Long Retracing Poems

Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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I woke up this morning with courage over my back and wisdom in my hat
I was determined to put an end to the sneaky kangaroo rats
No one had done me anything but I was reeling...

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January 13th 2024 - Happy Lxv-th birthday Matthew Scott Harris

date of conception:?  ~ Late March – mid April 1958.
date of parturition: January xiii, mcmlix.
date of expiration:? January i, eminem, 
where earth, wind, and fire...

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Happy Lxiv birthday Matthew Scott Harris

date of conception:?  ~ Late March – mid April 1958.
date of parturition: January xiii, mcmlix.
date of expiration:? January i, eminem.

A gangly, measly, and scraggly bundle
of lovely bones even as...

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Birdwatching had become for me, such pleasurable summertime hobby,
So I was often among the trees, young ones or those old and knobby. 

I chased rose finches at dawn, and the yellow warblers come noon,
Scarlet flycatchers...

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I dwelt once in a dreamy town, my land was alongside the border,
In a region of natural beauty, next to a crystalline body of water.

From the jade hills of my land, I could clearly see...

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CHAPTER 8 Two Paths
 
North they travelled through the jungle 
Aiming to escape from forest
Seeking an itinerary 
Near the coast in open country 
 
So they climbed a wooded hilltop;
Han attained the top-most branches
Of a mighty towering ironwood
To survey the...

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If god is there then he should be findable,
By yourself, when you think and reason
Through rationality using logic graspable 
With conclusions that can’t be treason

Essentially, you think on your own, alone, 
Beliefs have their right...

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In the moorlands of desires, 
I've forever sung choruses of
fertile faith, amidst the flock 
of bleeding birds, sprinkling
heartbeats on lush olive herbs, 
In the dream of retracing their 
scintillating season of beachy spring. 
'Hope' had...

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He rose from his half-finished whisky,
and set out, clear out of town.
Blackjack would be very keen to know
what the soft, little clerk had found.

Gil rode back out into the desert,
retracing where he previously went.
Finding the...

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Once i was a prince in your eyes my every wish granted
        even before I could wish it
eevaa peerankal muuvaa maruntu
the hot kuul boiling complaining in the chessman...

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I left Friday midmorning for a weekend getaway
A four-hour jaunt to Aspen; just wanted to play
No purpose for the trip; just for the experience
New to Colorado, I desired to feel its sense.

If you would care...

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On a sunny day in late September
we were on our way to Runswick Bay,
on a walk that we gladly remember,
meeting people on the Cleveland Way.

Assorted folk with the same idea
taking in distant views over the...

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When you return home after many years,
stepping onto familiar soil,
your heart stirs with bittersweet anticipation.
The sun-tinted house that once witnessed your dreams
now stands a stranger, with cold eyes afar,
overgrown vines clinging to its weathered walls.
It...

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With family, my heart overflows
There with you, you want to go home
Home, home
Bring me back to that place
That place that was full of love
Laughter and faith
Family time, a beautiful thing
But all I hear from you...

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I still have that dream of us
on what would be my last day in Uruguay
sitting on a low stone wall
overlooking the vast sea
while the sun is chased away behind us
and the wind gently brushes the...

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THE WEEPING WILLOW TREE

Listen to the weeping willow weep, its cries echo against the
Mountain sides, gentle is she the long lashed Spanish moss,
Whom tenderly wipes away the each tear drop as they fall?
Oh so softly...

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in this world of fatal attractions and demonic temptations
we must retrace our steps to find our lost generation
in the grand scheme of life God gave us each a purpose or task
and we need to find...

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Having been born in legendary Italy,a country
as old as the stones of the Via Appia,
made me recall the fiery image of Attila...
the barbarian from Hungary,
who dared to defeat the mighty Romans: 
by sacking their imperial...

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Something's changed, I don't recall this door.
The mat that once read 'welcome'...now gone. 
Am I lost in the night, or had I forgotten some slight..
had my address been quelled by another time?

The new curtains in...

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The Prophecy:

An ordinary December morning
extraordinary hopes in white,
streets adorned with snowflakes
embellished in red crystal dreams.
She boarded her cab to airport,
awaited holidays had arrived.
From carousels of Tokyo city
to sledges in the Alps, a while.
Roads blocked in...

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Landmarks From Childhood Out of Order
David J Walker

Perhaps it was just the random 
remembrance of landmarks
From a childhood well past

Retracing steps made in snow 
as if
They had no better place to go 
although
Every day was...

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For the passing of 2022
I picked the emotion of sadness
That one is my bucket of blue
It holds grief, sorrow, and madness 

A year of sadness a year of loss
And most certainly of grief 
It’s hard...

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Darkest night and longest hours:
Hours to labor and
Hours to trip in the primitive ooze of repetition
Hours to catch up or trade for spare minutes,
Hours with eyes only half aware
Of life and its warnings,
Lifeless and blissless...

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