Long Starlings Poems

Prose Poems

Something
by Michael R. Burch

Something inescapable is lost?lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void. Something uncapturable is...

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In our wildly indigenous
western town
we have a notorious Ancient GoodWitch.
Like GrandMother Moon,
she seems to emerge with a new, yet old,
community healing process
about once a FullMoon month.

I heard she would like to co-facilitate
a Future HealthWealth Community...

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Swept up into piles; everywhere 
Abouts; in collected heaps all 
Around.               
It is almost as if the drab 
Streets were strewn...

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"Ground Level Entry"

“She fits the bill”,
they say it 
insouciantly

visions of being 
carried in the beak 
of a bilious pelican 

where it builds
its rudimentary nest, 
it uses sticks and debris

no stones, yet,
from irreverence
thrown at it

no higher...

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“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”



The Dilettante Diaries: Avian Notes on the Sensate Slip Stream : The Silent War in 3 Acts

(Part 1)

Starlings singing...

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So from first circle started the descent
Down to the second, which contains less
And more pain, stinging to a great extent.

There the horrible Minòs growls giving stress:
The faults examines right to entry close:
Judges and sends according...

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forever we talk 
on the river of rim

cutting its banks
under 
smothered stars and
a muted moon
it gushes through
fallen giants

whose dead limbs 
gather homeless crows 
 waiting for the sun...
 ...for tomorrow 
for
someone

 kind 
enough
to care for...

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I was a skilled, dedicated CIA agent, helping to preserve national security,
By searching for and garnering information, as silvery rain ensures purity.

Days were spent perusing foreign material, or viewing international news,
Like walking a maze of...

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This is my modern English translation of the poem "Stages" by the great German poet Hermann Hesse from his novel "The Glass Bead Game."


"Stages" or "Steps"
by Hermann Hesse
from his novel The Glass Bead Game
translation by...

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I was an ambitious fine watchmaker, looking forward to sunshine tomorrows,
Like the remote edge of a fuchsia horizon, where gather racy, blue swallows.

I worked on clocks of all styles and sizes, repairing both old and...

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It is a small investment; this property out in the scrub.
A building that is shabby in it’s ‘hey day’ was a pub.
Blackberries scramble over it, with the sheds in disrepair;
yes the Autumn Creek Hotel needs...

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The hawk flies high upon the sky his dinner there to seek.
      His home the woods along the river- now subdivisions complete.
      But he’s not...

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"Puzzle Stomped"



Pieces scattered
placed on a table 
with boundaries 

between 
the incarcerated margins 
there are strict conditions

Time drips 
its wet connection
each piece a stair fitted 

imperfectly
perfect 
towards upwards 

new mirror reflection
a cracked heart piercing
the tear with...

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I was a successful, fashionable florist, in mild green days of elegant gardens,
When an orange sun beamed its pleasure, like locales where lavender begins.

I formed arrangements for many occasions, drawing beauty lovers from afar,
As pretty...

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Mary Lou Sims was young and enterprising, like stars routing dark;
Or mauve dawn on the verge of discovery, awaiting time's remarks.

Mary Lou's best friend was Cora Mann, ever since sweet childhood;
When they'd sat in zesty...

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The pin oak leaves from dormant trees, 
fall on this crisp autumn morn,
as I paint the scene of an artist’s dream;
in my mind this landscapes born.
The patch work green is this valleys scene,
with broken squares...

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"I am no more witch than you are; and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink." —Sarah Good, July 19, 1692, before her execution during the Salem witch trials


I...

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You refuse, refusing the salvant call,
laying there in fetal position,
enthralled by my hex of vinegar and scrawl of liquids release that just seem to pour out of me organically.
Hissing in Wormwood's frequency dwelling, Hollywood "your...

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COLOURFUL LAMENT

I combed cool waters of your 
baby blue crystalline Jewel as you 
waded waterfall waves washing 
my stellar rainbow rays 
Arching it melted into the warm 
womb of transducing tangoing Earth

Her Violet Flame devoured...

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Four legs quiver
like clumsy cabrioles
striking smooth gray rivers
of zig-zag sidewalk barrios
in rhythm with happy shivers
syncopated on a muffled drum
as we talk and stroll

On our way
hand-in-hand
we persuade and pretend
this day away
taunting and cajoling to demand
laughing “hide...

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Another haunted night, I watch 
raindrops fall from consolatory words,
track each plane flying south, and 
I think of you.
My lungs empty a lonely sigh…
I bullet a dark, heaving sky 
with my angry words as I...

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Violet, a lovely lady, kin to Purple, can be a contradiction.
Between her fellows Red and Blue (yet more inclined to Blue),
she lies with a calm passion! Unique and unconventional is she!

A symbol of humility, through...

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Orange cosmos flowers inside a circle
along with the canna indica flowers;
A big smile of welcome at the front entrance.                                 ...

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Christmastide

Between  light or dark imaginings
Our lives flash past,
Beneath bright sun, moonlight stark
Reflections fill the glass
Spread wontonly about the city's feet
Omnipresent stone
Catches all those movements fleet
As starlings soar above, alone.
The dreams of many urchins
Flow upwards...

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My hand splits the deck, divides the weight  
of galaxies and shadows, halves of fate.  
At a drive-in, the Cutlass grows hot; glass bursts  
like safety-grade stars scattered between laps,  
a...

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