Long Save your breath Poems

A special dedication to Beyoncé's "Drunk in Love" song in her album "Beyoncé", which came out in 2013.
 
{intro}
I took a cat nap...yah put on your classic, clever-mini cap 
drank that sorrow sap, my companion...

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Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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Please, save me!!
Solitude is speaking, oh so lonely...

We have plenty of gain 
In our pockets, overflowing with light
You are like an airplane,
Landing safely from a fantastic flight 

My beating heart can't take this anymore
The moment...

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1
We've been riding now, for days
On this dry and dusty plain
Headed to a land, that's never tasted rain
The posse has been thinning out
As men head back to town
So, that just leaves you and me
To track...

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Harming myself softly by healing you hardly 
Faithless phase I was in, you knew...without a clue...
Waiting for God's healing rain
To make me be as plentiful as grain and make me grow insane

Save your breath

The scent...

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Am I really this old,
so many ghosts
beckoning?
—Michael R. Burch

Sleepyheads!
I recite my haiku
to the inattentive lilies.
—Michael R. Burch

Stillness:
the sound of petals
drifting down softly together...
—Miura Chora, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The sky tries to assume
your eyes’...

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Villanelle: Remembering Not to Call
by Michael R. Burch

(a villanelle permitting mourning, for my mother, Christine Ena Burch)

The hardest thing of all,
after telling her everything,
is remembering not to call.

Now the phone hanging on the wall
will never...

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CATULLUS TRANSLATIONS 2

Catullus CI: 'His Brother's Burial'
translation by Michael R. Burch

1.
Through many lands and over many seas
I have journeyed, brother, to these wretched rites,
to this final acclamation of the dead...
and to speak — however ineffectually...

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Various Heresies 8

These are heretical poems with heresies about the bible, god, jesus christ and christianity.


Red State Religion Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

I’d like to believe in your LORD
but I really can’t risk it
when his...

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I’ll remain loyal to you for eternity, but I am…
Lost in the chambers of my emotions 
Drifting away into the sea of suicide
Drifting away into the land of innocence…
There’s no where to hide
No where to...

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These are original haiku by Michael R. Burch and his translations of haiku by the Japanese masters Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Masaoka Shiki, and others. 

Am I really this old,
so many ghosts
beckoning?
—Michael R. Burch

Sleepyheads!
I recite...

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Ever been treated like you’re a slice of cake?
By the kind of sleazy men that slither like a  snake?
They’re not the type to give, they’re the kind that always take.
To all the women, listen,...

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I like to think 
I could do it if I wanted to 

I tell myself it's situational, these things
It's not your fault,
it's not your fault

Look around
Everything is dying 

And I didn't see this coming 
Far...

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You know not why you're now here, 
just that you are bound by fear- 
(and a couple incised wires) 
watching me, enticed with pliers. 
Naked, cold, taught, and crying, 
you can't move, although you're trying. 
All stretched out, upon your stomach, 
odors...

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Holy
Holy
Rats coming from under my bed;
With the pieces of dried out day old bread;
Near North side poorly holy, holy and poorly 
In the ghetto tho, there’s beatings within;
Vandalism's, burglaries, drug use and gambling;
Everyone fishy, everyone...

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Take my life away from me,

No more false self empathy,

Take my breath, and integrity,


Take this world from my eye,

Remove all which makes me cry,

Show me a reason not to die,


Take this pain from my brain,

Show...

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BEING HUMAN BEINGS

some people are evil. 
Maliciously.

Some people create  drama. Monstrosities..

Some people have ulterior motives. Intentionally.

Some people have remorse.  An apology.

Some people have profound words. Poetically.

Some people are tree huggers. Organically.

Some people have...

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What happens when your voice is lying 
But the monologue in your head believes you're not?
A full tank of gas, a million excuses to leave 
A conscience computing a mile a minute, hallucinations of reflections...

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Cares pull my spirits down
Always force me, ‘wear a frown’
I heard, “You’ll in darkness drown;
For weeds in you are also sown.”

Seeds like unknown fear and worry
Sprouted in my nursery bed of merry
On watering, I nourished...

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Tangled tubes connected to a body
laying still, breathing shallow, not awake
Beneath closed eyelids, rapid re-enactments
of so many unfinished things flashing by in meteor shower dreams
Unsaid words that are now whispered
to shadowy figures buried in the...

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I hope you will be my last Ex
No human, shall come between us apart from death
I save my breath
for you to inhale, 4,5 & 6

No affection will be greater than this 
I will take you...

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Is Like Lifting Tides...

It's Me, I'm...

No One...

Like A Cold Gun...

Never Used...

Only Concider'd The Indever's Clues...

So What Ever The Weather's New's...

I've Got A Barreta Under My Sweater Dude....

Tender To The Agenda Of The Other Gender's Prude......

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Both Mom and Dad felt so very ill at ease.
Impotent when it came to discussing the birds and bees.
Reading up on how to handle a subject so delicate,
Determined to provide Johnny with knowledge accurate!

Sit down,...

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All the bad habits I have in life 
Reduced me to envy and strife
I hadn’t the strength to move on just yet
I’m still trying to have a giving mentality, not a getting motive – something...

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