Long Thrummed Poems

Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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“Clap your terrible wings, vivacious serpent of old!
Imagine my plight as dangerous as your spite,
Stomp your clawed feet on these prison floors,
Peace shall always follow the sink of your fangs…”

Silenced were the wailing demons round,
Crouched...

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Out on the the highway I was, in those apricot days of August.
I was returning from a vacation, and the birdsong was raucous.

My car had made the long journey, without any issues at all,
Like sun...

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I never knew you ...

yet you were mine -
mine as completely as any other
that ever drew breath or dreamed a
       dream
on this unforgiving orb.

"the choice" ... THAT choice,
was never...

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I was an experienced interior designer, whose specialty was outer doors,
Ever opening to amber sunshine, as petals open, when vivid beams pour.

Functionality and beauty were very vital, so I helped customers each day,
To choose materials,...

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The Souther farm stood back, a long way back 
from the road called Joe Long Arm.
The house was low and squat and huddled on the hill 
and it had laid there for eighty years.
Now the...

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Would you still love me ... perchance I was half a man?
     My carnal, physical core torn from me like ragged raiment,
         ...

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I consider it ...
with indifference, at first ...
the black charcoal powder coating the sole of my boot ...
I slap at it casually and watch it drift off, spinning ...

Then it hits me ... my breath,...

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I sit by the window motionless
Looking at the sky getting darker
Inside me a sea swells, tides of memories
Beat my heart, the only keepsake I have.
Like a thick shelled oyster, tightly spliced
You sealed your heart to...

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I remember a young man of long ago,
I as fond of him as he the bow.
We thrived together, discovering astride,
grew into our own side by side.

I came for the archery, and stayed
for the friends -...

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Flight 93
by Michael R. Burch

I held the switch in trembling fingers, asked
why existence felt so small, so purposeless,
like a minnow wriggling feebly in my grasp ...

vibrations of huge engines thrummed my arms
as, glistening with sweat,...

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Disappeared is time for one and all
Who leave their footprints by the sea.
High winds grab voices as they fall--
Secured in silent memory.

Stormy nights like anchors sink
To dig and take a-hold
And long beyond will form a...

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so ...
demanding
she told me to stop
to stop 'thinking like a poet' ...
but what the hell did that mean?!?
she added unto, thusly -
'stop creating Tolkein worlds' (verbatim)
that hit home ...

any other fool with a pen would...

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I plunged headfirst, my silly stilted pride


          The instant I beheld your Cheshire smile


            ...

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Opinions are like rectums, everyone
Has one. Sadly, blockheads have them also.
It’s what comes out: profundity or thrummed
Beliefs that make all the difference. Know
The truth and what’s not before you accept
A single one. Beware of those...

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On frozen lands
Did our home lie
Its chimney full of smoke
And heat inside
Kept us alive
While our father spoke

Come here children
Gather around
And hear what I must say
It’s cold outside
So please don’t cry
In here you all must stay

Now...

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