Long Totems Poems

Auschwitz Rose
by Michael R. Burch
											
There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar,
a rose like Sharon’s, lovely as her name.
The world forgot her, and is not the same.
I still love her and extend this sacred...

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Land Is A Loom
I sailed the fiord like inlets between Powell River and Drury Inlet.
The land itself  spoke from mountains, torents, islet
From bird song and bear splashing fishers
From rutting moose and cougars sharp incisors.
The...

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Part 18

it helps to see the spectrum of behaviors
as a spectrum first of all
not disorganized not random
not to the degree the clergy would have it
which makes them ridiculous
as well as dangerous
to anyone standing outside the...

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I can’t see your face for spirits move mysteriously                  But terrible evil is haunting, this dark place ...

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The Scroll of Sorceress:
I do dark arts,
I do allure men to beat drums,
I cast spell through evil eye beads,
My dirty tricks no one reads,
I am someone who never cheats.
I am dark art goddess,
I am wise...

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Head hunting shrinking cutting down the ego’s totems                           ...

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La Civilisation – Translation of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s “Civilization” by T. Wignesan 

Nous qui sont arrivés en retard à la civilisation,
Une lacune des siècles que nous ait laissé tomber,
Lors de votre arrivé à nos terres nous...

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Took a spirit trek
across the golden amber prairie
Zephyr driven westward
to the South Dakota Black Hills

Had a restless pioneer rest,
unsettling
I laid my dear skin gentle feelings
on the hard ground
Lit the campfire
to reach out to the darkness

To-morrow’s...

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The river smells like damp cotton this morning,
the weather has been so complimentary to our exertions
frost invades the nights nicely and soft sunshine comforts our faces in daytime,
we have been averaging 26 miles per day...

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Ebola childreN

Sons and daughters of dead bodies
orphans to fading villages,
victims of hunger and malnutrition.
your skin peeling of your bones
limbs keep treading on soil filled dead glories
children of empty promises where graves await your deforming spirit.

children...

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in memoriam

we build monuments portraying our frail mortality…using bits of glass or stone or wood or bone we mount or stack or connect or carve or somehow enhance these pieces to make them our own…we...

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War is Obsolete
by Michael R. Burch

Trump’s war is on children and their mothers.
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." ? Gandhi

War is obsolete;
even the strange machinery of dread
weeps for the child in...

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France
Britain
and Spain
Three of a kind,
all with one aim
New World colonization,
territorial domination
Main strategic objective to be made:
land acquired by war,
or expansion thru peace by trade
All three needed native allies
They smoked the peace pipe;
puffing part truth, puffing...

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The Totem      ©

The totem speaks of the tribe’s history, lore, 
deeds of courage
Animals, fish and gods
 carved in reverence,
from a fallen tree hundreds of years old,
living wood, with a face,...

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Totems are formed through a talisman tribal identity.
                         *
Talisman emblems to...

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Paper planes and paper boats linger ever in my memory
As reminders of my joyful childhood days
My dreams and fancy used to soar high along with the planes
On seeing them first, how my curiosity happened to...

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You’re too far away from me
Already, I watch my life pass away
Endangered species fall before my eyes and I’m weeping seas and forests of plenty
I read the bible, I study His word…but not today…
Why not...

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Harrowing shifts placating Palestinian patients
Awkwardly healing bones, injuries war caused
Comfort we gave seemed severely insufficient
Soul mates meeting among pain, implausible 

Crutch hobbling boy with copious haphazard grin
Caught both our hearts, we smuggled him chocolate 
You...

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Frightend children under the baobab
Of elders discourse playing
At the deep edge of rites
Of passages
With no Atlantic dream.

There is a beauty here
Before the other world began
Forgetting its origin
And taste
Of white milk in black breast
Beautifully caressing
The tongue
Outside...

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Haudenosaunee ...
translation: They made the house
But who painted it
the colors we now see ---
Red, white and blue
Let's go back in time shall we,
and observe who cut down the first tree
in the eleventh century
Five Nations ...
called...

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Small minds people’s frailties deride
Drawing comfort and report
Although average minds decide
Events to discuss in their effort

To imitate great minds
Who ideas and ideals discuss
Upfront and behind blinds
Where they fuss

On humankind greatness
Buried into ideas
Whose robustness
Fears

Nothing as they...

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“The place of cure of the soul.”

Millions, clasped beyond Minerva's hall,
While inquisitive and confident hard.
Headed down towards different thoughts;
To giant collections, questions, borders strange.

There stood content's house of three.
In front, moved in cylindrical copyrights,
In round...

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Totems say it’s time for the Blue Star’s arrival; 
prophecy must be fulfilled and 
Buffalo Calf Woman, never lies.
Prophets view an incomplete future but, 
one that will most likely be.
Every race, religion, holy book, 
issues...

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We live in a world where magic is alive
We live with incantation and the surreal
We live with the charmed and the fay

In a world of magic where enchantment swells
In a world where monitoring spirits roam...

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STORM    CLOUDS  
    

Storm clouds gathering again from the Pacific
Over this  graveyard and its winged totems,
Cedar stories rich in legends, these items 
---  Of far-off people,...

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