Long Striding Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

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A harrowing drive on the Schuylkill Expressway
(route 76) both heading into
(and a small number of hours later
exiting) center city Philadelphia
to Schwenksville on May 19th, 2024.

Yours truly (a doodling Yankee), and the missus
went to town, NOT...

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War, Is Unholy Hell

War is wicked rot and most holy hell
 man's evil is its murdering spell
Yet mankind never ever truly learns
 love and faith it arrogantly spurns

Poetry by the great Siegfried Sassoon
 glows like...

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Pandora's BoX

Whom to blame?
What woman now walks, the lethal ancestress
Of the original ancestress, that one named 
Pandora, that one with the gleaming eyes that said:

   "I want; I need, to know?"

Where is she...

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It was a freezing night in Alaska, the temperature had 
dropped to well below zero, fifteen below with a driving 
wind that shrieked and laughed as it sped viciously past
causing lashing snow flakes to fall...

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Cluttering above huddled rooftops
Of sprawling villages 
And shy provincial towns;
Rising sharply amidst swooping
Declinations;
Hesitating when gathering at the
Tangled woodland perimeters of
Outlying greenland bounds,
Jostled apex ridges detach among
Themselves...
When habitually roused from early
Mornings
Newly awakened sounds.

Electrical milk floats whir...

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When I worked as a carpenter there was an iron clad rule.If you woke up to a drizzling rain you came to work in hopes it would soon abate.
However,if it was pouring and the old...

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True Christmas Miracle 

Huddled in muddy trenches, the soldiers heard an eerie sound.
Troops were English, French & Belgians, and as they looked around,
The sound was coming from the German enemy lines just 50 yards away.
It...

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i.
At the centre of the world:
Back in the Roman days of yore--
A voice echoed, that decreed
To a crowd of commons, lost and unsure:

"Our rivers run dried, the Wrath of Gods,
Needs must be pacified
By human blood,...

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tigers dashing, fliers clashing, look the man, but what is he?

sitting down on a stump, this man was round and fairly plump, his eyes were dark and
menacing, his laugh was cold and chilling, he talks...

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Chapter 12 (c) The Fireflower (continued)

So forthwith it was decided 
That upon the next day’s dawning 
They would send a party swiftly 
Inland by a river valley  
 
They would climb to highland forest...

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How is one to passage through shall misfortune nay take root?
Is beyond my knowledge for never once within had I sat foot
It is the will of the Goddess Word, to be cursed and to be...

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Chapter 3 THE RIVER continued (b)


Carefully they placed the children
In the small canoe amidships;
Pushing out into the current 
Han swam alongside to guide them
 
Kwona, as she stood and waited
On the shore now took the...

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Children's Poems IV

These are poems for children and poems about children and their mothers, fathers, grandmother, grandfathers and extended families. 



Boundless
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

Every day we whittle away at the essential solidity of him,
and...

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I just walked past the restaurant
A terrific place I used to go
Early in the evening hours
Of a chilly and recent past night
The fullness of the moon cast a memory
Reminders of my having traveled to these...

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DO I HEAR AN AMEN?

Looking out life’s window, trying to find out why I am so sad and down.
I am a (vivacious being) so now why do I frown.
I don't blame the Lord for my...

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A Fugitive
Bus Stop Overland Park, Kansas   7:35 PM

A furrowed brow and furtive eyes
that refuse to engage another,
striding quickly through the crowd
and putting people between him
and the police car.
He is hardly the drifter or...

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In a sudden, I felt immerse with a power beyond my understanding
Awash with a newfound strength I might hope in rendering
In the meantime, shadows from the piled skeletons around were coming to life
And from the...

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we gather together, a hundred or so
stetching, warming cold muscles, just waiting to go

nervous anticipation, just wanting to start,
we collect our numbers, have a piss, have a fart

as our tummies stir with butterflies and angst
we...

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Goodnight my dear boy and what's that you say?
You want me to chase the bad monsters away?
Well, I'll tell you a tale that may just be true
And if it's made up, it is done just...

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A DREAMERS PLIGHT ON JUDGEMENT DAY

Give solely sovereign sway & Masterdom.
The air nimbly & sweetly recommends itself unto my gentle senses
To commend the ingredients of my poisoned chalice.
But this same thing we desire the most
That...

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I was working for Jack Daymond, a farmer,
who farmed livestock, potatoes and vines.
I s’pose he had over two hundred cattle.
The spuds and the grapes grew in lines. 

Oh gawd! Jack had me slaving ‘til sunset,
keeping...

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True Christmas Miracle  True Story  Full version written by Wendy Horder. 2020


Huddled in muddy trenches, the soldiers heard an eerie sound.
Troops were English, French & Belgians, and as they looked around,
The sound was...

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Young Raymond worked the bakery
was up 'bout ten to three.
Just eighteen, still in high school he
had dreams of flying free.

He worked as hard as most grown men
then walked to school and slept.
Took all his wages...

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