Long Soak Poems

As winter hazes of January spraying
While I was meditating on how
To write this riveting poem which
Seemed to be for someone who
I never cast in my sight.
Despite her name is not an odd in me
But I...

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Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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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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Fate decreed sexting/texting while married abominable

Therefore karma caught up to me big time
and delivered yours truly sent to purgatory
(figurative speaking) by casting a spell,
whereby the government issued Safelink
Tracfone got permanently disabled
and all the data
(including contact...

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A Sample of some of the genres I write it...Nature, family, depression...just a taste...just a taste. These are all reposts and can be found along with these titles:

The Sound of His Breathing (Written about my...

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Nemesis, Confrontation And The Rejoined Battle,
Now Completed


(Nemesis) - Part One

O'lord of blight dare thee to now abide
Leaving thy abode to earthen realm ride
As punisher with dark universal might
As grief bearer, humanity to smite!

Dar'est thee enter,...

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I’m stronger than I realize,
I’m not alone
And I’m not a failure

I am focused on the prize -
God’s Kingdom today, though I’m on my own
Feeling like a Jailure

I was brave enough
Life can be quite rough
I was...

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I.
Treasures That May Be Found In Destiny's New Shift

( Mille viri sententia agere nescit donec suscipit calamum scribere.)

For a brief spell, I hung my hammock in the shade
of the ancient tall oak tree, that God's...

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I’m stronger than I realize,
I’m not alone
And I’m not a failure

I am focused on the prize -
God’s Kingdom today, though I’m on my own
Feeling like a Jailure

I was brave enough
Life can be quite rough
I was...

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Each year as Christmas rolls around, as I buckle under the pressure and stress of shopping for gifts for people that already  have everything, I find myself remembering that Christmas of 1954.

Dad had joined...

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V. 1: I have been grimacing lately
I have been loving you extremely
I’m looking forward to going to Oregon
We welcome the sun, we welcome the sun

Pre-chorus: God, have mercy on my weary soul
Have mercy spiritually speaking
Passion...

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I don't know what came over me that day - an instant of weakness after years of resistance, I suppose.

My beaming spouse leads me, a dog on a short leash, into the forbidden citadel, the...

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I believe that I am..., but I dare ask the question.                        ...

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Daylight dies
Blackout the sky
Does anyone care
Is anyone there 
Enjoy this life 
Pop open a Sprite 
Roll over to the right and kiss my wife 
She's fast asleep
Daylight is trynna come 
It's trynna creep 
When she...

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Groundhog day 2024 or Forty one days since 2023 Winter Solstice

Rather than be a day late
and dollar short, I opted   
to post poem acknowledging
the second of February,
where eponymous groundhog
gets his (most often male)
foretelling...

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Love murmurs in my ear that to be hunted
is infinitely more enviable than to be the hunter.
                  ...

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Sunday February 2nd, 2025 Groundhog Day

Location: Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. First held on February 2, 1887 prognosticating how many more weeks of winter weather without a shadow of a doubt. Aforementioned site chosen for...

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“Barking Up the Wrong Tree” 

ghost gums
shed their bark 
the min-min 
makes good use of it
papyrus, soft enough to 
imprint and write
thoughts, like the 
ripening welts of 
green ants 
small bites sting
subcutaneous and 
meridional, 
terra...

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If you spill your secrets to the breeze,
Don't blame the wind for laying them to light.
Once said, words are disclosed, even to trees.
And claim peace in the leaves that rustle and fight.
Whispered tales of a...

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LOVE Of Our Life

Life’s journey swim links 2 defined moments - birth & death.
To survive its stretch we swim different strokes,
Delivered inner strength combats heavy tides & puncture pokes,
Hidden forces compatibly energize different folks,
Fortifying for...

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Stop in your tracks

Take a deep breath
Stop and relax

Close your eyes
Exhale a slow deep breath

In your mind’s eye 
It’s early dawn
It’s quiet and serene around you

Look far out at the horizon
There over the peaceful rolling...

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When We Were Young

He left for work each morning, 
Wearing steel-toed boots and a tin hat.
He took long strides that were three times 
The length of mine.
In one hand he carried a lunch pail and...

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You want emotion...
Tell me, ask me, beg me to show you my soul, my secret place where my muses dwell.
My living hell. The tainted sea of all me, so what...so you can wash in the...

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It must have been the darkest, deepest fate time create,
People saw and forgot the impact when history intervened. 
We forgive and endure, but our minds will not forget
The Bizarre world trying to suppress our African...

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