Long Squanders Poems

SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

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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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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 feels its meaning—
the...

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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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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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I had for long been impoverished, as is often the case with writers,
Though I worked most diligently, at times even pulling all-nighters.

Rosy dreams kept me going, although times were frequently rough,
As black night fuels its...

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At the breaking of the new dawn
Where the hopeful golden glow melts the dew
A sleepy world awakens to the brightened new dawn of life
But at the striking of that aged light
Where the anguished reddened heat...

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Our Constitution, page-by-page, provides a guide from age-to-age.
As citizens our views consist of strict or loose constructionists.
Yet, we should keep - we can agree - a free, but just, society
Though Freedom isn't strictly free, we...

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Poems about Poets

Elemental
by Michael R. Burch

for and after 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...

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VIDEO/AUDIO now on YouTube

Whatever Weekend

Being humble common pathways ere,
I ought traveled nearby that lea,
Past the margin of my home there,
Where the daffodils fickle sprightly,

As I shared the natural trail lead,
General impressions befall o'er sunlit,
E'er lighthearted...

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The Answer Was There

It's clearly winter, time that we splinter, solely be discontent,
in droves, we amass, divides lads and lass, beg peers disorient,

Lurch therefrom harshly, cannot dredge clearly, fastened in misery,
pulls ironed anvil, likes worthless...

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Oh ye generation that squanders privilege before playing your role
Less man earning and more flaunting what they stole
Less girls winding up school and more winding down poles
Iniquity and offense is flooding your bowl
Consciences too weak...

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Albert Francis Simmons; in Detroit, Michigan, was born,
His robustness, with intelligence, nature did adorn;
Though, worked as a high-ranking Secret Service official,
His moral sense became a matter so prejudicial...!

Burnt, like charcoal, by Jason Wynn, his service,...

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Life fragile
Throbbing within brittle bodies
At the same time fertile and sterile
Swimming in ebbing eddies

At the most unexpected moment
Fragility strikes a lung
Next inflicts on legs fragments of torment
So badly strung

A woe-struck woman weeps and weeps
Groaning and...

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Turn me on animator
I have nowhere else to go with these suit-cases 
Will you play one for us tonight
If we promise to forget the plate glass?
Will you pick the noise from the silence? 

The further...

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Life is all a blur,
the hopes, the dreams, the goals
wishes upon wishes whether real or imagined

illusions, intrusions, confusions 
love's conquered...love's lost
exhalations, miscalculations, adulations
"life is but a dream"...until it isn't 

fragments of thoughts start on lonely...

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Daytime Somnambulism

How haunting the loss
When one squanders consciousness
Soul to surface
Dreams of dances unrealized

Oh how tempting
This somnambulistic space we possess
Where unlived experience resides
Intimidated by actuality
Hidden in shackled prisons of vagary
Fearful of breath-held reality

Sadly

Too many walk this...

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CHARITY

Oh! Charity
An entity to behold
I glare with compassion
My virtue of generosity.

Chaste is my goodwill.
Woe! be tide those squanders
Oh!  The tears of the orphans!
Why shy away from them?

Could you not wear the same shoe someday?
As...

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It is a feeling, it is a place; it is a thought, it is a masterful race

It's often been said, "you don't miss it 'til it's gone."
Many young and old travel this path and sadly,...

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Our sire from the heavens spoke and spat into oblivion.
His seed cultivated an egg that speedily mated in bed.
Abundant life in never ending cycles,
adamant Wives would spell disasters.
The lost children will forever search,
the sires beginnings...

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It lies chilling in his freezer, 
tucked away and in repose, 
each day it sees the daylight, 
like a soothsayer who knows 

his reckless need for distilled spirits, 
vodka is his danger zone, 
alcohol's his...

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It lies chilling in his freezer, 
tucked away and in repose, 
always ready with an answer, 
like a soothsayer who knows 

his reckless need for distilled spirits, 
vodka is his danger zone, 
alcohol's his habit...

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Slant squanders seer
Quaint quarrels queer
Needs nimble near


Nice names need norms
Feed flowing form
Pitch proper prompt


Sensuous storms sow
Grow gracious glow
Blooming buzz blows


Release rich roar
Surging storms soar
Bear bounty's boar


Peace plunders pace
Search stellar space
Telling tales trace


Blizzard blows blind
Sound signals...

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