Long Sunnier Poems

Timothy had always been a man of laughing joy and conversation	


               -Friendship dialogue communication -


But now there was silence but for...

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When I was a history teacher, I had a passion for the subject,
Like the twilight descending silkily, as day and night connect.

Each day was a new adventure, as we explored different ages,
Broadening young minds. I...

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Bob had been a lonely man ever since
His wife of fifty years had passed.
“Lord, let me join her.” he would pray.
“Let this day be my last.”

Each day, he went to the cemetery,
Just a short walk...

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Buna
by Primo Levi
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Mangled feet, cursed earth,
the long interminable line in the gray morning
as Buna smokes corpses through industrious chimneys...

Another gray day like every other day awaits us.

The terrible whistle shrilly...

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Okay that's it
I finally quit
I've had my years of fun

I've got exercise
Clear in my sights
Fat will soon be on the run

Had a problem in
Getting in the gym
The doors won't fit my butt double wide

So in...

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Strawberry Fields Forever


Baby we need to talk
You're eleven now
Boys your age are starting to look
Trust me they are
Stop rolling your eyes, that's not nice
How many times have I told you
To stop rolling your eyes, please
You...

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I walked from the office with a newfound vigor;
it was around 2:15 PM and my guts were at ease.
I'd had a good night's sleep, a good morning's work,
and a brief but vigorous workout right before...

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Gloria is the lass all the college boys fancied. In fact, she
was the one they dreamed of marrying. Yet, when she walks
through the door at the reunion, she’s unrecognizable! In
truth, she looks like a wrinkled...

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clinging on to the surface of the boat
half shattered and left to decay,
gasping for breath, gasping for air
clinching to the plank, scared where 
my hand would let go of it,
erstwhile memories coming past my mind,...

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What do you do on a rainy afternoon as this?  
Nowhere to go, really, 
Unlike the little cars and big rigs humming by down the rural highway outside the window
Competing with the lighter and...

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My devious plot worked
A beautiful woman talked to me!
All because of my shirt!

I might as well have been superman
All decked out in Canadian Red
If only I had anticipated........

If only my tongue was not tied
Around my...

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Liverpool

When night ends, the fog begins
Heavy as lead!
Shrouding the town:
Once grand
And home of grandeur.
The grand mansions
of old times!
Now in ruins: off white!
Harboring the ghosts of 
The grandeur!
Who would have lived in a house 
Like this?
My...

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Heaven
I awoke and was flung into the purgatory
The obscurity smiled
It threw its ghost against the days
Yet descending onto the surface
My Jesus
He said come unto me
Rise out of this pit of hell
Be free, repent one last...

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Sunrise
Sun rays lavishly surrounding
Emphatic in fact FANTASTIC!
Oh My GOD!
I'M joyous!

Completely clear 
Clearing the air with happiness
Happiness is delicious
Oh boy! What a joy!
COPIOUSLY  CLAIRVOYANT

Non-fictitious it's all real
There are no underhanded deals.
I've come of age.
Turn the...

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My grandparents lived in a drafty old farmhouse,
yet, filled with a warmth, that came from the heart
and a hearth, where we hovered on cold winter nights. 
Days were much sunnier, the breezes were brisk, 
and...

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My father is not the biological father of my siblings
So I am the bridge, I am the link in the family
I, alone, carry his blood, so it is
all the more poignant, and painful that
I am...

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The tiny seed wasn’t certain it wanted to sprout
It had been through such trauma above the soil
winds buffeting it this way and that 
striking sign posts and trees 
bouncing off them before being whisked away
once...

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What makes me get up
is the strongest coffee cup,
and the enthusiasm to live a full day:
either indoor to write, or outside to play.


Watching movies is fun, but laziness stores fat in my belly,
sitting on the...

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They came in by the thousands and landed
 on the gleaning grassland...
to take a bath in the spring rain so scented, 
and they don't seem, the least, bothered;
by the raindrops falling at a regular interval,
uncompromising...

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Vanity

Vanity thy name is woman,
Quoth not Hamlet about her domain.

The vanity of a woman no stir can hear,
Which to her heart she forever holds dear.

Truth and honesty broke many a home,
A life in deceitful bliss...

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The storms we have weathered,
so many and yet so few.
But how many should be endured
when there are two,
who love each other
as we do.

There have been in our lives, my love,
storms of passion,
that were so fiery...

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POETICALLY MIME

The vast ash-leaden clouds are in tears again...

The soggy tears like boxing fists - casting bruise 
and blues below. Unlike yesterday where they
mirror gentle caress to branchlets and blossoms
smiling in gratitude as they are...

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if our story ends
as all stories must
i’d want to
remember
each chapter
unfolding
as i sift through
the pages of
memories past

see fate's
written word
scribe how
we first met
recollect
sunnier times
treasured within
hear in my head
out from pages
come to life
the echoes
of laughter

in hindsight
reassess
certain chapters
rested against
their...

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In the swaying middle of a dangerous voyage
To climes of far sunnier look and ripening age, 
I often fight the doubts of a death-daring wreck;
Questioning the exact wisdom of my lonely trek. 

Not that I...

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Fizzing with excitement
Teaming with fruity flavor
Zesty and delightful
My color is beyond compare

I am a painter, and cannot imagine
Any painting without it.
She colors lilies and dragons, 
leaves, and wild women’s hair
I lavish her upon a canvas...

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