Long Rewrote Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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The Moon as a Metaphor for Your Mouth
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...

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In It,  I Saw Prometheus Chained And Bound


I was reading Salinger's, "Catcher In The Rye" 
A follow up from Leo Tolsty's,  "War and Peace"
I heard a voice say, "seek wisdom before you die"
Remember...

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We came not for conquest,
but for containment—
though conquest is what happens
when containment itches beneath the skin
like sulfur spores in a sealed lung.

They had the secret.
Not gold, not weapons, not prophecy—
but language that healed.
Real language—
not poetry,...

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It’s in the softness of this new heart,
	brought to me from heaven’s beloved,
		a heart from the One who changed the world
silenced the voice of insecurity and fear
rewrote my story so the love that I hear
is...

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Three men.
Three shadows with human faces,
Hands like chains,
Voices coated in liquor and cologne —
That same cologne still snakes through my chest,
Claws at my lungs every time I smell it.

They didn’t need chains —
They used hands,...

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I used to be ashamed to say that I
once wrote for a rather large company,
the kind the likes to print up greeting cards,
and for some reason, make Christmas movies.

Now this caused much consternation in me,
I...

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I know that silence you hold in your chest,
The scream behind smiles, the ache in your rest.
Where love means walking a thin wire line,
And his “I’m sorry” feels like a red warning sign.
I know all...

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It is written that you left everything
That you emptied yourself of all
I find in this so dangerous a meaning
But it explains the significance of the fall
It explains the value of my worth
Something I tremble to...

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Rewrote our History books for the world to see
A worthier Icon there could never be,
Born and died over the span short of a century,
Baba Madiba became South Africa’s first Black 
President in April 1994, finally,...

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Master piece

A masterpiece 
A work of Art 
Created from our fathers heart 
Unique and wonderfully made 
He mastered and completed 
Yet some defeated 
They left you out 
Mastering a piece 
Don't come easy 
It comes...

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Ten Years (rewrote it for better meaning)

(Love you, mom)
February 21, 2007
The day that i last saw your face
The same face that went through war
To keep the family together
Through the hardships of life;
The day that i...

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Exchanged smiles and smirks
Yeah always between you and I
With the constant tugs and jerks 
Our emotions, they now run high

It's like that when ever one lurks
A constant murmur and a loud syh
When the supernovas and...

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I stumbled barefoot through fractured noon,
Where lamplight bloomed like a fossil's tune.
The sky was stitched with electric thread,
Held up by whispers from things long dead.

The clocks ran backward, then sideways, then wept,
And time was a...

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[verse 1]
I used to think that love was not real
Just a shadow, a game, a fleeting ideal
I thought it was a trick
a chemical lie
A fleeting transaction
just passing by

[pre-chorus]
But then you came
the world rewrote
Every doubt... every...

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Verse 1:
I was once a whisper, light on your tongue,
A gentle hum, a soft song to be sung.
But like the fray of ink, fading with time,
I fell from grace as you lost your mind.

Your fingers...

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There is anger raging in my heart. A stone lodged deep within my chest. Some days it swells into a boulder, others, it dwindles to a pebble. Yet I don’t know which is worse. It...

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He's so phoney in poems, moaning only,
same tone, same story,
a war he can't endure anymore that beats him sore and sorry,
exploring his core for strength absent before in writes of sheer folly.

Wanting to write powerfully...

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The question I ask is
Simple
One that has been asked
For thousands of years.
I ask God,
Crying.
The family,
Remembering.
The doctors,
Angry.

Nobody can tell me
The answer to my question.
Silence meets my plea,
My demand,
My scream to the universe.
Others ask
My question.
Everyone wants to...

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In your eyes a spark still survives
A place where your dreams flies
With your hand, mind and heart
Created a sweet that was art

One fateful day you questioned the books
To find honey mouthed partner a crook
The trust...

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[Verse 1]
I’ve seen you sitting there, you've been here before,
Always leave me wanting, restless for more.
But never quite like this—lamp glow on your face,
You must be from Heaven, not of this place.

[Pre-Chorus]
I come here to...

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That moment
That perfect moment
Where time became eternal
I saw
I opened my blinded eyes and saw
The expanse of your soul

To reword
To match time stricken words to an eternal glimpse
Absurd

So, I write
I write without reason
Flowing with the ink...

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In the dust of time, we are but ephemeral shadows,
Treading on the realm of a story nearing its end,
Echoes of the past whisper hidden secrets to us,
And we, blind and deaf, dance on the edge...

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When going out it frightens me,                             ...

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A Moment of your Time

I was just going through my head notes and re-wrotes....
and came up with a finished writing that will become a re-write piece to say the least....I begged and pleaded with this...

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