Long Retrieval Poems

Poems about Poems VI

The Board
by Michael R. Burch

Accessible rhyme is never good.
The penalty is understood?
soft titters from dark board rooms where
the businessmen paste on their hair
and, Walter Mitties, woo the Muse
with reprimands of Dr. Seuss.

The...

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Explain your historical evolution radically, inclusively, expansively, good-humoredly; 
not carefully, deductively, reductively, sarcastically.

We once had a school of thought
among up and coming geneticists and historians
that the precursor to the regeneration of a species,
or even an...

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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

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Salve
by Michael R. Burch

for the victims and survivors of 9-11

The world is unsalvageable ...
but as we lie here
in bed
stricken to the heart by love
despite war’s
flickering images,

sometimes we still touch,

laughing, amazed,
that our flesh
does not despair
of love
as...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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Polypathic conversation with David Holmgren:

Today it is common to hear the suggestion
[cooperative] education and [therapeutic] training
is the [mindful] key to allowing people to contribute
to a more sustainable [ecopolitical] future.

Although I recognize the value of formal...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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Worth Two in a Buddha Universal Bush

Our permaculturist agenda,
primal principle of economic/ecological design,
is developing,
spreading,
hunting and stealing into fissures
fractally fracturing Business As Usual,
competitive monomials unveil Transitional Dual-Destiny of Time.

Nothing any one person or nation could do
or...

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The day has come, weeks and countless dollars invested in this moment.
All preparations have been made.
A myriad of nuts and bolts, inspected, tightened to torque.
Fluids fresh, topped to level, tire pressure lowered... maximum traction.
In rank...

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I was an ambitious fine watchmaker, looking forward to sunshine tomorrows,
Like the remote edge of a fuchsia horizon, where gather racy, blue swallows.

I worked on clocks of all styles and sizes, repairing both old and...

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666
Somewhere in the sky in an airdome is the real liberry there is 5000 computors 
for the public eye and no waiting for seating the shuttle makes a bubble seal and 
you can sit there...

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"Titan and the Night Tears of Eos" 

Another world calls
dreams in 
the in-between 

place before all

where the night tears 
of Eos never fall
unified consort

Astraeus caresses
dawn with 
twilight gifts

Eosphorous 
dawn bringer
waits upon Hesperus 

Titan borne
distinct divinities
two...

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Archaeological Expeditions To the Moon

By Sugob Elcitra

[Dr. Sugob Elcitra is the founding president of  Lunar Research, Inc.  His company plans to offer private trips to the moon for those able to afford the...

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Compartmentalization, a labyrinth of the mind,
Dissociation, a dance with fragments blind,
Fragmentation, where sanity threads unwind,
Within this mental content, secrets we find 

In the depths of the psyche, a world untold
Dissociative identities, stories unfold,
The heart weighs heavy...

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As your wish of Persephone’s homecoming

We prepare minimal harvests from upheaval
Lost cause is the aid from ill-advised panic, 

This casts doubt on her uncertain retrieval. 

Demeter! Eyes of own appreciate our harvest,

These distant fields furrow...

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Funny how certain days spark our remembrance.
We talk of things with similar resemblance.

How about the runners in the Boston bombing:
The screaming children in Oklahoma sobbing!

That awful day when Pearl Harbor was attacked:
These were the days...

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The first cut 
of roses 
are in bloom 
and I will 
see them soon, 
very soon. 

They float 
in a bowl 
of Arctic ice-flow; 
regarded highly 
by the local Wal-Mart 
feng shui 
masters. 

Made to...

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If no signal fires a mental wasteland blazing passion,
Angelic vibes are only found through third-eye action

You'll feel less discomfort if you're into the ideal aura 
Life is not naughtiness, disdain, nihilism, or oxymora

Be selfish, but...

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WHAT TO BELIEVE

Imagination!
powerful brain creation
that can seem quite real
has been used to fashion gods
and other scary notions

memory function!
amazing brain retrieval
of past happenings
that may or may not be true
or perhaps wishful thinking

I  'member my dog
a...

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ALL I HAVE IS TIME ALL THE TIME. 
AND ON MY MY MIND WAS ALL MY MIND. 
I PAID THE COST WHEN MY HEART TURNED FROST. 
COLD AS ICE WHEN I HAD IT TOSSED. 
INTO...

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The gods of oil have reigned downed their wrath,
For which we have not begun to see the aftermath.
For thousands of miles balls of tar will wash upon a virgin beach.
It will be felt around the...

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Anchored to the sands of The River Babylon, I implored, logos.
Comforted, on the river banks, she whispered her name, “Sophia.”
Saying, "Summon" her. She will breathe. She will arise. She promises.
Furthermore, In your loneliness, when you...

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The Task

The tornado that hit my desk, 
has collapsed everything...
into a sinkhole, 
which I doubt there is any...
coming back from. 
Maybe if I organized? 
If I could, I would...
or should.

It does not matter, 
the battle...

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Hello my love! 
I’m thinking of you 
wanting to let you know 
some things on my mind 
Things I should have said
Things I wanna explain 
thoughts left unsaid 
revolving in my head 
Visions of my...

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A cumulonimbus cloud enveloped my sky,
Threatening to rain down a torrent of pain.
An ocean of commotion swirled in my brain.
My attempts to bandage the wounds turned in vain.

I saw only the receding vistas of light,
And...

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