Long The irish Poems

It may have been the devil himself who prompted the kids in my schoolyard back in 1947 to chant "Patsy Foley's roly-poly from eating too much ravioli."

At first, no one could remember who started the...

Read More

The Song of Amergin: Modern English Translations

The Song of Amergin
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I am the sea breeze
I am the ocean wave
I am the surf's thunder
I am the stag of the seven tines
I am...

Read More

The Pictish Faeries
by Michael R. Burch

Smaller and darker
than their closest kin,
the faeries learned only too well
never to dwell
close to the villages of larger men. 

Only to dance in the starlight
when the moon was full
and men...

Read More

The Spaniel

A Spaniel that uses its head 
Can tell when its owner’s unfed 
So instead of a duck
That is down on its luck 
Will deliver a pizza instead
 
The Afghan Hound

The Afghan’s a dog groomer’s...

Read More

I’m not saying my father hated the English, God forbid. If he were still alive, he’d hate to hear me say that. He’d correct me right away and say he didn’t hate the English. Truth...

Read More

Like the twelfth
juror in the play
I must say I am not
convinced
For I know a recipe
for trouble 
I have seen the
double standards
And I do not approve
this for Kenya
I will never approve
it, and neither
Would you, dear
friend of...

Read More

THE WALK
The sun shines on Benarty
On a nice warm summers day,
The bairns have got their clothes on
And they all want out to play.

l make them all some breakfast
And the kids all eat their fill,
Then I...

Read More

Deep In Newly Disturbed Soil, Lies My True Love

(  “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them” – George Eliot.)

Deep in newly disturbed soil, lies my true love
'neath a canopy...

Read More

Picture this.
Exploding pipe bombs.
Land fields that can take your arms off.
Driving off road, and frenzied, with excitement 
Adrenaline RAGING.
Oh, yes, Syrian Teenagers,
It is “Let’s See If We Are Really Alive” day.
Okay, we’ll let in some...

Read More

It has often been said that empires come and go
And from the beginning of time that has been so
Empires ruled with terror and an iron fist
Taking brutal action against those, who tried to resist.

On the...

Read More

Siúil a Run (Walk My Love) 
           Celtic Woman 


Walk Beside Me, You’ll Never Walk Alone  
		
Awakening, The Whole of The Moon	
		
Walking the ...

Read More

He was a man of few words, except for what had to be heard or said,
Loving, caring and gentle this simplest of souls, proud in respect,
And reverence always bowing his head to a higher powers...

Read More

Thousands of years ago, the Irish had gained a ton of gold from all the mining they did.  Everyday, they would gain more and more gold, putting them in large buckets.  The Irish...

Read More

FICTION USUALLY WRITTEN 
STRICTLY TO KEEP YOUR 
READERS INTRIGUED LIKE 
WITH JASON BOURNE OR 
THE FICTIONAL WRITE FALSE 
WITNESS OR AWOL WHERE 
A FICTIONAL CHARACTER 
GOES AWOL FOR NOT GOING 
INTO WORK AFTER A MENTAL...

Read More

across the Doggerland dogged people trudge
  Neanderthals, Heidelbergers...Sapiens, the last ones standing
  hairy mammoths, heavy life bearing down
  the mighty maw of an ice wall crunches, enforcing southward retreat
  remoulding the...

Read More

LIGHT VERSE AND NONSENSE VERSE V

Less Heroic Couplets: Word to the Unwise
by Michael R. Burch

I wanted to be good as gold,
but being good, as I’ve been told,
requires something, discipline,
I simply have no interest in!



Villanelle of...

Read More

In homage to the waters around the UK and all those who sail them...


Late at night and early dawn
Like clockwork - every day are heard
Those dulcet tones “set fair” to warn
With poetic, most prophetic words
What...

Read More

At nights we’d sit out on the balcony drinkin
Breathin
That thick mug air
Of a New Orleans summer evening.
Livin as easy
As they’d let us
In the bowels of the Irish Channel
Where magnolias bloom all year long
Amidst the cracked...

Read More

Fertile Crescent
and Vestigial Conscience

The sun overshadowing my morality
my self- righteousness eclipsed

Where early mans' dawn is, 
Our sun over my left *should* threaten to tinge me if
I pontificate platitudes that fail to connect us to
full stomachs...

Read More

Passed down through generations of my family history
is the story of a man buried, and of an ensuing mystery.
It's an age old story that my ancestors have always told
about the presence of a rose appearing...

Read More

Now let us forget foreign captains
And Conquistadores myth
That colors the morning exuberantly
With exotics wars and phony fathers
Like a fine lady strolling along a rotten street
I have tasted lemon
And though I wince at my tongue's
Sharp reaction
I...

Read More

I am who I am

Were you to ask where I’m from my past my tale my next of kin
the answer lies in who tells my narrative my twist what kind of spin

My autobiography is quickly...

Read More

Dragon sat in the bushes all night long, for he wanted to catch himself a Leprechaun.
See Leprechauns have gold by the buckets full, and Dragon wanted himself… some.
So our sly little Dragon had put a...

Read More

The Silence of War

Behind the Curtains of a church window
Men in Prayer, orchestrated by sweat and Lice
Find relief from snipers gaze

Beside the cross sits the last candle
Flickering precariously, searching for sanctuary from the wind
But the...

Read More

Stashed with programs recorded, which, condensed on universal files
Will tell them very little of what they don’t know and may never know
In this lifetime or the next heaven, in this orbit or the next
Treasure from...

Read More