Long Slum 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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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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FIRE! UPDATED 1998 IN 2021 BY COVERUPS PAYOFFS
GARGANO FAKED HIS OWN DEATH MEMORIAL DAY 1999
THE CAR BOMB THAT ENDED MY LIFE AT LEAST AS I'VE KNOWN IT ON THIS DAY THE SKY WAS SO BLUE...

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La Charte des Droits de l’Homme pour les Aborigènes - Translation of Oodgeroo Noonuccal's Aboriginal Charter of Rights by T. Wignesan


Nous avons besoin de l’espoir, pas de racisme,
La fraternité, pas d’ostracisme
Du progrès pour les Noirs,...

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Poet: Ken Jordan
Poem: Watts Is Burning
Edited by: Sparkle Jordan
written: July/2014


Run children run!
Run sister run!
Run brother run!

Run for your guns

We ain't backing down
Not this time -

Run through
the
poisoned 
 black smoke,

that
permeates
through
Watts -

Run pass
the
looting,

Run down
the
land mine
streets,

Run pass
the house
that's 
no longer
your home -

Run...

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Poet: Ken Jordan
Poem: Watts Is Burning
Edited by: Sparkle Jordan
written: July/2014


Run children run!
Run sister run!
Run brother run!

Run for your guns

We ain't backing down
Not this time -

Run through
the
poisoned 
 black smoke,

that
permeates
through
Watts -

Run pass
the
looting,

Run down
the
land mine
streets,

Run pass
the house
that's 
no longer
your home -

Run...

Read More

New draft Zimbabwe’s 




Tribute Documentary Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children


Mama will be left behind when I die
I’m too sick to survive
My education was put to an end
When papa had no more to spend
We walk over sewage water
And...

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Argh daylight savings time ends – 2:00 AM November 6th 2022

Hour hands of o'clock get set back 
sixty minutes gaining extra hour of Autumn
round about this same day of November 
every year, what a bum
er,...

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Daylight Savings Time Ends – November 5th 2023 means...

discombobulated, harried, and lobotomized
state of body, mind, and spirit triage.

Onset of dark shadows signalling edge of night
occurs earlier as the world turns  
beckoning, hinting, robbing passage...

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It was quite clear now my ex husband his accomplice Ciro gargano arson murderer used car salesman slash video gaming licensed to rent juke boxes cigarettes machines pin ball pool tables after serving seven years...

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Argh Daylight Savings Time – March 13th, 2022

Once again, yours truly
dishes out his regular dose
of literary gobbledygook
even Count Dracula
would not even bat an eye
nor give me his evil curse,
butta I avoid tempting him 
courtesy fanged...

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Lightly the rain falls upon the lamp lit streets, the shabbily dressed figure
Walks with an air of uncertainty down the cobbled stone streets, leaning,
On his rickety cane, the elderly gentleman huddles beneath his umbrella Of...

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Argh Daylight Savings Time – March 14th, 2021

Once again, yours truly
dishes out his regular dose
of literary gobbledygook
even Count Dracula
would not even bat an eye
nor give me his evil,
(albeit harmless) look
regarding feeble effort I undertook.

Don't forget...

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I do not have to go far away
 but just look within canada     to see
there is starvation      poverty      and death

now, this...

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Daylight Savings Time – March 13th,   2022

A long time graduate courtesy 
Hard Knocks alum,
once again yours truly 
posts reasonable rhyme 
about shortest day of the year.

Two o'clock Ante Meridiem 
nostri Jesu Christi 
hour...

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chinese food dripping sauce
spicy beef and noodles
steaming vegetable rice
eggrolls and plum dip
spareribs and garlic
delightful
food


oh so delicious-    most of us have all the food
we want      but wait...

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Villanelle
by Michael R. Burch

Is poetry mere turning of a phrase?
Has prose become its height and depth and sum?
What happened to the songs of yesterdays?

Does prose leave all nine Muses vexed and glum,
with fingers stuck in...

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So much life in me but for the love of god i cant find it. The harder i push the faster i 
get knocked down. The fall is so hard it leaves bruises that cant...

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I wrote the Invisible man poems many years ago. These poems, and I have not submitted them all, was for a little girl who died in a road accident. They are a tribute to her...

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Just taking notes as I walk for the perhaps of a poem later. Fun to share real time first drafts.

Walking from out of town to into town
Passed a churchyard with no church
Only steps remain where...

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You see, you see I’m captured within my pain I’m 13
13 only 13
13 years old when my soul died
13, eight months later when my spirit died
13, 13 is all I’ve cried
Within a year I watched...

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The grandeur of my life are elusive
Mine ain't melioration; it's oppression
My free life is cramped by chains of servitude
And shout out loud I mustn't 
Because even the power of my tongue is tied
Blank in me...

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Coinneach Odhar
The future in his sight
In the eye of his rounded stone
His visions became right
 
Predictions he made
On Seaforth lands
At Brahan Castle
In this shire of grand
 
One day ships will sail round the back of...

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