Long Spain Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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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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I have travelled through the cluttered corridors of my tired mind countless times. 
I have reached deep into the dark abyss of my captive soul and in that profoundly disturbing darkness, I went searching to...

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On this day 40 years ago in 1978 my mother, Jacqueline Anne Trestrail, left this world after a relatively short battle with cancer - she was 46. Jimmy Carter was President and Annie Hall won...

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Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved footnotes...

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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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Resistance On The Iberian Peninsula

“Liberté, égalité, fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity),”
Scream French revolutionists as they guillotine monarchists heads, 1
Then crown Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France, 2
Who commands the French forces in wars raged across Europe.

The Grande...

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Mother nature oh! Rose of roses!
Mother of all flowers' and smell,
Ylang Ylang! You don't know what it causes!
An aphrodisiac turns you on like hell!

Sandalwood with its masculine warmth poses,
Rosemary clears the head, you can tell,
Peppermint...

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Like the twelfth
juror in the play
I must say I am not
convinced
For I know a recipe
for trouble 
I have seen the
double standards
And I do not approve
this for Kenya
I will never approve
it, and neither
Would you, dear
friend of...

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Human foot-traffic is flowing along slightly faster than 2020,                          ...

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A rising sun burns like a solar flare
  from St....

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The Cry Of Dolores

A popular priest in 1810, Spanish rule he spoke against
those who had overthrown the Spanish Viceroy José de Iturrigaray
A speech calling upon the people to protect in angst
Their King Ferdinand VII was...

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1. Fields of much promise, but no grass and no soil
the world not so round getting flat and shapeless
necks stretched for faces to look up to heaven
and arms open for a new salvation song.
But God...

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the grace of Paris
lingering in my thoughts. . . 
Madrid’s grimy walls

As our small group of students entered Madrid, it was an early morning in late January. We had left behind us what has been...

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Unquotable quotes: The Janitor, Gardienne, Landlady, Housekeeper, Portero, Sereno and the Hausgast –XXXii Part Two

The duties of the Housekeeper in the U.K. par rapport au Portero in Spain or the Gardienne in France is that...

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I was listening to a Christian theologian friend of mine
speaking about the Messiah's,
and St. Paul's,
original intention when singing praises of God's here/not-here Kingdom,
and potential as a multiculturally inclusive Church,
as a countercultural extending family,
creolizing out to...

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A country of dreams has burst its rainbow at all ragged seams

In a state of affairs illusion of fusion and widespread delusion

The constitution hallucinates as night settles scores of deceit

Bereavement takes its toll in anger...

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HERE. ONCE STOOD OUR HOME

I can't forget in a hurry,
Here once stood our ancestral home,
As was told my great- great- great- grand father
Who told my great-great-grand father,
Who told my great grand father and who 
In...

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It was the spring of ‘74 when my student peers and I
were on the tail end of a group excursion  
through southern Spain, across Gibraltar’s Strait
and into the exotic northern tip of Africa.
I remember...

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I'd finished work early so I went, to pick the kids up from school
I thought this time tomorrow, we'll all be bathing in the pool
We were travelling tonight on a family vacation to Spain
I put...

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We will be the trustees of life's passions...
The villas of villainous Rome are burning behind me
from Capua to the Cisalpine Alps the skyline is smoldering from her savage sins,
monuments of luxury built, furnished,  and...

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Columbus In The New World

Three ships sailed under Spanish colours
(The Santa Maria, Niña and La Pinta)
And dropped anchor off the shores of San Salvador,
For Columbus and his crew to man-the-oars
To set foot on Terra firma...

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You, my Dad, And Me**

Giggles can be heard if I close my eyes and think,
A cute little girl, who still loves the colour pink.

Swings and roundabouts, running from one to the other,
Cheeks all a flush
Holding...

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Trump’s ‘Win’ “Hey, Fore!” (Now Five More)


Trump’s ‘Win’

Trump’s ‘Win’ fades (but for lives that it cost)!
Think he cops to the fact that he’s lost?
Fake News’ swill! Be prepared
for a varmint (once snared),
can be vicious as...

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