Long Severing Poems

Poems about Mothers


Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more...

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Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.

This poem has also been titled "Epitaph for a Child of...

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First they came for the Muslims

after Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was...

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Why does dawn dress robust morning,
while dusk undresses sight?
Each dawn incarnates another Earth Day
a lifetime of Easter mornings 
redeeming nocturnal sight's revolution,
another therapeutic day of gift-it-forward light,
some longer,
some shorter 
before naked covered night.

Why life?
To uncover...

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Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of...

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Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good, and never mind the Urn.

A lentil and a bean might...

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I wanted to write
 The best slavery poem   ever written—
Perhaps win a Pulitzer or Faulkner. 

I had every intention of conforming 
To the standards 
Of modern verse and composition, 
Lyrics fluidly written, 
Perfect...

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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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To Ecological Greens
concerned about tolerating
evangelical 
monotheistic Red intolerance
of unstraight
unwhite
unmale
unhealthy
unsafe
panentheistic EarthDays
and dualdark wiki-nights
potentially bicameral
bipartisan
bisexual
binomial
neurosystemic cooperative regenerations
of win/win resonant
robust images

Any nonbinary person
all growed up
in a homophobic
straight
white
male anthrosupremacist monoculture
must not fail to see
to hear
to smell
to feel

Will have trouble...

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Noise ,Noise, Noise
Bickering and ''whoremongering''
Dirty money for campaigning
repudiation and gallivanting
mudslinging and maligning
Brainwashing and false promises

How did you get on this bloodstained road 
Who advice you to  follow Uncle Pan's  path
A path that is...

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As no one
never said
about nothing,

"Calling in human health care options
might not imply
calling out
lack of Earth-wealthy choices."

I could, possibly,
but certainly not prudently,
go all the way
back
back,

Even further back,
to European roots
to StraightWhiteMale monoculturalism,
Christian-Royalist monotheistic supremacy
over educational
dogma
and development systems

(not...

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Why is misery said to love company
while depression demands solitude?

And
is it always true that nature abhors a vacuum
or 
sometimes true nurture adores expansion?

Misery,
depression,
anxiety,
negatively respond to trauma.

Negatives do not look for like company
but can positively appreciate...

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History
as we shall see
is inevitably 
win/win felt revolutionary resonant
more powerfully experienced
than win/lose evolution 
thought theoretically resilient.

Technology of YangNature,
like ecology of sacred YinNurture
begins with regenerative secular tools
for Yang's original EarthPatriotic intentions

As seen and felt
in seasonal choreography,

Economies...

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As I age into merely spiritual memories
of those sadly/gladly left behind
in less/more egocentrically embodied forms

Co-acclimating/aggressing functions
feel more like contrasting/constrained flows
of positive/negative
sensory-neural energy,
communication systems,
nutrition/digestion networks
of regenerating/degenerating
natural/spiritualized memory.

It does seem
our spiritual advisors
lesson-givers
teachers
scripture narratives
stories
preachers
communities
economies
directors
democracies
theocracies
leaders feature
pathologies of heart
and mind
and...

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So I wrote again. This took longer than it should have. Only fair to warn you, this is a long one.

SHANGRI-LA

Prologue

The village gates stood, like old men stand

Worn with age and bent by time

Rust had...

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In our Sharing Circles
we have a ground rule
to share a one speaker at a time floor
and unitarian silent listening support

And rules to not share uninvited commentary
suggestions
verbal agreements or disagreements
during, and after,
this formalized Circle.

Speakers are invited...

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I'm rereading Marshall Rosenberg's chapter on Anger,
The big challenge for nonviolent communicators.

Marshall, a StraightWhiteMale psychotherapist,
repeatedly refers to feeling disappointment
escalating into Loser-shamed anger
sometimes further escalating into defensive
red-hot blaming Rage
risking lose/lose nihilistic outcomes for oneself
and anyone in...

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Have you chosen what you will become,
my son,
or will you become something yet unchosen?

Become?

How will you keep yourself gainfully occupied,
dare I speak of vocation?

Oh yes,
I will be absent.

Absent from…?

From you.
Absent from you.

My wisest son,
thank you...

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I find it amusing
on this perpetually empowering Election
impassioned Selection EarthDay

To wonder why
we have bedroom communities
and yet not live and thrive communications
for eco-political dialogue,
and not so much partisan
disempowering debate,
against co-empowering green governance,

Why not more nakedly
and transparently...

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Emotional fatigue courtesy exhaustive vituperative harangue...

Lobbed and unleashed upon the heads
of (yours truly and the missus)
so called selfish "monsters."

The evening of Wednesday April 19th
witnessed us (birth parents of our first born)
weathering blistering telephonic brickbats.

She (unnamed...

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When giants hide their heads beneath the sand,
the body lies unshielded from the Sun.
‘Tis but a hedge to seemingly withstand
the winds of war that nothing will out run.
‘Tis opportune for those that seek to rise...

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Day quickly fades into a fearful silent night
Frightful because within the darkness evil comes to life
Abomination that became legend as legend became myth
The Aswang
The wicked epitome of sin
Beautiful by day but a shapeshifting demon in...

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I see us
cowering within
our safety walls
of sterile
nonorganic comfort

I feel us,
almost smell us,
struggling
vacillating between pungent stink
of fear inside
and acrid
acidic anger
about life sucks outside

Emerging toward viral hate
directed against entitled Others
unwelcomed emoting immigrants
encroaching on our safe home space

It...

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Nursing and nurturing
can often be used synonymously.
To nurse a baby
is first to nurture a cherished infant.

They share a nutritional history
of healthcare giving
and receiving,
delivered best and most durably
when care works coincidentally both ways
in all Win-Win bilateral...

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Aftermath of war: onerous task...

to salvage flotsam and jetsam
of human wreckage
amidst a sea where triage
witnessed courtesy scattered corpses
populating the Gaza strip
more'n pound of cold flesh
forced sacrifice appeasing
vengeance usurped quarterage
tendered for countless generations
predominantly innocent victims
hostages held...

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