Long Shrouding Poems

With this needle and thread I stitch the wounds Avril left
but with this blade I angrily carve a new
rough, short, jagged adjacent from the bone in my wrist
for a reflection of our relationship
and an outlet...

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Erin, for a girl who embodies Ireland
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair—
bright carrot—and her milkmaid-pallid skin,
her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children—some conceived in sin,
the others to avoid...

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These are translations of some of the oldest Japanese waka, which evolved into tanka, renga and haiku. 

While you decline to cry,
high on the mountainside
a single stalk of plumegrass wilts.
—O no Yasumaro (circa 711), translation...

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Watching wan moonlight
illuminate tree limbs,
my heart also brims,
overflowing with autumn.
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

As I slept in isolation
my desired beloved appeared to me; 
therefore, dreams have become my reality
and consolation. 
—Ono...

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As I slept in isolation
my desired beloved appeared to me; 
therefore, dreams have become my reality
and consolation. 
—Ono no Komachi, translation by Michael R. Burch

Submit to you—is that what you advise? 
The way the ripples...

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Athenian Epitaphs

Mariner, do not ask whose tomb this may be,
but go with good fortune: I wish you a kinder sea.
—Michael R. Burch, after Plato

Does my soul abide in heaven, or hell?
Only the sea gulls
in their...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems VII

These are early poems I wrote as a boy and as a teenager.

The Leveler
by Michael R. Burch

The nature of Nature
is bitter survival
from Winter’s bleak fury
till Spring’s brief revival.

The weak implore Fate;
bold men...

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Despite his impatience to show me his hell,
He waited for me in my rest, 
Lying upon the ground, I awoke in prayer,
Thanking God above and asking Him for guidance

“My heart is Yours, always,
From the moment...

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yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote this poem after having...

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There stood a castle on the summit of a hill
Now fallen to decay, hidden among bushes wild
It perched like an eagle’s nest on the steep hill
It was owned by a Lord, gentle and mild

Blessed with...

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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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"Cry for the soul that will not face the body" Dory Previn 

                      ...

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The Naked brazen placid blue
Meets its foe the dark forbidding nemeses
Who unleashes his growing anger and fury
Obliterating and defeating his enemy
Proclaims a victory and unrolls his miserable shroud
With utter contempt
And spews his venom
Impregnating his virgin...

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In a deep sleep, I fell upon the fields, tired, rejuvenated, and blessed
Wandering in many a dream

A warm sun creeping from the heavy cream clouds awoke me,
And I felt His presence once again
Sitting up, I...

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These giant obtuse walls
these calculated architecture of impossible, impeccable accomplishment
How can I survive, they are bigger than me
shrouding me in a sense of what being Jack is
staring at a tall, magic beanstalk wanting to climb
wanting...

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Continued from The Eye of the Sea part 2


The heaving swell and the waves from hell
Soon swamped our valiant vessel,
With the holds in flood: tattered sails above,
We were in the direst of peril.

In a meet...

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Within the Craigie Mile a manor house stands
Under sheeted rain and surrounded by shrouding fog
One night as Hell sang in the sky
A lady did run along the Craigie mile
Where she was she had no clue
The...

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From the beginning it was dark.
Fighting invisible demons in the shrouding veil,
near to death, and tired from the wages of battle.

Then a light peirced the night...
An angel came into sight, and my demons retreated.
I fell...

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She said
“We are slowly and always eroding
As we lose more and more
By little bits and little bits they fall
They are falling 
Prey to the fading and wasting away
Of the nameless one and all his dark...

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And I said 
The Seraph with great clarity
And quiet calm
“Yes, all that you have said is well and holds truth
I am faithless
And I have nothing but good intentions
And lo
I have summoned forth the darkness and...

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Is Justice blind?
Or
Has the color of a Browned skinned people been so frequently splashed, 
that it spills into her eyes as it blood soaks her sash?

Does Browned skin 
blind Justice?

Is Justice really blind?
Or
Is this just...

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She feels the sun's heat despite sitting in shadows 

Feeling heart beats as loud as drums - and the drums weren't just beats.

They were clocks ticking down to zero, waiting to explode - 

Tears as...

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It doesn't matter what you say because I'm going insane 
I've put a bullet in my brain,  what's the name of the game that I have play to be free? 
It really doesn't matter...

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You know not why you're now here, 
just that you are bound by fear- 
(and a couple incised wires) 
watching me, enticed with pliers. 
Naked, cold, taught, and crying, 
you can't move, although you're trying. 
All stretched out, upon your stomach, 
odors...

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The sky danced a glimmer of setted sun blue
	Softly through into the night
Like rafters keeping us safe on our path under heaven
	Trees wove themselves over us
Breathing light from coals washed the five gathered faces
	Flickered in...

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