Long Specters Poems

the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good, and never mind the Urn.

A lentil and a bean might...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems (I)

These are poems about World War II and the Holocaust, which is also called the Shoah in Hebrew. 



Epitaph for a Child of the Holocaust
by Michael R. Burch

I...

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War shapes the warriors it touches, leaving behind vestiges that linger in their lives long after the battlefield fades from view. In Recon Marines: Searching for the Real Enemy, we are thrust into the unrelenting...

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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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“Up men to your posts! Don’t forget today that you are from old Virginia.” 
– General George Pickett

Beneath Gettysburg's sun a merciless blaze
Stood Pickett with his face etched with war's haunting gaze.
A mind torn asunder...

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The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror

This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest”...

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The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror

This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest”...

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This tale of “The Demon’s Shrill Cry of Dread and Horror”
lives on in the mountain village of Gpeth Tor in the outlying 
region of the “Dark Forbidden Forest” known for evil, death,
and lost souls. This...

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To awaken means to realize one’s own nothingness, that is, to realize one’s complete and absolute helplessness. As long as a man is not horrified at himself, he knows nothing about himself.
Through the labyrinth of...

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The New Year’s Baby each year starts out fresh and new,
Always exciting, the life of the party, and never blue.
He’s a quite active little Cherub who’s cute and funny,
And he’ll be there at the stroke...

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The air is thick with the weight of things unchosen,
paths untrodden, doors closed but never quite sealed.
A shadow clings to every decision,
the ghost of every road not taken,
whispering — what if, what if, what if.
We...

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(A raven’s shadow falls across the page. A quill scratches furiously, punctuated by heavy sighs.)

December… a month draped in the funereal crepe of the dying year.
Darkness descends with a swift, predatory grace, the sun a...

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Pandora's BoX

Whom to blame?
What woman now walks, the lethal ancestress
Of the original ancestress, that one named 
Pandora, that one with the gleaming eyes that said:

   "I want; I need, to know?"

Where is she...

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I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
In the depth of the night, when the veil of darkness covers the world like a regal...

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Along a winding country road
one autumn’s day of late,
I chanced upon an aged abode,
up a hill beyond a gate.

The house was old and quiet,
not a person 'neath its roof
but in a tree close by it
perched...

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TO THE FLOWER

Your scent beckoned my weeping heart to painless flight;
amidst a garden where God dusts His pretty love.

Spring tints are pure and fragrant, free of guilt
Your hues painted another sunrise for my eyes;
when once...

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The Hypocrite


The Doubter hides behind religious guise,
Mistakes the raven for the pigeon in darkened skies.
His words beguile, twisting my skeletal fancy into a deceitful smile,
Espousing, “Darkness must be exposed by light”, all the while.
Release the...

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In the velvet shroud of night, where shadows whisper secrets and dreams lie dormant,
My thoughts slip through the winding paths of memory and imagination,
As I become accustomed to the darkness that envelops me.
The deep, inky...

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On a silent night, under a leaden sky and hidden stars,
democracy, like a bird with broken wings, has long since faded, lost in echoes,
and the New World Order, like an unseen dragon, spreads its merciless...

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In a realm of nebulous thoughts,
I often chase clouds with my eyes,
while they hurry along,
catching sunbeams sweet as honey in their gentle grasp;
they drape the sky like a divine story,
somber hues intertwining with sunny lace...

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In the twilight of thought, where shadows weave endless night stories,
We wander through the labyrinths of time, seeking meaning in the stardust of our existence,
Haunted by the whispers of mortality, a specter born from human...

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A torment of pain transcended the eons of my ethnicity, engraving on the white pyramids of Chichen-Itza my life. Walking the pebbled courtyards and confronting the descendants of my own slaughtered and sacrificed families these...

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in front of you there is
an obstacle---you knew
it was there when you
started walking in this
direction that you have
wanted to for a while---
but the fear had kept you
away for so long---the
pure unadulterated dread
that writhed up your
spine...

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In the quiet depths where shadows swell,  
I dive into the ocean of grief,  
Where the waves whisper secrets,  
And the tides pull at my heart,  
A current of sorrow, heavy...

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