Long Shrilling(a) Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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LIFE IN ETERNITY*


1.

The cheerful trumpet of miraculous life, imperatively sounded in 
My mother’s life-giving womb,
Heralding with its melodic tune another animation: MINE!
And as my innocent infantile heart was provoked by
The challenging divine call, 
Started beating...

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Placed Fourth in:
2024 Poem not for Contest Poetry Contest
Sponsored by Silent One



                       ...

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*Image of January 14, 2023, by WinCal.

An Existential Curiosity

~0~

Ambitious existent presence to yield,
Hostage that's well endured of a pre-life,
Handcuffed fallible praying to be healed,
Labyrinth attributes drudgery strife.

Redeeming shrilling lob gratis to air,
Longings bounded dreamt outpours...

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CHOREOGRAPHY of LIFE and DEATH
(Four times I have crossed swords with death up to now!)


The cheerful trumpet of 
Miraculous life,
Imperatively sounded in 
My mother’s life-giving womb,
Heralding with its melodic tune 
Another animation:
MINE!
And as my innocent...

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MY LIBERATOR
(Written upon the death of a thirteen –year –old girl as eulogy)



The ill-fated day of death came unexpectedly 
To my great surprise
As life’s iron grasp of my hand, had lost its
Strength and vigor
And that...

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From Loneliness to Linkages

                               ...

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Jayden Makieh Kelly
    

  Your skin was so smooth and shined bright like the rays of the glimmering sunlight.  Your hair was soft and reminded me of black velvet that...

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BAZAAR

Can you call it a bazaar
Where only one vendor
Her face strained
'Looks' pale, apprehensive
As if caught in a snakes' chamber
Yet searching for a potential customer
Desperate to sell products unheard of
Of human species, bizarre more bizarre

The seller...

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Four legs quiver
like clumsy cabrioles
striking smooth gray rivers
of zig-zag sidewalk barrios
in rhythm with happy shivers
syncopated on a muffled drum
as we talk and stroll

On our way
hand-in-hand
we persuade and pretend
this day away
taunting and cajoling to demand
laughing “hide...

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Some guys many skills have mastered,
I blush when I try to tell little lies 
and shaking I reveal my fakeness;
quite a few girls have slapped me hard.

Cindy went on vacation heading South,
she warned me priming...

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1.
Yesterday night,
To the shrilling winds of history I listened to,
Telling me tales from centuries past, 
Horrifying stories of hate, suffering, and 
Distraction 
Of killings unending 
Of tortures untold 
Of pain unimaginable
Of rivers of blood 
Of...

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Lazily musing on the bank of a gently flowing stream, 
I mulled upon life: was it reality or naught but a dream? 
Then at the moment I pondered, what and why? 
I heard a musical...

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Sitting by a moss-covered tree illuminated by sunlight at three,
he plays the very song that his anscestors played yesterday;
remembering what the peaceful and wild land was and will be...
by accepting the fact that his tomorrow...

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Fear grabs hold of me
Keeping me grounded in place
Like an anchor to a ship
As its dark claws take hold
Clutched tightly around my neck.

My breathing shortening with each breath
Fear begins to squeeze the life out of...

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Yamaguchi Seishi haiku modern English translations

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt.
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Ceaseless chaos—
ice floes clash
in the Soya straits.
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Having crossed the sea,
winter...

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Brooding in the Ocean's Ominous Depths
Enthralled by the hum of Unfathomable Enchantment
Humming A Lingering Verse of Her Song, 
Gliding Along the Current
Searching for the  Turquoise Pearl She Lost  
On the Ocean Floor's Crystalline...

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After years and years of pounding city streets,
I turned my back away for one of those bush retreats,
where gum, ti-tree and wattle; lovely natives of Australia,
marched me into battle - with 'one bloody Cicada.'

Now if...

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The Power of One

Slowly shadows devour the day’s light,
The silhouette of fear draws breath 
From the soul left gasping,
A firestorm of fury gathering,
Like mists of plagues escaping
From an ancient land of sand and tombs
With locusts...

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The reason I was there I cannot recall
But I was sitting outside of our classroom, alone in the hall
When Principal Johnson walked into our class
I stood up to watch him through the square in the...

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a dewdrop from a wandering bead
born in somewhere deep and deep in valley
asking the reason why he has to be born 

dyed blue
in a moon
light

and thinking of the meaning of life
looking up at the countless...

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i remember last summer 
summer , decades ago 
golden & warm i remember 
with strengthened ego........
moments lush green .
drenched in sweet pain 
white and blue screens 
covering roof till lane.............
Summer of mamma's womb
i remember of...

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If I shall be given another life, another attempt in this world
I pray to the God of all beings to allow me to be the perfect girl
The one who would be a product of everyone's...

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The Telegraph

by Gabriel Magno © 2014


The baby wakes the puppy, as she twists its little nose,
the mother drinking coffee, mends a small run on her hose.

The mailman rings the doorbell, rising up she stops her...

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Whilst I remain hopeful and confident
There are doubts in my veins
Eating up my blood and causing pains
With absolutely no room to frail
I always formulate and jubilate but to no avail
Because this fear marinate my genes...

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