Long Tart Poems

Villanelles

The villanelle is a poetic form based on repetition, with a double refrain. 



Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day, 
with the...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch

In the Whispering Night
by Michael R. Burch

In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
while...

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Once upon a weedy lawn
At Cedar Oaks Retirement Home
There sat my mother, weak and old
On an afghan knit to block the cold.

It was summer, but in mom's grey eyes
Was winter, when all around us dies.
I...

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"Smooth Big Cat"



He was one of those guys you just knew would be a dud. "Be nice", she said to herself.

She met him on the upswing from the abyss of a dismally closed final chapter....

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If ever a moment in real life deserved a romantic, melancholy
backing track, it would have been that one ... we'd spent the
entire afternoon at Ferry Beach, sunning and playing frisbee, I
playing guitar, she practicing her...

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On this day 40 years ago in 1978 my mother, Jacqueline Anne Trestrail, left this world after a relatively short battle with cancer - she was 46. Jimmy Carter was President and Annie Hall won...

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TITLE:
       Xenophobia

Heed the warning
This isn't for the faint of heart
Verbalizing my deepest yearnings 
They're bound to be a bit tart...

Because where I'm from is called the Bible Belt
Where folks...

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I once spent a week in the drunk tank
couldn't handle the spirits that I drank
the cuisine wasn't half bad
we even had a few laughs
but I had to guard my butt with a shank


……………………………………………………………………….


It used to...

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Youth

When orchids bloom in beauty life's aglow
to hold emotions locked in deep repose
in young desire and love warm thoughts will show.
Affection holds its ardor as it grows
to burn inside young hearts in evening tide.
In darkest...

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I grew up and out on a four family-owned,
and cooperatively-organized,
extended matriarchal farm.

Four interdependent 1940s through 1970s patriarchally managed businesses,
without substantial questions about who should wear pants,
yet with a surprising matriarchal cooperative understory.

The boxers outnumbered the...

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~~~Here's another verse written by me! I hope you cherish my 500th poem I've written on this WONDERFUL poetry site!!~~~
*dances merrily and goes to Disneyland*

I wish the sun can keep on shining like candlelight reflection…...

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each of us gives in from a faithful friend,
Watch through the beaten tower
We give in way to soon...
This Newest piece, "The utmost for his highest."

covers all known bases to fuel the fan in
look deeper in...

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You were my work of art
From the start, from the start
Then, you threw me away and I knew from there on, you had no heart
You were my drug of delight
From the morning to the night,
But...

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O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

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Part 7

The Atheist was a Man who thought much of himself
    And would not brook any measure of social compliance.
So no matter the 'who,' he would not suffer their views,
  ...

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Green light means go ahead
Make your choice
Here’s a list of the Green light or free, fruits go, go, go and eat them up

Apples, dried: Dried apples make a great snack food and are easy to...

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Sharpened pens were brutal swords; a war was forged
Blow after blow was struck, with blood rage engorged
Not one single word between them had been spoken
No flag of truce waved, or friendship offered as token

Nothing was...

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Peter (my bf) and I were in Paris, about three weeks ago (I was on Spring break, he was on vacation from work).
‘Headstart for Happiness,’ by ‘the Style Council,’ was playing low somewhere.
“This is the...

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Barbie, Atari, He-man 
Batman, She-Ra, Ronald Reagan
Lower student loans, and landline phones
The Dark Crystal and around 5.2 billion people 
Andre the Giant’s Honeycomb commercial 
Rainbow Brite, Jem, and Rose Petal 
Welcome to the Jungle, Cheers!...

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In the middle ages
these roughed and scuffed decades
between newborn crocus snow-melt-nursed and
dried hydrangea blooms sepia-skinned and papery thin
I earned the right to wear sapphires
and burn my mademoiselle mistakes with wisdom-fires

it took me a while to...

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Your love is like a river peaceful and deep, 
like a secret I just can’t keep, like the shearing of a sheep,
like taking a leap, like my hand falling asleep, your love is like 
the...

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(continue from previous)
We walked then a farther site to reach,
Turning to left; and at leaf spring far throw,
We found other larger, fiercer to breach.

In binding him, whoever did it though
I cannot tell, but he just...

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Little Arabella Miller lived in town, but far enough out in green country,
To watch the raspberry sun go down, and to climb a lavish, plum tree.

Arabella was seven-years-old, and had a three-year-old, baby brother;
Like the...

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I was a zealous fashion designer, whose elegant styles were ever in vogue,
Like the rainbow time of cool, damp evening, that elegant colors go rogue.

Lost in my work, I took it seriously, for creating something...

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The Fisher
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
translation by Michael R. Burch

The river swirled and rippled;
nearby an angler lay,
and watched his lure with a careless eye,
like any other day.
But as he watched in a strange half-dream,
he saw...

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