Long Shirked Poems

Poems about Poems (II)

Kin
by Michael R. Burch

for Richard Moore

1.
Shrill gulls,
how like my thoughts
you, struggling, rise
to distant bliss?
the weightless blue of skies
that are not blue
in any atmosphere,
but closest here...

2.
You seek an air
so clear,
so rarified
the effort leaves...

Read More

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

Read More

Still wrestling with impasse to contentment

Dispense sing with fidelity blithely agog
just me and mine dark shadow 
slinking along outer limits of 
the edge of night doth blog
passivity, the path 
of least resistance ohm my dog,
shocking...

Read More

Wrestling with impasse to contentment

Dispense sing with fidelity blithely agog
just me and mine dark shadow 
slinking along the edge of night doth blog
passivity, the path of least resistance ohm my dog,
shocking voltage surges an emphatic...

Read More

Empty nest syndrome, plus lapsed romances revisited...
courtesy Matthew Scott Harris
sentimental memorialized mental archive

No matter mine eldest daughter
(born December 22nd, 1996)
starred circa within storied
Matthew Scott Harris family
rendition of Breaking Home Ties.

Now interspersed with
following recherché trivia:
originally titled...

Read More

beMUSEd
by Michael R. Burch

Perhaps at three
you'll come to tea,
to have a cuppa here?

You'll just stop in
to sip dry gin?
I only have a beer.

To name the "greats":
Pope, Dryden, mates?
The whole world knows their names.

Discuss the "songs"
of...

Read More

Poems about Poets IV



The Princess and the Pauper
by Michael R. Burch

for June Kraeft

Here was a woman bright, intent on life,
who did not flinch from Death, but caught his eye
and drew him, powerless, into her spell
of...

Read More

Yours truly shirked fidelity regarding faithful vows
bequeathed courtesy angel of mercy,
who pledged her troth
July twenty fifth nineteen ninety six
five months (not quite to the day) before

"star student" birthed
on December twenty second,
(now gainfully employed
at Certified B-Corporation
San Francisco,...

Read More

Both heights and lowlands we traversed to spread Your message; O glad pain!
Not even once, You know well, we strove against the world in vain.
Not only land we bore Your Word glorious across the heaving...

Read More

Embrace this torso decaying in the wardrobe I wake up those skeletons laying in the warzone 
I make up the rules as I go along you all know so get ready ya better be set...

Read More

?I thought that I would never see
Another macho man like me.
Ex-green Beret and Airborne Ranger,
Who never shirked in face of danger.	
But that ancient myth was soon dissolved,
When my wife asked me to get involved,
And accompany...

Read More

It was like the apocalypse 
Dark skies
Lined up in rows 

How we got there
No one knows.

Chatting all around 
Most seemed to have a good 
time.

Then he came around
Unseen but heard 
Voice so shrieking it made...

Read More

Yesterday,

It was just yesterday in September,

He was laid to rest in golden casket,

Though he lived a golden life to deserve more.

Yet as men do,

The celebration of hypocrites comes after the death of kings.

Rare Wig gawk...

Read More

Mummy went to heaven cause they needed her up there
Mummy went to heaven, God tell her that we care
She was such a special Mummy, and we loved her ever so
Mummy went to heaven, I bet...

Read More

My life as I see it wasn’t easy, but I didn’t have it that rough,

I got my share of breaks, but it was virtually an uphill fight,

There were nights when the moon shirked its duties...

Read More

How Can I Compensate...?

Just between myself,
     and cosmic force
     this good fella agreed
to dedicate, postulate,
     validate, et cetera,
     what...

Read More

Guilty of life once lived in sections,
drastically making changes.
Concessions to new obsessions,
suffering identity exchanges.
Revision life's only pattern,
inborn self considered a sin.
Wherever did the facade end,
and my actual truth begin?
Mercurial soul.
Gale force wind on fire.
Searching recklessly.
Banishing...

Read More

#FAREWELL, BROTHER
by
Hannah Rain

Lowering him down upon his curved back,
On silky blue sheets, all pleated and tacked,
A pillow they stuffed beneath his cold head,
And combed his gray hair, that once was bright red.

Then buttoning his tweed,...

Read More

They called him Lawrence of Neasden
And he dressed in Khaki shorts
And he always rode a camel 
Which he kept in his car port

They arrived there in Central Neasden
Having ridden all through the night
To arrive with...

Read More

How far do the ripples spread, when eventually we die 
Probably stay in the locality, level off, no major outcry
But let’s say we’re famous, suffering unexplained death 
The ripples keep expanding, growing further in breadth...

Read More

Hating the life you've chosen, and will leave,
doesn't mean not respecting it, or those who'll stay.
Realizing that, for you, it is just not the way,
doesn't mean for those taken, you won't forever grieve.

Deciding to serve...

Read More

Humanity must hustle mach schnell -

At warp speed to stave off
further global catastrophe
courtesy portentous tragedy
loosed within Australia
think Pandora's box

harbinger spelling dystopia
across webbed wide world
avast holocaust cremating
irrevocable and irreversible
innocent species, now urgency
of humankind to reckon

eyes crisis...

Read More

Hagerstown, Indiana

I strolled my hometown Main Street today (about a quarter mile).
Many happy memories flooded my soul, causing me to smile.
A friendly bench beckoned me and I sat awhile to ponder,
The past I left so...

Read More

One day I delivered a poem
one that seemed to be premature
so I swaddled her up
and set her aside
to grow 'til I felt reassured

How she yowled and howled for attention...
how she cried so piteously!
How she coughed...

Read More

Three men each grew a precious rose
They all had different thoughts
Of how to raise and nurture them
Of the outcomes that they sought.

The first man shirked all effort
Just plunged a hole within the soil
His rose grew,...

Read More