Long Tremulous Poems

A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening...

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Please take this time to steer your thoughts
To a wretched land of lochs and glens.
Where a village was tasked and the people fraught
At the woe and sadness life could send.

With the Dragons gone and the...

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At that moment an explosion of mud filled the air
    as their tension was now largely increased.
They tried to gather their wits but all took to stare
    as for...

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Ah...Satisfactorily Succumbing Into Salubrious Sleep

Aye sandman, I surrender to yar supreme governance
surreal spectacular soiree gifts subconscious sphere
soothing (analogous to natural palliative), ah...REM
member nought, asper exquisite entertaining cerebral
kaleidoscope replete with nonpareil visual trappings

aesthetically tantalizing unforgettable..., but...

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There are times in life when we deal with strife
    And are helpless to the powers that be.
Where we are sequestered by doubt... and still tossed about
    By others...

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These are poems about Ann Rutledge and her romantic relationship with Abraham Lincoln. 

Winter Thoughts of Ann Rutledge
by Michael R. Burch

Winter was not easy,
nor would the spring return.
I knew you by your absence,
as men are...

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Moment to moment, all moments entwined,
I feel the touch of magnetism divine,
the source of which, by mind is not divined
so to know the truth, with heart I align.
With this preamble, let’s step back in time,
that...

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But we of the Three Tribes live undiscovered 
   In the reverberating stillness of the 
 Three Gorges...
And are therefore unknown to the warring mongol;
    His impassioned lusts -- his...

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Part 9

A trial was formed with the Captain as Judge
    With the good Doctor to frame the debate.
While the Dancer was pressed to the Atheist's grudge
    And the crew...

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Ech day me cometh tydinges thre
"Each Day Three Tidings Come to Me"
(anonymous Middle English poem, circa the 13th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Each day I’m plagued by three doles,
These gargantuan weights on my...

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It's a fallacy that writers have to shut themselves up in their ivory towers to write. I have all these interruptions, three of which I gave birth to. If I was thrown for a loop...

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Timmy Tom Tuck was a young fellow with charm
who one summer stayed at his grandfather's farm.
He loved to eat ice cream and Grandma's baked goods
but his favorite thing was to play in the woods

He so...

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Like the breathless air of twilight,
As the moon softly rises and tempts the stars
Into the quiet revelations, admissions
Grace, splendor, magnificence…
Painting the dreams with a quivering ink,
Spilled upon the emptiness beneath the still, white page,
Simplicity at...

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I heard the dreadful Dryad's scream
As axe bit into woody flesh
The sap oozed out as scented cream
My veins stood out in rictal mesh

My wits all scrambled left me quick
My hands and face were full a-sweat
My...

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I feel your anxious pivot to create
We flow the same irresolute way,
Often in raging storms
And sometimes in playful gallops
We see ahead 
That path onto the light of laughs
I am in awe of your effort to...

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Candy floss, seaside rock, smoothies, and flags sporting
Union Jacks
Replace the old traditions of striped deckchairs 
And Kiss-Me-Quick hats.
Chipwicks for our salt and vinegar fries
And their pole-and-line freshly caught local Cod;
The Vintners Parrot: For thick sizzling...

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Sunday cockcrow nascent promulgate aural essays reveal,
laissez-faire luscious lustrous buoyant  raptures,
radio behemoth prompt to that untamed erudite fantasist,
me the one possessing rippled rampant penchant,
for titanic exploit extraordinaire beyond dimension heftiness,
 a stimulant patently innocuous...

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Written: November 04, 2023, For Jaymee Thomas Contest
                  _________________________________________

Reflecting on this rip-roaring round adventure,
Gazing into the depths of...

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“The Lord will show Me, 
Has shown me, where your mind lies….”

I began to wonder if I was lost in that statement to him,
That fear and desire had blinded me to rush such an assertion
Upon...

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It is decidedly so,
That I shall go where you go
And in our journeys
I shall never let my love tire
The stars deem it worthy
Your fire is my truest desire

For this is decidedly so
And nobody will quite...

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(Fictional, but based on the real experience of one of my close friends who lost her daughter in an accident)

 As I sat on my desk,
Hurrying with my pent up work,
A scrap of paper, left...

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Continued from Part 1
Ah Consuela! I’m watching the vertigo veiling her green Spanish eyes,
while the drumbeat pounds, droning, the rhythm sounds, moaning,
                 of jungles Jamaican entwined
in the valleys concealing the vineyards revealing
                 the vaults in...

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Please, may I walk into your paradise with you
with its streets of gold and bright skies of blue?
My darling, you are in my sorrow-filled sad eyes
your kiss, honey in my ecstasy cries!

This true love, its...

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Pop (corn) Music


Introduction

It’s time to dance, time to tango
There’s a Canadian on the banjo
When he sees the guitar strings
Jack’s mirth grows soaring wings;
As he scans the rhapsody drums
While busy the Banjo he strums!


He strums with...

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As one grows old, when evening approaches, memories too lengthen like shadows. Now I remember more often my parents wondering how much sweat and toil they had shed to make their children comfortable, how much...

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