Long Shakespearean Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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Bharathidasan’s “Pulikku nay enta muulai” (To the Tiger, the Dog knows no safe dwelling!) translated by T. Wignesan 

Bharathidasan (1891-1964) was a self-proclaimed disciple of the eminent Brahmin poet: Cuppiramania Bharathiyar (cf. two poems of...

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What Kind of People Are We

In a Shakespearean sense of tragedy and doubt the well-used
“To Be or Not To Be” from Hamlet is not the question I shall
discuss in this narrative. Rather, I shall consider...

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February 29th, 2024

Alternately titled: 111th leap year since 1582
the year Pope Gregory XIII world leader
(i.e. essentially paterfamilias among
Roman Catholic flock)
timely maneuvered around calendrical rock
and hard space implementing
viable system tracking years ad hoc
out of sync and...

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It has been said
by Shakespearean wit
All the world's a stage.

And so it is, I actively and fluidly suppose,
One Great Transitioning Stage
of diverse seasons
and eons of becoming cooperatively larger
and, especially under climates of crisis,
competitively smaller, too...

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NOTE: Some of you seemed to enjoy my stories from the past. Of course, posting this in the story folder is tantamount to burying it six feet under, as you know, so I'm posting it...

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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...

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“On the Sonnet”
by John Keats

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To...

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“ChatGPT-4, can you give me your literary opinion on the following sonnet? By the way, it is preambled by an explanatory prolegomenon which discusses the sonnet’s theme and my inspiration for composing it:”

Mental “Masturbation”

(The title...

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I was rehearsing for an upcoming play, but it wasn't going well,
For I somehow lacked inspiration, and my delivery did not excel.

If only I could read more feelingly, I uttered with a sad sigh,
I would...

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Doubting thomas doth hanker to live in (or share)...
a house without gossips nor gonifs with the missus

Maybe a pair of stray eyes
will alight on my post
might subsequently manifest destiny
as a positive force
to help me secure
a...

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POEMS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE by Michael R. Burch

Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

a tweet
by any other name
would be as fleet!



Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

Remember, doggonit,
heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean...

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POEMS ABOUT POETS IX

Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

a tweet
by any other name
would be as fleet!
@mikerburch



Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare
by Michael R. Burch

Remember, doggonit,
heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean sonnet!
So if you...

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To balance on a bike

you've gotta keep moving

but

 

since we can't

always move

 

our lives will improve

if we learn just when

it's time time time

to put a foot down

 

to keep

from falling

and breakin

our crown

 

wise is the...

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(If I could spit venom, this paper would hiss.)

I cant sleep,
it's dark and i can feel your memory biting
my eyes are sore with the persistence of it
weeping, rasping, clawing, grasping at my spine
(still too apathetic...

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Every room was different 
throughout the seasons 
as the rooms 
kept on changing 
from pink to yellow to orange 
the stairs different ethnic holidays 
a museum of everything that went on forever 
a maze offering...

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To my left, a withered lady
recounting each and every blink of life
To my right, an empty seat, Rather, occupied but the presence I deny, grown cold
From an asshole in a suit reading a Maxim magazine...

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      In the void of my transitional mind, 
the aimless scatter-shots of snapshot in kind 
finding itheir way.through pokes in the brine.
Saran wrap bindings of biased memories, invent orys, 
and...

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Just in case you wondered...

Yours truly, (i.e. I) quickly
became hypnagogic afore
subsequently segueing soundly
into autohypnosis booklore,
while binge reading courtesy

regarding aptitude chore
treasure trove books galore
five dollars as many
paginated fictitious stories ('bout deplore
hubble basket cases) fit into authorized...

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There are TWO PARTS to this. The first one is here- https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/the_pen_lives_on_part_1_876104 . Please read both. Thanks!

It’s fun to stop breathing.
I hope it’ll happen.
If I could only gather enough courage
to slash my wrists and dreams
in...

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After Amadioha went into sweet nightmares,
he made us to breath through the chest of the sea. from the celestial bodies of the shrine, 
We shone our forefather's smile with a mirage,
a little littered mirage spelling...

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After Amadioha went into sweet nightmares,
he made us to breath through the chest of the sea. from the celestial bodies of the shrine, 
We shone our forefather's smile with a mirage,
a little littered mirage spelling...

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My dreams were that of nothing but your kiss.
A lingering essence soothing frayed edges of my heart.
Heaven couldn’t breach the wonder of your touching
hands. They tickle memories invoked by the scent of your breath
against my...

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Enervated and energized after cold shower
the perfect tonic to gin body though o'clock
wee hours August thirty one two thousand
nineteen - natural buzz to stave off relished
sleep, thus refueled with zest able to chop
chop thru printed...

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Is it a butterfly out in the blue,
poised in its daintily delicate flight—
nebula N G C six three oh two—
offering rhymers a poem to write?

In our galaxy, that is the Way Milky,
with structure bipolar in...

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