Long Topaz Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates...

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Sonnet LXXXI-LXXXIX

Day, and Night
by Michael R. Burch

The moon exposes pockmarked scars of craters;
her visage, veiled by willows, palely looms.
And we who rise each day to grind a living,
dream each scented night of such perfumes
as drew...

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Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp...

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The Story so far…
Makani (The Rising Wind), a beautiful extra-terrestrial researcher is sent to a remote island to observe earth. She finds Sam, a shipwrecked earthling near death owing to drowning. Sam (Ka ‘Lo -...

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From the window of my chic city office, lost in thought, I gaze out.
The pedestrians scurry like frenzied ants below, caught up in their bustling state of holiday insanity.
In his haste to cross the street...

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Of Ghosts and Fiends in Twilight


The sun sank low on the darkening horizon
Grey mist hung adrift over the land thickening
A cold, brisk autumn wind held and embraced me 
With my horse’s pace and that of...

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Grey Bane and the Dark Lord


Perched on a stalagmite jutting up from the floor
Hugo was staring at length across the cave
My eyes accustomed to the glow followed his gaze
Frozen in ice was my Love whom...

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Date:  September  2050

Damian stood at the front door 
Ushering everybody out to the waiting 
Limousine. "Come on my People 
Be quick about it wifies!"  Sidney
And Saderi were willing to go along
For the...

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POTW 28 January 2018

Prologue:
A beautiful extra-terrestrial female researcher is sent down to a remote island to observe earth and beam her findings back to her planet. She’s strictly forbidden to make any human contact. She...

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DESCRIBE HEAVEN FOR THE BEAUTY

For the beauty of heaven Golden gates, made of gold;
Environment perfect temperature not hot nor cold;
Holy dwelling of the Most High Lord ;
For the beauty of heaven;
Can't even begin to comprehend...

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All that does encompass bespeaks wonder in everything
bubbling brooks and waterfalls does your glory ring
terrestrial and celestial ever fill our eyes with seeing
how can not it's splendor not fill our very being
 
raindrops in waters...

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“Sacred Lakes”



There is magic 
in your shaman bones
stories shaken like strange mojo 
busy under cover of autumn leaves 
turning burnished topaz gold 
idling unrushed roll over

in honeyed slumber

turning back hands
to face a time of 
blushing...

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Beyond the wispy, secretive slick and silent faerie wonderland
Forthwith and within, and among the angels, are mindful mountains,
Protecting the delicate,feeling-forth creatures, who slumber amongst the roses.
Roses of colors not experienced on this planet, because these...

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Strategically placed when raised 
Upwards
By your masterful and well 
Practiced hand.
To mingle with ever changing 
Skylines 
That frown down with arrogant 
Scowls
Upon the indigenous populous of 
This just and tolerant island.
To study and pontificate upon...

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I was a professional flutist, and performed in orchestras and symphonies,
To express the sheer joy of living, like the birds sing to summer's breeze.

Becoming accomplished took many years, and I'd played since childhood,
As a late...

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Running fast thru Autumn’s dream, Vincent-bright in village winter’s light
Topaz-treed streets, eaves-filled , singing with saffron and  gold,
A Rocky Mountain cold cornflower sky over English hills
Vivid with Vincent-fuzzy ice-finger edges 
Photo-album best parts of...

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I was a skillful, amiable nursery worker, cultivating blooms in a greenhouse,
Like feverish and fragrant blooms, often grown in redbird's green treehouse.

Hours were spent sowing seeds, adjusting conditions, and also and pruning,
As June full moon...

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When the mirror of 
               life is a gossamer film,       
 veiling v i n...

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Childhood can 
be a connotation 
of cacophonous tunes,
where the sweetest sins 
hide pain 
    behind a smile.
We all have 
 a story to tell, 
but not all are 
  born to...

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These are the best sports poems by Michael R. Burch, Part II

The Locker
by Michael R. Burch

All the dull hollow clamor has died
and what was contained,
removed,
reproved
adulation or sentiment,
left with the pungent darkness
as remembered as the sudden...

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In the moorlands of desires, 
I've forever sung choruses of
fertile faith, amidst the flock 
of bleeding birds, sprinkling
heartbeats on lush olive herbs, 
In the dream of retracing their 
scintillating season of beachy spring. 
'Hope' had...

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The New Jerusalem chapter 21:9-22

One of the seven angels who had one of the seven bowels full of the
seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the
bride, the wife of...

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Dante caught Beatrice looking at him and smiled.
"I dare say that right now you look even more handsome 
to me than when I first made your acquaintance."

"So what blessed soul was the recipient of 
your...

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Since I was a very small girl I have dreamed of a house.A house chock full of treasures that I would idly rummage through.Here I would find a cupboard full of quilts,beautiful elbow length teal...

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