Long Ribbons Poems

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...

Read More

Alone I arrive, walking from Frederick
over the gaps, across gentle hills
out onto a knoll
overlooking this burnished landscape.
Before me I see countless writhing rows
of indiscernible shapes gathered
in terrible rituals mid fire and smoke
darkening the sun.
From distant...

Read More

Begins with Hyundai's my stalker fatal attraction 
rushing in front of our disabled vehicle then rams break 
hard causing us to panic my spouse and I both disabled 
this has cause severe discrimination and victimization...

Read More

The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

Read More

"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

Read More

Used As an Experiment

THE SILENCE IS BREAKING MEEEE….CAN’T YOU SEE?


V.1: Strong AS STEEL, wrapped up with silver, heartfelt ribbons
Give it to me – the rope of hope
You smoked me out like a cigarette…
Used like I’m...

Read More

They had kept me imprisoned there for three full days,
In that sparse, solitary room, of scarce sunshine rays.

Having good food to eat, had never been a problem; 
They brought hot meals, but the problem was...

Read More

"The Reptilian Anthropocene"



The Reptilians
war daily 
enrobed in their
stiff distinction suits
rainbow coloured badges 
pinned to their lapels
they beat their breasts 
and oily palms
profiting from all 
the soft-boiled 
foxes on the run
cerebral cortex bound
thinking they are free-willed
and...

Read More

An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

Read More

I don't know how it started

But it's an annual event

But I don't think that an egg hunt

Is the best way to present

The story of our saviour

Chocolate eggs you go and find

I don't think that's the...

Read More

Being fired for no good reason, particularly just before you qualify for your pension, is a very devastating experience. This happened to one of my sisters -

        ...

Read More

Summer Memories
Summer Realities

This, the first day of summer, two thousand and two, finds me,
slipping back into what once was my desire, my need, my reality.
This step back into, and into times passed, has allowed me...

Read More

It gradually turned chilly between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Although Frosty the Snowman rarely visited our part of Texas, his pal, Jack Frost, surely did.  He wafted his way through the drafty house, chased by...

Read More

As I watched my daughter playing with her son, I couldn't help but see myself in her. I still think of her as a child, but I guess parents always see their grown children as...

Read More

"Burnt Aqua"



I can taste the sun
on my tongue
it spills down 
my throat
like burnt aqua
healing the beating frisson

I am ebony inside
shading in my shadow world
some somnolent soul
waking from slumber’s dream dance 
a small death in life...

Read More

Pink- Pink- Pink-

Every peak has its own attractions,
Like the mountains,
The mounts of a woman,
Have always remained, 
Her pride possessions. 01

It has the charms,
More intoxicating than wine,
As it reveals the beauty,
Of a woman's alluring binds. 02

These...

Read More

This is the 1st Half - sorry, this is the only way to get my long pieces posted - 2nd HALF is posted 


Times were hard when I was young, and - tryin’ to help...

Read More

Beneath the mantel's alabaster gleam
Where verdigris flames pirouette, in cerulean ballet's beam...
We gather close—a familial love—
In hallowed halls where chimes of crystal laughter, stream.
Amid the yuletide glow, memories take flight, a morning dove...

Cinnamon-kissed balsam and...

Read More

They are conflicted haunted images from black and white photos of America 1933, when there was no place left to run. 

It was the hunger of people lined up, scraps of food ladled out, the...

Read More

(Warning: it has a sexual theme...)

Imagine you and I 
Together, we will fly
But, first and foremost,
Let's spread butter to the toast 

Suicide nervana plays me like the piano player to the piano 
It's a ride...

Read More

The Naked brazen placid blue
Meets its foe the dark forbidding nemeses
Who unleashes his growing anger and fury
Obliterating and defeating his enemy
Proclaims a victory and unrolls his miserable shroud
With utter contempt
And spews his venom
Impregnating his virgin...

Read More

MY GRAND  AUNT
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


She is still as elegant as I dare remember
Those early springs: its now late december
She is sitting  with her back perfectly straight
I’m afraid she’ll chastise me for being late
She...

Read More

The Great Falls of the northern Plains is actually a chain of five seperate waterfalls
varying in height and majesty extending over 12 miles,
they also confirm that the right river was chosen,
we had hoped that the...

Read More

THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS


"For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn  the world,
 but that the world through Him might be saved...-John 3:17 "
-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Crucify Him! Crucify Him! CRUCIFY...

Read More

he crafted word ...
all plucked delicately
like the petals pulled for a vinok
precious and pink and pulpy
wove them, giv'n a similar grace
not for vanity, mind you ... or even title
but to stir the cockles
a soul-or-two ......

Read More