Long Toughened Poems

Poems about Poems (I)



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer
~~~underwater~~~
watching the shoreline blur
sees through his breath’s weightless bubbles...
Both worlds grow obscure.



Muse/Goddess
by Michael R. Burch

“What will you conceive in...

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No Mark
by Michael R. Burch

A wave implodes, 
impaled upon
impassive rocks...

this evening
the thunder of the sea
is a wild music filling my ear...

you are leaving
and the ungrieving
winds demur...

telling me
that nothing returns
as it was before...

here where you have...

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The State of the Art (I)
by Michael R. Burch

Has rhyme lost all its reason
and rhythm, renascence?
Are sonnets out of season
and poems but poor pretense?

Are poets lacking fire,
their words too trite and forced?
What happened to desire?
Has...

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Sonnets XVII-XXIV

Discrimination
by Michael R. Burch

The meter I had sought to find, perplexed,
was ripped from books of "verse" that read like prose.
I found it in sheet music, in long rows
of hologramic CDs, in sad wrecks
of long-forgotten...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 4 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

A water cannon screeched around the corner on two wheels
Four and twenty Terror Bugs were nipping at its heels
Their acid blistered paint work but it...

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Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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(Approaching Ingalls Peak, 2012, original oil)

Rites of Passage

Forty-six years ago,
my first winter in the Pacific NW
my first winter break at college,
I headed out to climb Mt Stuart in the North Cascades 
in the company of...

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Will you make the cut?
Or settle for a shortcut?
Coaches' scuttlebutt

Execute the steal 
Professing rather than real
The truth to conceal

Blessing progeny
Highlights God's sovereignty
Not autonomy

Man's wisdom swaggers
'Til adversity staggers
Making Sandbaggers

Men try to judge Him
When self-righteousness rules them
Worthless...

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I am like
Cleopatra
embraced by serpents many
fear
always trying something new
and dramatic with my
hair
I am like
Eva Patrón
growing up with a painful family
getting lost in movies
thinking of my own
hypnotizing when I speak
First lady of Argentina
meeting you, after death
would...

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p

The first today.
The first in some time now.
Beneath the strained and toughened husk of tissue,
a heart given shape by the corregated cardboard armature scavenged and rigged together in haste for the sake of offspring.

Years pass,...

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I long have been a trail-runner,
and my name is Art Constantine,
sprinting peaks is a thigh-burner,
just as tiring as it seems,
I started this at seventeen.

Most people thought that I was nuts,
I suppose I can’t say they’re...

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I, a Red Skin dog, as some may delight to call me,
I have heard the tales of horror, from my dark skinned foes.
I have heard the tales of terror, from others who became my friends.
And...

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H-E-L-P!!!     N-e-e-d     s-o-m-e      b-o-d-y!!!...
Spouse booby trapped husband!!!

Homicide courtesy munch
house zen by proxy
immediately suspected hunch
police, K9 corps, and ambulance
nearly lost their lunch crossing...

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Here's the second part to my Crown of Sonnets.

It was not over - I knew it,
The scene at the movies - I'll omit,
After that - all was bright,
I knew I loved you - you were...

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She was lean, she was mean, a fighting machine.
Sixteen brothers had toughened her up.
She was secret woman, our little Arlene.
Raised on cold kerosene from a cup.
 
Our mother had passed when Arlene came into the...

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"Le vent se leve, il faut tenter de vivre."
"The wind is rising! We must try to live."
                  ...

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*************************
Tribute poem-

With Promise Of Entry, Elysium
 
Childhood, seeing from afar, candle burning bright
with courage, imagination seeing life through
always and forever the promise, heard each night-
walk a brave path, receive entry, as is your due,
heaven searching,...

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Paternal Grandfather Aaron Harris...

Lovely bones long since disintegrated
into dustbin of genealogical history,
if still alive would rank as oldest person
clocking another one incremental increase
asper in chronological number
anniversary of his birth occurring within July

year unknown, but within
latter...

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Remember failures at school in the week, 
my special needs I was academically weak
over the weekend successful at sport, 
my strength and my ability growing more, 

You would take the prize feeling from me, 
remind...

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Voices bottled up, far away…out of reach
I still hear them, echoing in my brain
I try not to believe the fear—the disdain
So long I have avoided their gaze, 
But here they are again, at a distance—
All...

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Only three of us now who knew
both sets of our grandparents.
The three of us, 96, 94 and 88,
how much time have we left?
There are sepia photos from the
old, first Brownie cameras, a few
portraits of some...

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I 

I knew a time when my sister, tall and fair 
with her sage sense of humor, dull and non-existent 
Seemed positively, 
metallic, blessed with flowing shackles, a gift, extended only to me. 
Limiting my...

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The clad ivy charms, warms the walls,
The frontage that welcomes the fold and their outsiders,
Specifying age and strength of delicate beauty, 
Which accounts for that non-existent love: 
History sides with them, is by their shoes,...

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No one can imagine the horrors you've seen
The terrible events that must appear in your dreams
You can rarely share the evil you've seen
It must encroach your soul, your entire being

Defending a tourtured evil soul
Takes courage,...

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The lights went out; suddenly, it was pitch black inside.
One match strike changed darkness to illumination.
After the first candle, others were lit with caution. 
A soft glow shone from the sconces at the fireside.

An eerie...

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