Long Spurning Poems

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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I Cracked The Cream Cheese Through Your Whine

Wining And Dining    we savoured together and we still share five beautiful children sweet 
          ...

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Pssst!

Hey you!

Yes, you.
Quick message
on the down low
so maybe not quick enough.

We need to keep us
under the WWW algorithmic
pulsing predative patterns
for suppression,
lack of positive impression,
unproductive repression,
anti-sensual depression,
lack of marketable massive expression.

Why is lack of public health
a...

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Friendship is....?

The warm feeling inside, we always get
when an old acquaintance is unexpectedly met:
the sound of a familiar voice on a telephone line,
that sincerely asks: “are you well and keeping fine?”
We seek information after ill...

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Struggle to write

Witnessed courtesy the following poetic sight
especially when dark shadows foretell edge of night
twilight zone expanding
into outer limits of width and height
obscuring webbed wide world
subsequently where black tentacles alight.

This poetic prologue feeble exercise to...

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IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY : LXXVI

IF ever I had a Country with or without any " Wood " in the aching aping Film Industry
And if ever (you know the refrain by now) I...

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Sappho, fragment 58
loose translation by Michael R. Burch 
 
Pain
drains
me
to
the
last
drop
.



Sappho, fragment 130 (Lobel-Page 130 / Voigt 130)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Eros, the limb-shatterer,
rattles me,
an irresistible
constrictor.



Sappho, unnumbered fragment
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

What cannot be...

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breeding frenzied jawboning 
nastiness, rock'm sock'm vermin 
zealously, dizzying hordes kickstart 
outrageous trampling, xMen busting

displays, heralding luminary 
pastoral times, Xing Bethlehem
figurine Jesus observes sacrilegious 
wackiness anarchy.

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

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God meant well
But, when he created heaven, he also created hell.
When he created Jesus, his brother, The Devil fell.
Like a jilted fly in the sacred ointment
Every day since has been his long day of atonement.
...

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Hymn to Aphrodite
by Sappho
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Immortal Aphrodite, throned in splendor!
Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress and beguiler!
I implore you, dread mistress, discipline me no longer
with such vigor!

But come to me once again in...

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-- Re:  Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Rue de Fleurus #27, Paris --

What would Gertrude. What, Gertrude.What, Gertie?Have thought.Have thought what thought?Thought thought driving,forward,remorselessly.Remorseless Remorse? Forward.Never reverse;no reverse.No.No remorse.
Remorseless,spurning reverse,seated.High!Seated high in Auntie.Then...

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i just want to sit around,
drinking, sniffing things, scratching
myself, getting high.
just watching my pen
fill up a page.

do whatever it takes
to become a 'writer.'
a 'poet.'

something i admire, but
never really aspire to.

i just don't think i'd fit...

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The surface of  of the sky, 
        pointing to the charms of your moons 
   and the reason why he knows you. 
  ...

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Written: April 15, 2024, For Constance La France Y words Contest

Rumi Quote:  "Longing is the core of mystery. Longing itself brings the cure. The only rule is, suffer the pain. Your desires must be...

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ON THE DEATH OF GINSBERG

Rain-damp street outside my window voices 
punctuate early morning street dogs 
bark car engines cough start 
someone’s day  
lie in half-light thinking of you Allen Ginsberg 

what demons drove you...

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As I get closer to hell it 
Seems easier to get 
Caught up in these evil 
Dreams where deals with
Devils begin to rule upper
Body levels and I’m stuck
On automatic stuck between
A rock and a “hard”...

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LAVENDER LADY
She was my lavender lady;
Standing by the lake,
Gazing across the sky-blue water
At who-knows what in the distance.
She was the very essence of elegance.
Spurning the mini-skirted fashion of the age,
Her flowing summer dress
Modestly reached mid-calf.
I...

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As the devil roams the earth, sometimes
believing church folk depend on other
Christians for support during occasions of
doubt and despair.  I find myself
errantly choosing the wrong paths
forgetting that I have professed
God as the One on...

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A man and a prophet
Moses is his name
one called by God
his life never again the same

He was a son of a hebrew
his mother left him in a basket
Pharaoh's daughter found him
but God made him his...

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All the boughs that we were shaking,
vows we were taking,
were the nows we were forsaking –
lessons in love.

Strong on style, or long on laughter?
Hard to figure what you’re after.

All the codes that we were learning,
modes...

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Resolutions 
 
New Year’s resolutions
are meant to be broken
as soon as we realize
that deprivation and muscle strain
are not our natural state,
and that a comforted body
yields placidity of mind.
 
 
The Relationship

I can only think of you
with exasperation
at the...

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Your lips are made for truth
especially from God's holy word
but lies last only a moment
leaving sin to leave us stirred

Beware of evildoers in their ways
they are those filled with deceit
learn from the joyful souls
who bring...

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(As Galileo left the session of the Inquisition
at which he had been forced to deny his own
discovery that the earth orbited the sun, and
had to "admit" that the earth was static, he
murmured, "eppur si muove"...

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When the repellant acid rain came,
the silica image gloomed darkly
into sobbing disintegration

Embers of flickering hope
smouldered deep in the heart of despair
Passion dying to be re-ignited,
only sparked
a saline immolated tearful incineration

Distance was a skeleton key,
overcoming temporal...

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They marched past my lane warriors all
Smart green fatigues, mirthful soldiers tall,
Hats inclined, their buttons shining bright
Boots drumming into a warming light,
Young hearts harking to their nation’s call.

I laud mother’s who have given birth
To lads...

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