Long Tumult Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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Salvation of a Formalist, an Ode to Entropy
by Michael R. Burch

Entropy?
God's universal decree
That I get to be
Disorderly?
Suddenly
My erstwhile boxed-in verse is free?
Wheeeeee!



Eternal Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch



Desdemona
by Michael R. Burch

Though you possessed the moon and stars,
you are bound to fate and wed to chance.
Your lips deny they crave a kiss;
your feet deny they ache to...

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Headlights messaged through midnight windows 
Curtainless glass unable to subdue the urgency 
Car obtained in street nearby was theirs temporarily
Three hour drive to ship leaving island next morning

Two sixteen year old girls barely registered surprise...

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Mud and leather
dirt and nerve
bloodied laughter
collision to serve,
distance, drive and demolition
battle axe ambition in the wild air
muscle and mind joined in steeled instinct, 
a stitched pigskin ball, the grail of the Fall
to fumble it means...

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Three cousins played a “game’ of war
A map of Europe spread across the floor
No adults there to keep the score
As each of them wanted more and more

Three of four empires lay upon that map
As they...

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His walk into town would prove fateful that day,
As his mind wandered idly while finding his way.
His footsteps were brisk like fall chill in the air,
Past Wellington Gate, south of Denby town square.

He paused for...

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There stood a castle on the summit of a hill
Now fallen to decay, hidden among bushes wild
It perched like an eagle’s nest on the steep hill
It was owned by a Lord, gentle and mild

Blessed with...

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A whirl, a gust, and a thunderous boom commenced,
Heartened by the latter soreness of silent night,
Shackled through the chill blows above,
A tempest, a storm,
Threshing the world,
Shaking the Prison of Plot,

The waters of the Holy Spirit...

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I gotta let sorrow roll down my weary shoulders
Breaking down a billion boulders, revealing life’s folders
I hear the wolves howl at the after-midnight moon
I can hear them now – the predators scowl so soon

I’m walking...

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To a perfectly perfect stranger
met on a time on the river bank
I asked a simple question,
“How should I live my life 
and live life to the full?”
He smiled at me, His eyes dark, wise and...

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Once upon a night so bleak,
frozen silent laid the creek --
air of death, pushed, swore
and swore...as if were fists
pounded the frail, wood door;

shutters noised, bolting and
banging; metal hinges oddly
clanging – cupboard glasses
adding more tumultuous tang,...

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Just as well I was driving at a moderate speed.
Having resumed control I spied Lelia sticking her tongue out at those reckless varmints.
She stopped the minute I noticed.
Odd.
“Children …….sometimes you have to act like a...

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In the heart of the night, next to the unmoved clock,
She lies, with the pillow—a saline lake of pagan scents,
Mourning something that was never spoken.
Prisoner in the castle of shadows, where darkness
Bearer of chaos, stretches...

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THE RUIN 
an Old English poem about fate & destiny
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

well-hewn was this wall-stone, till Wyrdes wrecked it
and the Colossus sagged inward...

broad battlements broken;
the Builders' work battered;

the high ramparts toppled;
tall...

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I touched her hand and the warmth of her soul
rushed my veins like a mad river,
obliterating all doubts.
Would that I survive the tumult, the undying desire
to touch her skin again, even for a moment, to...

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As Medusa walks in, shuts the door,
caresses precision hand down the mahogany-
and shows one what for.

Senses in starbursts-cloudburst
flavor crystals accenting- your bloom 
of predicate corpus, cat claws in my brain, 
comes metamorphosis-
Led mushrooming depth of...

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Chapter 1 THE FISHERMAN

At the dawn of humankind in
Africa's great land of sunlight
This adventure of survival 
Of a family's arduous journey 
 
One of exile and betrayal
And of hopeful brave endurance 
Happened long before all...

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Beneath the churning skies and wrathful sea, 
A lone man wails into swirling agony.
Each crashing wave, a relentless assault,
Mirroring the chaos of his inner tumult.

Beneath tempestuous heavens, alone he fights,
His vessel, both refuge and dungeon,...

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Long, long ago
There was a princess
So lonely
so kind
she decided that she wanted a brother
She looked into the mirror, 
thus her brother was created
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I promise to serve you forever into the dark
No matter what happens to...

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The lead thug burst forth, swinging at Max,
catching him with a fist just under the eye,
Max pitched backwards, fell to the floor,
off-balanced, he slammed hard on his side.
The thug roared,”How do you like that, prick!
I...

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 Part 2
4th Delirium: Lost Souls
Sunken cities , pilgrims peering.. gawking,
squinting eyeballs, blazing sun
Janus facing, shepherds chasing.. stalking,
friends embrace before they shun
Tearooms steaming, tumult teeming.. talking,
lovers listen, poets pun
Broken stones unanchored, quaking.. rocking,
slipping, falling, one...

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