Long Sprigs Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems V

Poetry
by Michael R. Burch

Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.

They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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The Roman administrators came for the wealth of our worship
demanding that I crack the church's coffers wide open
for their needs, for the Empire's desperate embellishments,
in place of gold I presented the poor
I told the onery...

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Arni Kleftiko Stolen Lamb


The Cypriots and Greeks have a few differences,
And can argue a great deal,
But both agree when it comes to ‘Kleftiko”
It has forever been, the most delectable 
Traditional Greek meal,
That ever a bandit...

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Cascading off the winter chill
leaving warmth wherever it traces
the edge of the daffodil, tulip or crocus
spring shines its brilliant rays across
the windowpane that mirrors the friendly praise
coloring the seals with such sweet appeal 

lavender lilacs...

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Yuletide pageants vis a vis merry go round revisited

healthy progeny regaled being alive
analogous to children ecstatic twenty-five
on December exhaling joie de vivre at dive 
in into neat stack of wrapped gifts, when...
what! out of thin...

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Cascading off the winter chill
leaving warmth wherever it traces
the edge of the daffodil, tulip or crocus
spring shines its brilliant rays across
the windowpane that mirrors the friendly praise
coloring the seals with such sweet appeal 

lavender lilacs...

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Yuletide pageant merry go round

Panoply of mystical elements of holly day style 
breathe prez sense frostily exhaled aired
per millennia athwart 
(this terrestrial spaceship planet Earth)
two plus seventeen carousel rides resonated
veritable pantheon of pagan rituals 
and...

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I'm not sure Shem
the Lord said he was sad,
he told me that a long time ago
the angels had done something terrible
that they had compromised their divine command
for carnal caprice, that their offspring had become offensive,...

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Poetry, paint and the birth of a world
in a whirl the Dark and the Light do swirl
yet obey the dawn and dusk I do unfurl
above the alter I, the Almighty
forge form from their spectral sexuality,...

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*star*light*star*falls*star*snow*star*light*star*falls*star*snow
   *      *      *      *       *      *...

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These are modern English translations of haiku and tanka by Takaha Shugyo...

ochitsubaki ware naraba kyuryu e otsu

Oh, fallen camellias,
if I were you,
I'd leap into the torrent!
—Takaha Shugyo, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

dôkefuku nugazu tentômushi...

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These are my modern English translations of Takaha Shugyo haiku and tanka...

hatogata horarete ichiju haya mebuku

A single tree
with a heart carved into its trunk
blossoms prematurely
—Takaha Shugyo, loose translation by Michael R. Burch

dôkefuku nugazu tentômushi no...

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Such sweet fragrance
though solitary bloom
abiding dreams in ruin
of unapt hopes to be hewn 

Through soil cracked 
and parched by thirst
reluctant tears fell harder
upon a seed of lingering hurt

Yet hope like sunlight warmed
under canopy of night
an...

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Sappho Translations V by Michael R. Burch


Sappho, fragment 23
translation by Michael R. Burch

I long helplessly for love.
Gazing into your eyes not even Hermione compares.
Who is your equal?
I compare you only to goldenhaired Helen among mortal...

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These Hallowed Halls
by Michael R. Burch

I

A final stereo fades into silence
and now there is seldom a murmur
to trouble the slumber
of these ancient halls.

I stand by a window where others have watched
the passage of time, alone,
not...

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In Memoriam Quietly Always Close

Are they whispers, then, settling
So gently upon that slightest breeze wending
     Over the granite crosses and statues of cradling angels,
     Which stand in...

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speak it as it was to be
something for a world of
people to love and admire.
delicious and special.
she wanted something that was flavored naturally.
we determined that a sweet fruity flavor would
be best. because she was cooking...

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Have you ever wondered what a Dream Vacation would be like?
I have this chance to ponder.
I could fly anywhere, but I would rather take a 'Sleeping Car Train' to my destination. I have never travelled...

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tender petsmart impact, where world wide web populated 
with sacrificial pacification sans deity 
via oblation, immolation, flagellation appeasing Dominatrix
borrow wing, vis a vis amalgamated viz Roman sol invictus
wrought fiery brimstone tempting those who dared
assert contrary...

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       You cannot tell someone how to be poetic.
One of the beauty's of God's creation is variety.

Everyone has a different way to view the world. So expression is personal...

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My Friend Pine Tree 

Away, quite away from my nearby Allen Forest
One day I was moving on a hill top 
On a Himalayan mountain hill
I found myself standing 
Before a beautiful and majestic Pine tree

The...

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The Pleasure of your Company
                      is Requested 
      ...

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My guitar strings in the moonlight should be something beautiful,

but the cold liquid white just makes everything harsher.

–not soft like snow, but deceptively fine –

Light is discordant 

like my clumsy fingers that keep 

mutilating the...

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The end of my hillbilly blues                             ...

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