Long Sojourn Poems

Pagans Protest the Intolerance of Christianity
by Michael R. Burch

“We have a common sky.” — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

We had a common sky
before the Christians came.

We thought there might be gods
but did not know their names.

The common...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems VI



An Illusion
by Michael R. Burch

The sky was as hushed as the breath of a bee
and the world was bathed in shades of palest gold
when I awoke.

She came to me with the sound...

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Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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Nowhere Else To Go

Welcome to Israel: Land of Hope.1
(The land of Zion and Jerusalem.)2
Where prophets walked and prophesied,
For their God, our God:
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.3

And the Lord spoke to Abram, and he...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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[ ... story with context, a plausible universe with top and bottom
  a coat of cosmos covering
  over a subterranean protoverse of potential fields
  a quantum cellar creating
  the very big...

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The Raven and the Bard
-Daniel Henry Rodgers

The Raven's quill drips shades of blackest night,
Its haunting words, a melody of fright.
The Bard's natural lines, like "Evangeline's" fair hair,
Shed history's warm light to chase away all care...

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The Bedouins, bequeathed with the sacred beauty of paradise harsh,
trusted guardians of jealous gorges and gifted groves
lead me from the Wadi Musa to the humble ingress of Petra,
saying with thrill, the Jin of your Jihad...

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Joyce Letitia Richmond-Solomon (A servant of God and a friend to man)

Every life has its seasons and God has created each individual for a purpose. Blessed and happy are those who discover their purpose and...

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1  Where are we

The path appears as we walk upon it,
crystallising right before our soul’s eye,
enabled for those with resolve and grit,
who to attain God, are ready to die.

If the God-search task seems like...

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In the void soul takes a consciousness leap
but to get there we must leave mind behind,
whence in staid stillness thus, we go in deep,
becoming over time, divine aligned.
Love the litmus test for thought, word and...

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Moment to moment, all moments entwined,
I feel the touch of magnetism divine,
the source of which, by mind is not divined
so to know the truth, with heart I align.
With this preamble, let’s step back in time,
that...

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*LETTER TO MY FATHER*

 
Dearest Father
With heart ripped into rags and shreds I write ? to you tonight
Trembling hands and ink made of tears and blood
Teary ?? eyes and bloody heels like a defeated soldier
Lost...

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                                  ...

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China Tour Diary Moment #3
SHANGRI-LA, TIBET
--------------------------------


Paradise on earth: Himalayan range;
A phenomenon carved by elements;
Here magic gives birth to ways that seem strange;
A place where lessons of soul mark movement.


Our tour coach winds round the mountain...

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SOJOURN THROUGH TAROTSPACE

Let me tell you a story,
Of a deck of cards, in all its glory.
Well, some will say, what’s the big deal?
To them my humble reply, come, conquer, and heal.

The story is my take,
On...

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I.
GRAIL OF TIDES

from the brewing storm’s steeping chalice
the breath of death’s journey awakens in quiet tides 
beckoned by the stirring whisper of mortal winds
furrowed by stoic angels in pallid temporal skies
on wings they dance with...

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*LETTER TO  MAMA*

Iye omo to r'ewa 
Iya ni iya mi owon
I know you wonder if your  prayers don't ascend to heavens
You keep asking if the promises won't come true
You're beginning to doubt the...

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Sy Roth - 3 Poems
12/17/20130 Comments
 
Picture
Silence

I’ve dreamt often that she crept deep
Into my cellular structure, 
Some time in the nightfall of my being
And planted deeply into my mitochondrion,
A magical silence pill,
Drowning the kittens of...

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There was a time 
In the not distant past
When farmers would sell their wares
Of fruits and vegetables they had planted
To feed the town folks, and balance a budget
In exchange, for clothes, sundries and junket
For the...

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SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE-- Number One- (INSPIRED BY AND FROM HIS FROST AT MIDNIGHT POEM).

(1.)

O' How Long And Well This Night's Dark Shadows Oft Play,
Poet Dedication Series

O' how long and well this night's dark shadows oft...

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(Apropos of Black Poetic Griots)

We may not be deemed apostolic recorders
But we poets, guided with divine wisdom, are
The lay scribes thereof in the chronicling of
Our life’s sojourn in the shadowing times
we spend here on this...

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It was a short walk I intended to take
To while away time that I did not have
For I had lots on my mind and hands 
So off I went anyway and I was glad of...

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Indeed, the truth will always be self-evident

and beyond all lies;

Though they laid down the 5th to ensure deniability

of evident charges,

Over the trials of history—his-story—true crime can’t

ape innocence.

The crime—infamous in time—began with the first Christianized

slave ship...

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