo Blahniks, as...

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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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     I watch the sun rise and once again bring another dawn, Another day in which we are alive. I stand 30 feet above the muddy ground, on the top of...

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"The righteous shall live by faith"
Romans 1:17

Posted on Poetry Soup 12 January 2023
Contest no 1265 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Brian Strand

               ...

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Ton nom - New English Translation of Amel Bent's song "Your Name" by T. Wignesan

Je me raccroche aux détails du passé
Details of our past I cannot unclasp 
?Nos souvenirs le sourire aux lèvres
A smile steals...

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Lorca Translations I

Gacela of the Dark Death
by Federico Garcia Lorca
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I want to sleep the dreamless sleep of apples
far from the bustle of cemeteries.
I want to sleep the dream-filled sleep of...

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Written: March 05, 2024 For Edward Ebeh Contest
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, Hermes, during historical eras of reign,
Greek...

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Cold morning greets the weary eye clouds drape the horizon in gray
I turn around avoiding the sight I cannot stand with a dreary pale day
And then I feel it on the nape of my neck...

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THE LEGEND OF LEAP CASTLE

In the dark shadows of the ancient past,
Creatures move within the kingdom of darkness,
Hidden illusions of faded forms of existence, roaming the hallowed
Halls in echoing’s of delusions, royal tombs shudder beneath
The...

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For the war to end between Gods, its humans they turn to rely
How ironic it can be for in my World, its Gods we chose to defy
And why all the irregular mishap to have to...

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Mathematics - a measure that shows the interactions between parameters such as (numbers,
letters) figures, signs, symbols, vibrations etc. i.e. basic units of languages and
measurements. A way-method of measuring the relationship between quantities, qualities,
intensities, vibrations e.t.c....

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sensory grass

tickles your toes
soft pokes
every word is a stroke
of a blade
not a brush

a lawnmower in the distance
breaks the silence
what the hell…
the smell of fresh-cut grass
and the moisture
that lingers on its smell
you know…retains it

(like the soft...

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In my world nevertheless, these reasons compels me to be alone
For no one can even begin to comprehend to things of unknown
Whether a curse or a deliverance to befall upon me
I have not a choice,...

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