Long Startle Poems

When I was a child
Everything was magical
Full of mystery and the unknown
I read hundreds of books
The library my haven
My home
Hours upon hours
Night and day
I read and got lost in text
They supplied me with adventures
Secret journeys
Fun...

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Rosalia - The Evil Black Witch of the Harz, Part Two

Rosalia’s Instruments of Evil and Debauchery
Rosalia needed certain tools or instruments of evil and debauchery to successfully pursue her nefandous plans of bringing the people...

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I've been watching the people across the street for about a year now. We wave at each other every once in a while, not really much more than seeing a familiar face without a name....

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Huge fluffy clouds began to form over 
Sanibel Island as the salted gulf splashed 
against the rocks around the lighthouse 
coastal waters rose up as a calming coolness 
carried this gentle warm breeze over to...

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Destruction, As Kali Walks Upon Earthen Grounds


Goddess of Destruction that teams with the Lord of Lusts 
As wrathful winds bequeath savage ravaging gusts
Hades match,  that has destroyed many a soul
World and darkness combine to...

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To a Mouse
by Robert Burns
translation/modernization/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Sleek, tiny, timorous, cowering beast,
Why’s such panic in your breast?
Why dash away, so quick, so rash,
In a frenzied flash
When I would be loath to run after you
With...

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As I hover over the darkened room, I wonder how I have gotten here. Did I die, was I 
dead? That was the only explanation I could think of for my disembodiedment. But 
concentration was...

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I wake up with a great startle.

My Obama EarthTribe CoOperative WinWin GlobalVillage Dream
was merely my hibernation.
I dreamed we share richly valued properties from healthy-wealthy African Elders,
but awake, once again,
only to painfully remember
I am now merely...

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We knew more about our mother. While, father was a revered persona , a bit distant.
Our mother was always an undertone in front of father, an unrecognized delicate privacy, worn out
Her lingering incomplete silences used...

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Fox in the hen house.


There is a farmer, a good man, his name is Jahn. 
He raises livestock chickens, pigs, cows of all sorts and 
of course sheep and goats in many varieties, 
as he...

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life is a chessboard,
                              with kings,...

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Demon eyes that dwell in blue
porcelain skin pale and new
Hair of raven full and black
lips so shy color they lack

Boy so thin spitefully tall
his glare in night is recalled
Taps his fingers on the table
drinks hard...

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Sara tiptoes across
The kitchen floor
To get some heat
She opens the oven door

Sheets in the window
Sara calls them curtains
Mind weary, Soul hurtin'
Sara

Sara lives by the train tracks
At Sixteenth and O
Her Mama calls it a shack
But to...

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Born and raised as a little child in a Witches’ coven,
the Black Witch was indeed a very precocious child
whose hell-spawned soul was seared in Hell’s oven,
and like Medusa herself was a creature gone wild.

The Black...

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Feel me standing there
on the draw bridge
that stands stubburn and erect
over the rushing waters blown by the wind
back and forth.
I listened to the crows
posted on gargoils designed
of eightenth century Gothic architecture
singing their death songs,
when the...

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Like an arboretum, my smile and laughter fills empty space,
tall stand the trees all huddled together like girlfriends on a chilly night ready to share their secrets.
We lay bare our souls, sat on the bench,...

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Come take a walk with me
let us stroll the savannah
I want to show you the beauty
to introduce you to East Africa

A land seeped in dark history and mysteries
where once the Tembo roamed in their thousands
mighty...

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As Artists Touching an Audience - Thoughts on Creating


Beyond the full experiencing and aims of the creative process in all genres, there are the results, the “made” productions, the works, ready to be sent 
out...

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The warmth no longer comes
it seems to only leave.

The furry ones, all
caught in hypnotic disbelief:
hardening ground's
taken root
where once
gardening grounds
(forsaken, mute)
were once and again
makin' fruit.

Each beast, shaking
like a leaf
(though, truth be told
I've only ever 
seen 'em...

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She was washed up,
Her wings were crumpled,
Her body covered in blood and bruises,
An angel should never look that way.
Oh Lord bless her.

He was washed up,
His wings were cut,
His body a mask of defensive scars,
An angel...

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My days were numbered from the very start
I fought for every breath due to my heart
My PDA closing I started to gasp
Just trying to breathe became such a task

The medicines they worked for a couple...

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Somedays, I wake up and my mind is a buzz with the low hum of drunk bees. Other days it's the homicidal scree of the Purge siren meets the absurdity of Happy Gilmore. Those days,...

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I thought I couldn't make it, I thought, there's no-need in trying to fake it. I thought I
couldn't make it, couldn't even if I tried. One thing I had going for me was the strength
of...

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I dream of sleep,
Though when it turns dark,
I try shutting my lids,
But they’re stuck in park.

I seek out the fridge,
Pour milk in a pot.
Then scream out in pain,
Because it’s too hot.

I plop in a funk,
And...

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A venetian red yearling’s head
Pops up
From behind a fallen log
Licks rouge from its lips
And the syrup sipped from dark maple bark
Ears tweaking
To the snow-crunch creak
Of my dog and me approaching
From down the trail

Forest
Tamed by these...

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