Long Rewarded Poems

your silken skin gleams opaline
bathed in Luna's soft wash of cornflower - like a
porcelain Madonna by Michelangelo
conjured to life by the magic
of moonlight

your eyes open just long enough to
affix mine, and affirm I'm in a...

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(Somewhere in late 18th-century Europe a friend, Laetitia, by way of a letter warns her beloved girlfriend, Euphoria--a young, gay and unsuspecting mistress--against the almost inevitable seductions of the infamous and maundering philanderer, Melancholia.).



Dear Euphoria,

...

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The Story
by Kamal Nasser
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I will tell you a story ...
a story that lived in the dreams of my people,
a story that comes from the world of tents.
It is a story...

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On Fam'ly Traditions - 3rd third -


With 2 dinky bedrooms...and only 3 beds...the one time I'd been here I'd slept on a cot!  And tossin' a coin for the one with 2 beds...the-odd-man the...

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I believe it was Alfred North Whitehead,
an early developer of cognitive systems thinking,
who observed frequent miscommunication
and confusion
and chaos
over bilateral complexities
of Set v isolated Individual issues
within a systemic set
of inter-related issues.

This comes to mind
as I listen...

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The Call

For as long as I can remember, I have been phoning my mom. Even before leaving home when I was a teenager. Whenever I had good or bad news, it was just natural for...

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The Roman administrators came for the wealth of our worship
demanding that I crack the church's coffers wide open
for their needs, for the Empire's desperate embellishments,
in place of gold I presented the poor
I told the onery...

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Last night I dreamed.

I dream--

sometimes too athletically,
fertile regeneratively,
viral, positive and negatively 
and in-between sub-climax performing 
some wins and some perpetual losses 
more ambiguously back and forth, up and down, in and out,
and not nearly sensual...

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If you run into first smart 1970s feminist to become President Elect Hillary,
please relay this message,
if you would remain so kind
and thoughtful of our regenerative nurturing selves,
cooperating together.

I appreciate and applaud your ability to nurture...

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"The White Lady of Skipsea"


Last night I dreamt 
I dreamed of you
a kind of dream 
within a dream

Diaphanous, 
my soul escaped, 
this firmament,
my immaculate heart
held hands, my fingers 
did entwine with 
handsome Morpheus

Crystal radiate
twin gossamer...

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I got friggin heebie jeebies

Cuz buzzards circle o'er me
eyeing these lovely bones prithee
id est Roy L. T. Canard, Si
hence impossible mission 
to be lovey dove vee.

Vague remembrances of dream  
which recurred with frequency
transfixed by...

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2nd HALF - due to Poetry Soups file size limitation - 

                       ...

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Once upon a time a gymnast teacher told a girl, 
and all her classmates, 
to gather round 
to spot the student currently bouncing 
on the trampoline. 

They circled 
to volunteer a ring of imperfectly rhythmed
but...

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STRAWBERRY SWEET 
Strawberry scent 
At the picnic place
Late in the afternoon
Birds singing up in the trees
With the joy of spring season`

The basket half empty all the pies gone
Red wine from one glass, but we had...

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“The ribbon is cut
 The die is cast
 The cement is dry
 Yet nothing lasts
 The brazen rewarded
 The hero a fool
 All reason outdated
 New fury the tool”

A journey presented
Your ship to go far
With...

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Of Treasures Sought, Diving For Forbidden Dark Pearls

I shall weave you, dear reader, words true and sincere
tho' will not be as great as those woven by poetic peers
It's truth from a life long-lived, too fast...

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Back in Eighth Graded Class
of StraightWhiteMale English privilege
I learned all healthy narratives
must have at least one
of three tension intentions

Unlike sacred mythic prayer and fable 
multicultures invoking poetry 
flowing soulfully 
provoking gospel primal anthems

Of StraightWhite Man...

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Dear people,
A true Voice speaks pure truth in two tones. 
      Real Ears can only hear one. 
Get one half of two true whole truths, 
    ...

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The afternoon dances before and night sky
Threadbare shoes dangling on their tired feet
Torn up clothes bulging underneath the deep
Dirty clothes sticking to their slender backs
And a strange odor circulates around them
Five boys and one girl...

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Herein, the evolutionary positive psychologist's voice is that of C,
leaning sometimes toward the yang-ego identity side,
while the evolutionary ecopolitician's voice,
doing his best to play WinWin ecotherapist, is D.

C: The best way to live is by...

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There was a war between Gods and demons, 
The Hindu mythology says with reasons;
This went for long with full-fledged fights,
Each troop spending sleepless nights;
Dead remained dead and the gods did realize,
That it's not in their...

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Dear Budding Poet,

Modern poetry is a mix of new and old with modern styles created by bending or even breaking the rules of old forms to create new ones.
Express yourself any way you want to...

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Part Two
From That Dark, Dark Abyss, The Long Black Curtain Rises
Third poet in my poet dedication series

O'lord, forgive me my sins and my accursed seeking of glory and fame
I now know, such was my downfall,...

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Birth is the breath of life. 
The first kiss of air that
Simulates the virgin lungs. 
As the lungs expand and collapses, 
a new life has begun, with a shrill cry.

Unlike like a shooting star.
that gloriously...

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In Shaker Heights, Ohio,
founding fathers co-invested in:

Change doesn't happen
without planning

This, despite
unstraight
unwhite
unmale volatile experiences
feeling sometimes victimized
and sometimes blessed
by unexpected weather transitions,
despite feeling like vulnerable chameleons
on a highly complex day,
despite feeble farming
in narrowing spaces
between floods and famine,

Despite...

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