Long Sorties Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear...

once starlight
languished
in your hair...

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret,
a pain
I chose to bear...

unleash
the torrent
of your hair...

and show me
once...

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I volunteered for service in the RAF in early 1942,
When I’d just become 18 and got three shillings a day;
I became a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner right through,
And was then sent home to await training, the...

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I sit and pause, looking at the sky blue ceiling above me. White vapour cotton wool clouds
gently float like water lilies on an upside down pond. My humble seat, an igneous rock
from the Devonian period....

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Oh the glory! Of this my story
Upon a colossal, metallic beast
Did I sail, for many a year
Every ocean and sea, seemed the vastness of eternity

My name is Arthur Homer Creed, AKA -“Homie”
Chief Petty Officer, United...

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Santa Clauses were to be molten and reshaped into Holy Cross bunnies
		             on a mega 3D printer but then the app somehow went...

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Thy birth on January 13th – 
   cervical contractions 
   would not abate
the pesky master (papa), strove 
   to synchronize seminal bait

thence, forty-two weeks 
   after ma...

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Once again, the powers that must
In rise again in what we trust
An overseas conflict, another war
Just what in the hell are we fighting for

Families are asking, Korea has just passed
Generations again reft, how long will...

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the following quite quirky epistle may not exhibit the ordinary characteristics of poetry, but i decided to share this self made challenge (where every word begins with the letter "S" - no explanation can be...

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sunrise in the south china sea
half way between subic and yankee station
i am still in awe 
of how something as big as this boat
with all of the stuff on board, floats
and yet, of how small...

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Fighting God?
God is not a “fighter”,
nor is He a lover as is claimed.

He is a coward
lacking courage or compassion
for the millions He has maimed.

God sends in his “seconds”
to pander to the minions,
grand promises to sell

a...

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'Tis another glorious spring and I planted my garden with the expectation,
That I shall reap a bountiful harvest for my table with minimum frustration!

I planted the usual stuff - carrots, radishes, onions and termaters,
Watermelons, peas,...

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The battle of wits who’s quickest to the target
The Referendum becomes our battling ground,
To silence the tongues that vanity took apart.
Saying little or nothing and have no command.

By force of nerves all generals pitted and...

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To pick up a line and take it for a stroll.
The essential is within, the mystics say,
but equally important is the outside:
a stunning summer sky, two wind-whipped clouds,
in the intense green background a dazzling yellow...

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He ranked as de facto semiprecious,
tremulous and unanimous scapegoat
bullied by a bumptious, callous,
disputatious hippopotamus of a brat
infamous bruiser later in his life to become
forty fifth president of UnIted States.

Though documentation incomplete, the un
named subject referred...

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Winners Risk All

Aware, after spending the day teaching
Reminiscing, remembering, reliving
And interpreting events reaching
The wizened children of my own age.

We of the 1930s and 40s
Seem to have spent our lives
On adventurous sorties
Of claiming, defending, inventing

The stuff...

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It starts off with a familiar route 
and follows a course of well lit streets
where the incline is not too steep,
takes you pass the local shops,
the bus stop and the entrance 
to a park. Then...

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *      ...

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We would sleep oft as light as a flagging breeze, eyes dry and smarting; with minds ill at ease..'

Our lives then the currency to pay your dues, who would return from our sorties? we had...

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Shores of doom 
Needn’t engulf the space in your mind
Where without your will gloom
Can’t inhabit until faithless fleas and spiritual sleaze find

Room and space to waylay and slay without delay
The faith you profess to possess
In...

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I’LL NEVER FORGET WHAT’S HIS NAME

We went to different schools… together
walked on opposite sides of a street
that constituted an invisible border.
There were differences…..but not really.
We walked slowly, as if to spend time together,
assessing the others...

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Tomorrow I’m eating fries, Marion,
It gives me full of pep,
Yellows, walleye, salty,
I will eat hot fries.

Tomorrow I’m eating fries, Marion,
Belgians, sweet flamingos,
Walloon girls, redheaded girls,
Out of the oven, all hot.

Eating fries is not stupid
English, golden,...

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We went to different schools… together
walked on opposite sides of a street
that constituted an invisible border.
There were differences…..but not really.
We walked slowly, as if to spend time together,
assessing the others clothing, shoes, gait.
Eye contact was...

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Spring field
Fun filled

Green teen
Play clean

Forties
Sorties

Sink Pink
Drink, wink

Spread Red
Hot bed

Love Fete
Soul-mate

01.03.16




Holika, commonly called Holi is a spring festival celebrated in India and neighbouring countries, at the approach of the spring season, during the 3 or 4...

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My grandma's sandy skin
like chopped pecans delight me
stands for comfort and bitter sorties
the dysfunction and re-joining
the colossal, quasi-expressionistic soul
hidden behind despair
a husband who tried to bury you alive

 
we crossed disquieting silences
and productive scowls, you...

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In my mind somber sorties unfold
When morbid movements scar a hundredfold.
Normalcy dead, transparency scared
Empathy bearded, intransigence endeared. 

In my mind sordid scenes grow cold
When vulnerable voices no longer hold.
Brash brands undead, harsh hustles prepared
Phantom forces...

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