Long Straw Poems

Poems about the Coronavirus I


yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote...

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The first soft snow: 
leaves of the awed jonquil 
bow low
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, investigate loneliness! 
a solitary leaf
clings to the Kiri tree
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

The cheerful-chirping cricket
contends gray...

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Dusk-gliding swallow, 
please spare my small friends
flitting among the flowers! 
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

A bee emerging
from deep within the peony's hairy recesses
flies off, sated
—Matsuo Basho translation by Michael R. Burch

That dying cricket,...

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Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, translation by Michael R. Burch

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

The first soft snow:
leaves of the awed jonquil
bow...

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“It is the custom of scholars when addressing behavior and culture to speak variously of anthropological explanations, psychological explanations, biological explanations, and other explanations appropriate to the perspectives of individual disciplines. I have argued that...

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The laws are not in the management of the soul, but the greatest science fruits are punished with the sounds of the rails that follow the trains of the cows living without breaking the suffering...

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Yvonne was very, very, very happy.
She loved her mother.
She loved her brother Phillip.
And she loved swans.
Oh, did she ever love swans!

She loved the way they looked
With their smooth, fluffy feathers,
And colorful beaks of orange, yellow...

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[Well, ShallowMan’s ne’er at a loss
for voicing shallow thoughts that gloss.
With trenchant wit he reaps the dross
when seeking sense in applesauce.

But to his aid flies FactoidMan
who always has a Fact at hand;
with him, who needs...

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Where do we come in
					in medias res  not knowing nor caring when
doesn’t everybody pine being number one we leave behind our lives in pages  pictures  or else make for images of what...

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He just appeared to me, like wispily curling 
Chimney smoke, 
One grim and early morning in the very midst of 
Decembers briefest days, on the highest slope,
Toiling through my daily round; where, slowly 
Driving up...

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To my sisters,
and narrow-way brothers,
in Jesus Christ
as Supreme UnitingWealthyStates
sustainable legal/moral Savior

I reached U.S. voting age during the 70s.
During this time,
the Religious Right
and Republican Party Center
were about the same place;
not distinguishable,
inscrutable, perhaps.

In strong conserving defense of...

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“The Juniper Prize: Between the Known and the Unknown”

That man built a house 
of straw and sticks
and the stories that burned within -

all consuming the titled prize;

like a bird 
sings a song
the metre repeats and...

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Where to begin
in the middle of cold and dark
winter's solstice,
healthy green life's time
of impeachment,
excommunication,
dormancy?

Where does this all rightfully
and sacredly left end?

These are expansive gadfly questions,
problems,
issues of complexly dipolar reason,
leftbrain dominant
either-or thinking
we are either thinking or...

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 1

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

He'll heal his heel.
They sow so they sew.
His aide aid with an ade.
You saw a ewe eat a yew.
I ate on the ait eight...

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Once again it’s Saturday; the day when footy reigns supreme.
The Dogs are up against the Cats, the premier favoured team,
but I’ve got no doubts the mighty Dogs will surely cope with that.
I couldn’t think of...

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WINTER, 1948 [40 Saxton Street]

for W.W

The winter nights that pass now
are so unlike the winter nights
that passed before, that I often
struggle back in those suspended moments
when sleep grapples for a hold,
to once again hear the...

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Picture this..? Seedy joint.'mediocre comedy one Kiev night.
Hunky billionaire bored and sour, joins his guests Uneventful hour.?
A pan faced man is on the stage, mocking life with inward rage.
George faintly get the vibe, listens more...

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Once upon an evolving time
we were a great first nation,
or second nation,
depending on your historical perspective,
but definitely not a third nation
although some cooperative economists
thought we might be competing ourselves
in that over-invested and ego-inflationary direction.

This first...

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Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
And hand me Grampa’s old transistor radio
Covered in leather with glorious knobs
That brought me the...

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Off fish hill Daylight saving time 2025

min(no) newt effect on me.

As part and parcel of terpsichorean repertoire,
one whirling dervish 
flaps his wings at the speed of sound.

With twenty three hours
Sunday March 9th, 2025
essentially 2:00:00 to...

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INSPIRED BY CHARACTER OF CLARISSA DALLAOWAY IN VIRGINIA WOOLFE'S STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOVEL "MRS. DALLAOWAY"



                    ...

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Malnourishment is the song from the pans whose empty hold could offer no more products to be boiled and whirled. They were quite sad having been bought then hung. Hung. Sparkly signalling stale sales. Stale...

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Injustice is just an inconvenience until it is proven...
When the sun hit their helmets it startled the very souls of the natives
a signal upon their eyes that spoke like a siren of ill prophecy to...

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It is in our fragile, nearly broken, exposure
that we are most available for love
and remedial gratitude,
rather than the louder applause
of our full-blown ballistic glory.

While exercising restrained patience breeds tolerance,
giving pregnant reign to co-empathy compels timeless...

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