Long Semblance Poems

Impossible mission to captcha infinitesimal moment

alternately titled: tick tock runneth amuck
seconds elapse imperceptibly 
leaving me dumbstruck,
how quickly fleeting tempus fugit; 
ofttimes imagined as time thief.

Hence following vignette: quiet as a mouse lurks the time thief...

Read More

It's peaceful here in my backyard.
The crows sound happy
with warm October sunlight.

I just read about a deadly gathering in Las Vegas.
Absence of sun-drenched peace.
Inconvenient this time of lost loss.
Death is always inconvenient,
even when invited.

A veteran,
about...

Read More

Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch

Let me give her diamonds
for my heart's
sharp edges.

Let me give her roses
for my soul's
thorn.

Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.

Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.

Let me...

Read More

MODERN SONNETS I

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.


Maker, Fakir, Curer
by Michael R. Burch

A poem...

Read More

Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“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...

Read More

======================================== 
** ORIGINAL MESSAGE ******************** 
======================================== 
Lora Colon – Poemhunter.com

Okay, Long Tooth. You have some explaining to do. Really. I'm not sure what you are trying to say in this poem.

I 'sort of' get the...

Read More

Now Regan and Megan were down on their luck
    and faced with little or no choice.
So with a quiet trepidation... a deal was struck
    and from now all would...

Read More

Increase In Head Size

impossible mission to encapsulate notion 
flitting hither and yon, to and fro
within cranium attached to mine body,
whereby irrefutable proof prevails
predicated when yours truly
scrutinizes other people visibly aware,
I a modest married male 
blessed,...

Read More

“Morning beautiful lady,” Joulupukki greeted her.
     “Beautiful?  Maybe a couple hundred years ago,” she replied as Joulupukki stood and kissed her on top of the head.
    ...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: The How of Democratic Kill - IXL, Part Two

No, tell me not my vote now does not count
         (Shakespearean Sonnet)

No, tell me not my vote...

Read More

POTW 28 January 2018

Prologue:
A beautiful extra-terrestrial female researcher is sent down to a remote island to observe earth and beam her findings back to her planet. She’s strictly forbidden to make any human contact. She...

Read More

I Jumped up suddenly out of my bed
With Jack the ripper spinning in my head
And the word cabinet kept floating in my bed
I had a very serious message to deliver
But I don't know who to...

Read More

Trump's Now the President
(how he got there)
By Franklin Price
1/30/2019

Trump is now the President
Not the cause but the effect
Of  Republicans and Democrats
Refusing to connect

He's not from either party
Though Republicans have the claim
I  think he...

Read More

by the interpretation comes perception—the faraway dream, the symbols—or the way I attack myself—in harassing my screams. upon a wishbone, to feel some semblance, listening to darker parts; the curse of the psychiatrist, hassled for...

Read More

I want to reach out to you, but a part of me is scared, what if you don’t remember me? My heart couldn’t take that pain, that despair
What if all these years I have only...

Read More

I saw you …

high …
atop the promontory
spinning with manic madness
pirouettes et fouetté
lost in yourself -
in movement …
your upper back split, low
and, I swear -
feathers … peeking …
tucked under your shoulder blades
splayed and black as black
(obsidian...

Read More

So this is it, huh?

This is the end?

We have come this far,

And this is the end?



All over, just like that?

Your betrayal seep in through my pores,

It taints me whole.



This is the ending of a horrible...

Read More

Paris November 13th Makes Me Weep — Afterthought

The shock and tragedy of this most horrendous event of slaughter, murder, and unmitigated evil are indeed a very sad commentary on the state mankind finds itself in...

Read More

Part 7

The Atheist was a Man who thought much of himself
    And would not brook any measure of social compliance.
So no matter the 'who,' he would not suffer their views,
  ...

Read More

You have breached the zone; tell me where else can the children roam? You have planted landmines on every corner and you have disrupted the social order. I hear sirens going off in my dreams...

Read More

Shallow-pitched tiled rooftops sparkle vividly
 When lavishly sprinkled with needle-shaped grains  
Of shattered mutton-fat nephrite; 
    There, clinging forlornly against the hanging grey   
  Smoke, tinged with barely...

Read More

Those rarer men I once fondly 
knew...                            ...

Read More

How did my Nanny know of the horrors that went on in our home?  Was it the palpable fear in my eyes, or her heavenly instinct?  Today, I believe she had a divine...

Read More

Part 2

The passengers were a well-heeled lot who
    Had no experience to the rigors at sea.
And their disillusionment grew... on seeing the crew
    Entirely encrusted with earwigs and fleas.

But...

Read More

We are all Nameless



What else is there to do
but to tell you who I am,
but most of all,
what I wish to find.

I am not the cavalier of the sun, 
but the caveat of phantasm.

I do...

Read More