Long Shocks Poems

Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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Poems about Poets I


The Wonder Boys
by Michael R. Burch

for Leslie Mellichamp

The stars were always there, too-bright cliches:
scintillant truths the jaded world outgrew
as baffled poets winged keyed kites—amazed,
in dream of shocks that suddenly came true ...

but...

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He always brought the subject up at the most inappropriate time, usually when someone was trying to kill us.

Are you a believer now?

If I get out of this, I’ll think about it. We got out...

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He always brought the subject up at the most inappropriate of times, usually when some c**t was trying to kill us.
Are you a believer now?
If I get out of this, I’ll think about it. We...

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Written 23 November 2023
Placed 1st in :
Stoicism as  Way of Life Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Sotto Poet

                  ...

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:) now this is what Im talking bout .... nothin iz 2 uncommon when all you got 2 eat iz Ramen 
noodles 4 all y'all poodles
 seahorse sonar struggle with senses 
far beyond the realm...

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The Lay of The Best Man - Part Two


I will not understate my distaste, but I do not hate. I rate hate as being irate
Shall I underrate the spate of your hate as you devastate;...

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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...

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A boy and board in Brooklyn
bedeviled by the breath of baroque battles
bemused with a belligerent brain beauty
and befriended by battlefield bravado, 
the chessmen championed his ego
wickedly warring to a visionary's voodoo,
those soldiers of black and...

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The Undertow


The two could feel the undertow
Pull at them both - then let them go
He wondered if she could know
Or sense it too and let it flow

The undertow in the fast-running tide
Ebbed and flowed at...

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*Situated in the south-western region of Mauritius, a dream island in the Indian Ocean.

Written on 9 November 2023


                 ...

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In case you don’t remember them they came from outer space
They were to be the first beginnings of the human race
But when they crashed they came down in a stark and frigid place
Antarctic ice interred...

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Under the bridge in Del Rio are stopped, stuck, stationed
Thousands of migrant Haitians, not Ukrainians
Frankly, if they were the latter, they wouldn’t be sanctioned
Detained, abased, mistreated and deported like Haitians
Like herds of cattle to detention...

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I’ve got a mate named Marty who went through the school with me,
but like most teenage scholars gave the teachers buggery,
and when it came to penning words, Marty wasn’t very smart,
but put a brush into...

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It was a nasty war.

To call it an UnCivil War
is to avoid an obvious oxymoron
as embarrassing as Military Vitriolic Intelligence
through lack of Anger and Fear Management,
violently over-industrious absence of mutual civility.

We were too optimistic
about democracy's...

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Off kilter

Yup
I sobered up
despite expressing regular
(unleaded and unlettered) 
urge to shtup
expunged courtesy 
system of a down
with shuga (mush)
and everything nice.

	The following crafted some time ago,
when empty nest syndrome 
pulled me psyche taut 
analogous to an...

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“The Waiting” 

eyes close
the new chapter
picks us up 

we find ourselves
lost in the poetic dream
stranded in a desert 

a lifetime away from home
we are in the waiting place
writing words in the sand

they are blown away...

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Art History

I stand erect with outstretched hand Representing liberty, for many, a foreign land My fire dances an incessant jubilant glow
I represent hope for the oppressed to sow

 Pungent salts mixed with glassy sands
 ...

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O' Please do not forget how to  pray
For all of your friends and your family
As well as anyone else you may
Recall existing in your family's tree

O' Please do not forget to pray for
The Peace...

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(Updated in such form that Cole Porter would sue)
 
[Intro]

Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since Nixon got the shock 
When he crashed on Daley’s bloc
If today
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of...

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POEMS ABOUT POOL SHARKS

Shark
by Michael R. Burch

They are all unknowable,
these rough pale men—
haunting dim pool rooms like shadows,
propped up on bar stools like scarecrows,
nodding and sagging in the fraying light...

I am not of them,
as I...

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Twas The Night Before Inspection...,

Not a human creature stirred, nor seen 
through out Highland Manor, 
     property carpeted in lush green
(a deathlike stillness descended un keen
hilly quiet, October 10th, 
 ...

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Yesterday, October 09, 2022, there was an internet prophet on You Tube.
Making a dire prediction for the state of California that would even impact
their neighboring states but the prophet didn't mention their neighboring
states impacted. 

If...

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