Long Tightropes Poems

Poems of Recanted Bachelorhood

bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ALARMING
since my resolve
dissolved!

*

Disconcerted
by Michael R. Burch

Beth, my sweet,
fresh as a daisy,
when I’m with you
my heart beats like crazy
& my future gets hazy ...

*

What Goes Around, Comes
by...

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LOVE POEMS III by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, relationships, devotion and marriage. 


Violets
by Michael R. Burch

Once, only once,
when the wind flicked your skirt
to...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Kin
by Michael R. Burch

O pale, austere moon,
haughty beauty ...

what do we know of love, 
or duty?



Daredevil
by Michael R. Burch

There are days that I believe
(and nights that I deny)
love is not mutilation.

Daredevil, dry your eyes.

There are...

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I Loved You
by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
translation by Michael R. Burch

I loved you ... perhaps I love you still ...
perhaps for a while such emotions may remain.
But please don’t let my feelings trouble you;
I do not...

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Daredevil
by Michael R. Burch

There are days that I believe
(and nights that I deny)
love is not mutilation.

Daredevil, dry your eyes.

There are tightropes leaps bereave:
taut wires strumming high
brief songs, infatuations.

Daredevil, dry your eyes.

There were cannon shots’ soirees,
hearts...

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Double Feature

Flashback! Three friends of childhood featuring a blond, brunette and red-head
Sharing the script of summer days and rain soaked winter afternoon
Unfolding documentary of roads ocean journey to California, Colorado and Norway.

Zoom in on a...

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I saw blue memoirs fell from momma's eyes, as she looked into my brown retinas. Swiftly she removed my medicated glasses, a dominant gene I carved out from papa's bottled eyes. "Oh!  sorry D!,"...

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Amazing acrobats astound awe-stricken audiences.  Amy always asks about acts already arranged.

Bouncing bears balance beach balls.  Bobby Bear bicycled behind Betsy Bear.

Crazy clowns crash carelessly.  Carousels circle clockwise.

Daring demonstrations dazzle dazed dreamers....

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The Greatest Show on Earth

Mr. Pik lived alone, across our street -
All the kids knew him, dressed up so neat;

Mr. Pik loved the circus – every kind -
Each year, in our mailbox, tickets, we’d find;

So...

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We were visiting good old Niagara Falls, the most beautiful place on earth. With its waterfall cadences and fresh lit sun, who could ask for anything more.  Hand in hand we strolled together wearing...

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The iciness of his smile 
seeped like osmosis through the crevices 
left on my face by the squint rooted 
on fires of a loud and angry sun. 

A tempest stormed across the dusty, red sky...

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"Intermission: Flutterby Reveille"




Impromptu like a moth
pale words flutter out of his 
psychodelic mind

curious funny flutterby…
for a second then, I didn't move, 
deadpan, I said, 

"... try again with some panache, some style" 
incredulously, I smiled,

he's...

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The Greatest Show on Earth - Two

Mr. Pik lived alone, across our street
All the kids knew him, dressed up so neat;

Mr. Pik loved the circus – every kind -
Each year, in our mailbox, tickets, we’d...

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The things I’ve forgotten 
are watering the garden.

I can tell by the way she’s 
walking he’s been talking to her.
just like in a dream, 
where everything’s beautiful, 
And moving too slow. 

All the songs are...

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Dr. Goo Goo lives in the clouds with God
Follow his instructions to the T when sick
Take two aspirin and call him in the morning
Right now is good.  Never is even better

Fevers come with a...

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Beams dripped, from the yellow moon
And we did drown in a frenzied dance,
Not dreaming, that dawn would bloom
And wake us from - our mystic trance. 
 
Owls hailed us, with their wild whoops,
And gloom bloomed,...

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"Tightropes of the Three Graces" 

Tightropes
for hanging clothes
on a line 

each piece 
pegged wooden
held between closed fences

misfortune's breeze lifts
sleeves like covers
pointing the way home

books and their pages
for The Davenport dancers 
all's well that ends well...

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The blind and the weary, are up from the trenches
To climb into chaos, they'll walk across tightropes
where no one has noticed the ebb and the sway
Now lost in the fury, they are mixed in the...

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I chose to tell my Little Lie
To the world, and to a friend –
Just this once – myself I told –
And never more again

I spoke it nonchalantly
Yet – slowly – did exhale
My breathing thin and...

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"Logos" 


always there
walking tightropes
beside me

pre-existent

logos walking
parting 
waves in air

I turn my back 
on eyes that speak
lost knowledge imprint

I turn my back 
on recalcitrant
childhood dreams 

I turn around ; 

you, 
the shadow
still seen 

a ghost 
haunting
persistent

remain

still...

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My core being is tired
Drained, exhausted
Where can I rest?
Recharge, sleep
Inject my vitamin
Warmth, revitalized
A burst of soulful sun
Inside, passion
A sense of well being?
Is there any truth to that?
Mother will I be ok?
In my darkness I try...

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From your parapet of pity you prophesize and proclaim, 
That the widows of the tailors dug two shallow graves.

To mould the unmoulded into suits a crane, 
who makes such dreams built of rain, served on...

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At a rock climbing party,
It’s cool to observe
Both the kids who are cautious
And those who have nerve.

The daredevils clamber
To get to the top;
Neither ziplines nor tightropes
Will cause them to stop.

They tackle each challenge
With joy and...

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