Long Silks Poems

Poems about Poems V

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

There is a small cleanness about her,
as though she has always just been washed,
and there is a dull obedience to convention
in her accommodating slenderness
as she feints at her salad.

She...

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Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

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The First Thanksgiving (Sept. 3, 1578)

The shortest distance to Cathay 1
(Land of riches: silks, teas and spices)
Lay to the north to the South Sea. 2
Didn’t Barlow tell the King, 3
Was reserved for England.

The routes ‘round...

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These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …



Will There Be Starlight
by Michael R. Burch 

Will there be starlight
tonight
while she gathers
damask
and lilac
and sweet-scented heathers?

And will she find...

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Crown of Sonnets

Yesterday's poems now pages turned brown
Lay scattered, torn on the floor of my years
Written long ago with words I wrote down
When the ink was used to quell the heart's fears
These words of my...

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PYPU what ya gonna do boyz
PYPU what ya gonna do boyz
PYPU what ya gonna do boyz
don't need to see your Fruit or your Looms
don't wanna see your buttocks in those..
Vincent Motega's don't wanna see your...

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There was a man from the town of Shimoda who lived a simple and contented life.
A stonecutter by trade, he would go to the mountain and look at the type of stone that people will...

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HALLS OF AMENTI :1

My Kingdom is clear of books
                          ...

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Poems for Poets VIII


Fireflies
thinking to illuminate the darkness?
Poets!
—Michael R. Burch


BeMused
by Michael R. Burch

You will find in her hair
a fragrance more severe
than camphor.

You will find in her dress
no hint of a sweet
distractedness.

You will find in her...

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"Hey could I come?"

"Sure."

She's very simple I thought, she just hangs up on the time she bought.
I ready myself and head out the door, the day is still out, my eyes will explore.
I step on...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 6: EVOLUTION

Singularity
by Michael R. Burch

Are scientists confounded like the ostrich?
Heads buried in the sand, they shout, *Preposterous!*
This universe, so magical, they say,
proves there’s no God. But let’s look anyway ...

He said, *Let...

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Speak!
by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Speak, while your lips are still free.
Speak, while your tongue remains yours.
Speak, while you're still standing upright.
Speak, while your spirit has force.

See how, in the bright-sparking forge,...

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The Palace Guardiennes were the sultan’s delight,
resplendent in their tight uniforms
of scarlet and magenta silks,
embroidered with golden flowers,
with sterling silver scimitars in
ruby studded scabbards
hanging off lovely hips,
and boots and belts of finest faun-skin
and helmets topped...

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very short, abridged, edited, small version.

There was a cave, deep within the hills
Of St Francis
A seedling traveled by the black crow
And was dropped on the wings of a dove
Only to tumble tumble, down, earthenly bound
The...

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Poems for Poets VII



Sweenies (or Swine-ies) Among the Nightingales
by Michael R. Burch

(for the Corseted Ones and the Erratics)

Open yourself to words, and if they come,
be glad the stone-tongued apes are stricken dumb
by anything like music;...

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Jarabe tapatío in Plaza Castillo,
girls dance in the Mexican night.
The floral bouquets of their dresses ablaze,
a rainbow of colors so bright

But it wasn't this way, far back in the day
when dances held little such drama.
So...

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I was alone
                                ...

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When the raspberry horizon 
  is curled up, 
shaping caramel-lilac lips 
  of the cashmere kismet, 
   singing in a choir of cherry chivalry
and honey-glazed fireflies ~
those snowy stars
  simmering...

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Freedom is the realization that freedom is just another drug to calm a pain, to continue the show,
And this drug comes in a variety of models, prices for the mass market or highly segregated niches.
In...

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	The Selfish Knight and His Lady

Sixteen pieces for me
	Allotted the same for you
But, it always begins with Me first
Unless the 'me' is you...
Whereupon, like Alice in her checkerboard world,
It's up to me to find our...

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Old Mountain tales of love spin 
     'neath dawn's blush,
Elderberries, purple ink drop pearls 
     drawing me nigh.
Ah! Her laughter just like a honeybee’s dance 
 ...

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The Elephant Gift.
upon the elephant rode a boy prince,
his royal command, he was there to evince. 
dark with grace and dripping with youth.
bringing his men, his crown and his couth. 
town after town he strode...

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Poppy
by Michael R. Burch

“It is lonely to be born.” – Dannie Abse, “The Second Coming”

It is lonely to be born
between the intimate ears of corn . . .
the sunlit, flooded, shellshocked rows.

The scarecrow flutters, listens,...

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                A Simpler Time
                ...

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Immortal. The word spoken passed through on a slight breeze, a wind to splinter trees. 

A flaming light, in the distance a bird in solemn flight. 

Soaring over, down below, drove into the depths as...

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