Long Retelling Poems

the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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When oppositional cognitive dissonance 
deflects focus from compassion,
I've learned to go back to when I deflected focus from her.
She sends me passive-aggressive messages,
bread crumbs leading back in time 
to where she began to feel alone,
marginalized,
siloed,
anxious,
neglected.

If...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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The Pictish Faeries
by Michael R. Burch

Smaller and darker
than their closest kin,
the faeries learned only too well
never to dwell
close to the villages of larger men. 

Only to dance in the starlight
when the moon was full
and men...

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For a few coins Melord, I'll tell a story of two that met in this place, 
and here you can take your rest, and leave sumpter to graze in the tall grass.

I payed the old...

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I dream into my Ta(0)ist
not-Universal Yang equals
not-Unitarian Yin
Sanctuary,
expecting to be greeted
by visions
of familiar spiritual apartheid.

But I am not.
Instead,
communion in this Sanctuary
looks and resounds,
feels and resonates
with multicultural communities outside,
tilting GoldenRule windmills,
bowing toward Eastern nondual rainbows,
surfing NewMoon...

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Icons are funny things,
she thought.

Heaven feels like a warm light circle
when we are thriving
and more like a cold dark triangle
of weaponed tipping points
against me
and mine
competitively not communicating
when we are barely surviving
above the mortally terrifying bottom
of...

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That soft-spoken Sovereign commands a big stick, 
runs the world into ruins, once our bailiwick.
If asked why, He grins grimly, pale lips slightly pursed:
"Vindication? Straightforward: It's Me and Me First" 

(To mesmerise people He needed...

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Once upon this time
I was listening to the Christian Fathers
retell traditional stories
of God's election and predestination.

Predestination
is like being born into royalty,
power,
privileges of humane Earth's regenerative grace.

Election is more democratic.
Selection based on God's vote for mercy,
apparently,
because...

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In New Haven, Lisa misses the sad, dark, city aesthetics of her hometown. Its crime podcast vibe, actinic crime-lighting and sirens in the distance, that lull her to sleep like lullabies. She has a disturbingly...

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I've now read evolutionary
and feminist historians
and economists
and political scientists
agreeing, in a side by side custody
of the over-specialized eyes
and ears
non-dialogical way

Not competing against each other,
except maybe for journal space,
nor actively cooperating with each other,
beyond normal ethical...

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My educational system
has a diseducating problem.

How to engage young minds,
like young ideas,
easily distracted,
and potentially miseducated,
by vicarious
and often trivial entertainments.

Superficial disengagements
too much the reverse
of social capital investment
in re-educating research
fully engaged in cooperative design

Therapeutic redevelopment plans
by and...

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What does it cost
to love a degenerating Earth,
home,
habitat?

Where NO TRESPASSING signs
speak out for natural sound
defensive silence,
for spiritually medicinal fragrances
only,
in sacred space and times
forbidding mechanized transport
across Earth's MotherLands
and feminist HealthCare Oceans.

Degenerating natural landed bodies,
spiritually disconnected minds
cannot...

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Taoist Principle of Reversion
grows metasystemic decomposition
degeneration
reverse creation
organic time and memory moving backward toward rebirth
of a Paradise Pleasing Planet.

Reversion anticipates the Yin-reverse action 
of indigenously wise integrity.
Decompressing reimagination of effective/causal Time 
within organizing space and sacred...

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Love, with all her iridescent shadows,
bruised by trembling winds of melancholy,
grieving the moments before vows were taken,
startling away the fears, the tears, the years
restoring the light, the laughter, the lasting
gladness, joy beyond what words can...

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"Therapeutic relationships
are made of healing voices
retelling stories,
strings of hopeful light
reweaving faith in future healthy climates."

Writes the aging Muse
in her fusing bodymind
for future integral love stories

As she returns,
without pen or paper,
to her safest sanctuary since childhood,
her...

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"Eye of Horus and the Seat of Me"



When I looked 
into 
your eyes
Blue Sky 
reflected in 
the Heart of mine

I sat true 
in the 
Seat of Me
Amygdala 
holding the gears 
in my hand

your hands 
over...

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Remember watching the clouds breathe,
In endless sees of make-believe,
Erasing the summer blue, azure in fleeting
Moments, silencing the music of birdsong,
Softly chortling in rhythms, 
Hearts warmed by the presence of miracles,
Promising the wind will blow away,
Every...

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In retributive,
punishing,
vengeance is Ours
court systems,
attorney advocates are taught
to never ask publicly witnessed questions
they do not already have the true
slam-dunk useful answer for,
or at least their known rehearsed
and compliant response.

In restorative,
healing,
EarthJustice systems,
RightBrain courted,
escorted,
and usually LeftHemisphere discounted,

EarthMother...

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My father was born,
Late on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day,
Inspiring nurses to insist the babe’s name be Patrick,
To which, my grandparents laughed and chose to obey.

Decades later, 
When my parents had their first son,
Though...

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All organic parties
committed to EarthTribe
as My HomeTeam
could become EarthPatriots
experiencing every day EarthDay;
which, of course 
we are revolving through
together,
more resiliently 
than ecopolitically polarizing
AnthroSupremacist Apartheid.

Speaking from our felt-within
multipartisan democratic
cooperative co-governing experience
in life's healthier
and safer feeling
thinking
green outdoor communication...

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Your not going to believe this but I forgot that Jeanne Rosemary comes before Robert Earl.Probably because I am mad at her for not trying hard enough to live.She was the one who wagged me...

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DRACULA AND THE DINNER GUEST

Here lie all parts of my retelling of Dracula, originally written by Bram Stoker. I have never read the book but was drawn into the synopsis that included my favorite dinner,...

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Our most resonant health opportunities
appear to be
and to always have been
our most resilient harmonic wealth investments--

Absence of unnecessary
Left-nature fighting Right-spirit
cultures of fundamental Ego v SacredMatriarchal EcoSpirit
pathology

EgoPatriarchal dualism
between Earth's  sinfully mortal Nature
and Sun's Radiantly OmniPotent...

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Telling
and retelling
our story,

Where we are from
and where we have gone
from there and here
and now 
surprisingly uninfluenced by choice
and education,
nature nurturing where
and when,
why
and how, our story begins

When my voice speaks with SkyMother
and FatherSun, by mutual choice...

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