Long Sickle Poems

It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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Saturday, September 23, 2023  

Coincides with first day of fall
and Autumnal equinox for said year,
where colorful splash kindled like tinder.

After I riff flecked about thee August
Autumn Equinox 2023,
this seasonal polymath teached you 
fall Equinox...

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Incredible! Where could little girl of her age be going under this cold weather at this hour barefootedly and bareheadedly?What could have sent a poor girl she was to street with just oversized slippers she...

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Fall Of Berlin

There on the wall hangs a mixture of paint on linen,
Leaving the impression of a city besieged, encased in ice;
Purposely frozen in horror to remind the living,
Of blood oozing from the rubble into...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

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“Never forget 
everything Hitler did 
in Germany was legal.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

drop by drop lady liberty bleeds
red on white and blue
common sense vexatious 
verboten spins askew 

“We can and we must 
write in the...

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POTD 13 March 2019

Welcome! - We are excited to release our very first Visual Video Poem. 

(I trust you will enjoy the complete production effects and the superb narration by Dorsey Jackson (Deeja) on the...

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Deep in the dark depths of disaster, disassociated disaster
distracting distraction distracted
Bleh, bahumbug!
Why should I care how I start this
this will just be tossed to the wayside all over again 
Forgive me, my swift carelessness of...

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O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

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Opening 
Fourth street and the divide meet 
Near the stream where it's waters Impede 
Five metres walk from the wooden bridge 
A little further away from the deserted car park 
Underneath the third tree with...

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 La Fête foraine de Scarborough (La Version complète)
 
      For the medieval English poet and Simon and Garfunkel 
-	In admiration -

Allez-vous à Scarborough fête foraine ?
(Sur la côte d'une...

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Sun setting over the dark green fringe of a shivering lake on the last day of winter
An old man still unbent sits on a deserted wooden bench
   with the load of his cares...

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The Hammer and the sickle were emblazoned on its tower
This underwater enemy would demonstrate its power
The submarine, in covert mode, torpedoes at the ready
The crosshairs on the monitor were holding nice and steady

The captain said,...

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“50 Words for Poe: Azrael”



What alchemy to lure Azrael
who hidden until now
keeps his vigil 
in the still sound of 
the shattering silence 
of falling leaves
under the elms in the 
hollows of 
Hanging Hill 
with the...

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I awake
  in a thick cropse of trees,
meandering brook splashing nearby,
sunlight stabbing
   through the canopy
in thick rods filled with dust particles.

Cracking my neck
      I rise,
my skin 
...

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The Three Angels Revelation chapter 14

Than I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to
proclaim to those who live on the earth--to every nation, tribe, language and
people.  He said...

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there flies a bird as white as life,
an ugly, peaceful dove,
 which carries darkness in its beak,
 the poem wroth with love:
 the farmer wakes at morning,
 weak with pain and ache;
there's no peace in...

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Open the book of history chapter 19
Allow your shadow to roam on its surface, turn to verses twenty and 
wait. trace your finger forward, keep going; then Stop! Do you see that word corruption marked...

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Enters Shawnteysmo
Searching for the right answers using the wrong clues
Trying to cure cancer when clutching a carpenters tools
Handed death or mental disaster the latter I did choose
Like dog without a master Im breaking all the...

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They say it's a time to slip in the mud, and begin anew.
Kick off the dust of yester ...
      and put on the dress of Yes Sir! and Thank You...

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O' Cenobite, Dar'est Thy Soul Await

Alas! By what right is such assailing
amidst uproar, then half-truths a'telling
Does not morn gift upon grass falling dew
yet truth perseveres despite what others do
Aye! But 'tis not fickle applause a...

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"O Witless Quill"




O witless quill
sharply dipped in smiles leering
joust they your words
on their egos competing
galloping black stallions, see them fall
shiny armour felled knights
and petulant proud Queens now all shiny amour, in their saddles riding

Merry rogers
Merry...

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Therein to link the world her seasons with our light distain
made plain the movement through them let her darkness there remain
towards the call of fellowship whose mastery is True
transformation is Just beginning whose personality is...

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A figure, sickle in hand, wearing a dark cloak
approached a couple of woodland creatures.
He decided to choose them due to their features.
The Hare he noticed was a nimble and fast bloke,
and a Tortoise who would...

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written on time’s page
                               ...

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