Long Tarnished Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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“Éagmais croí a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Faoi dhíon taobh istigh de na blianta seo.
Fanacht i bhfianaise, a dhíscaoileadh ar gach eagla.
Ós rud é go ndearnadh tú a chaitheamh.
Briseadh an tost seo”



"An Bee Cailleach"


She lives to...

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This is one excited kid and one PROUD father...



I took my son to the lumberyard last Tuesday afternoon. The day itself, though toasty, was the best in quite some time.
And when we’d finished shopping -...

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Something strange

and unexplainable comes this way,
this way, it comes to us sly and fast, 
some say, perhaps, 
it has already arrived, 
it walks unseen, in the midst of all, of us 

we go about our...

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Once a pawn a time within castellated bishopric

We purchased 2020 Hyundai Elantra
at Enterprise Car Rental
1207 West Ridge Pike
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania 19428
April thirteenth two thousand twenty three
witnessed greatest amount of money
I spent at one time.

The following day...

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The Good Girl

Penny has always been a good girl, now she is a good wife. She lives in a good neighborhood, drives a nice car, has two perfect children. Her husband is a doctor and...

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Family. Love. BOOSTER


                                ...

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In Marshside Lea, there stood a tree, old in trunk and bough
'Twas long ago, this tale, although, it may still stand there now
And in its shade, the young sheep played as often did young lambs
Whilst...

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Through shadowed trails, beneath the moon’s cold stare, 
     Its Amber gaze: a burden hard to bear.
This feathered prize found peace in my gut,
     No slumber dreamt;...

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Personal vicissitudes pronounced irrepressible self loathing

Ever since mine late boyhood
when unstoppable coded 
cellular processes did segue
I experienced abhorrence
toward yours truly,
an extremely introverted kid,
whose parents nor siblings
(one younger and older sister) could
not arouse him 

out of...

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I relished being hungry for Thanksgiving pop slop gloppy grub

whereby the missus didst potchke
created whirling dervish hubbub
after enjoying repast, 
(fit for a tarnished king),
yours truly able, eager, and ready
to soak my ego freezing carcass in...

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Note: this is the 2nd HALF of this piece, a little too long to post as one poem, sorry. If you enjoy story-poems, it's definitely worth the read, believe me. (Or the "listen".)


“We learned of...

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Gory video games are playing on the television screen…everyone watches excitedly without a flinch of fear…where’s peace when I need it? Where’s love when I want it? Where’s their sanity? Is it replaced with vanity...

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I posit picayune propensities prevail among pesky management

Most favored renter status imposed on us
i.e. meaning myself;
(one tarnished prince of Highland Manor)
and the missus, his princess consort
who must abide by rigorous writ
of tidiness, whereby
every flat surface...

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My ebbing physical prowess and strength

noticeably decreases in one direction.

I take lock, stock and barrel 
to revisit good ole days of yore
quite conscious undeclared state of war
prevails within body electric of troubadour
now seated at his...

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her life had been a rollercoaster of moody upheaval

          manic fervor from sheer in-exhaustible passion

           ...

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Ohh I could have sat with my heart 
--elevated with dribbled echoes-- 
ahhhhhh until it yet exhaled the tarnished seams 
capturing only the quiet current lapping
and soaking dirty steel embankment	
along the river’s edge beneath the...

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In sun-scorched dunes, beside a weathered sentinel, 
a glint ensnared his weary gaze.
A tarnished lamp / grazed / its secrets unknown / 
a genie unbound, a muted haze.

Three worldly desires danced like tempting fruit, ambition's...

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Rest now
O restless heart
released in ebb   to flow

ride the other side of the king tide rising
buoyant your movement in rise with the waves
Rise! to beyond where breakers break long-suffering shores
pitiless the grind of...

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Emotional fatigue courtesy exhaustive vituperative harangue...

Lobbed and unleashed upon the heads
of (yours truly and the missus)
so called selfish "monsters."

The evening of Wednesday April 19th
witnessed us (birth parents of our first born)
weathering blistering telephonic brickbats.

She (unnamed...

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Parts 2 and possibly 3 will come out tomorrow or this week... enjoy!! The other verse will be called Caught off Guard and the third - I have no clue yet! Enjoy reading this incomplete...

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"Secrets"



I know something 
good about you
you were a child once, too -

without malice

gentle as the petals of a rose
sweet and pure
no need to be berated

proven guilty -
Innocent

From your eyes
and smile 
Light emanated 

joy spilled 
from...

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Sat in his chair, the tv still on
He’s not changed the channel for so very long
The message on screen says a shut down’s ensuing
But press any button to carry on viewing

The remote, untouched on the...

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