Long Unformed Poems

The First Valentine Poem

Charles d’Orleans (1394-1465) has been credited with writing the first Valentine poem for his wife in 1415. Charles wrote the first Valentine poem in the first year of his captivity while being...

Read More

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

Read More

Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There...

Read More

R.I.P.
by Michael R. Burch

When I am lain to rest
and my soul is no longer intact, 
but dissolving, like a sunset
diminishing to the west...

and when at last
before His throne my past
is put to test
and the demons...

Read More

Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

Read More

LOVE POEMS II

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating and marriage. On an amusing note, my steamy Baudelaire translations have become popular with the...

Read More

I feel like a high school civics class dropout.

So much confuses me,
to this day, you see,
about democratic constitutional legal equity,
which feels like it should have WinWin original empowerment intent,
about public and private rights, unbent
protected against...

Read More

Dear Brother,

When we were children
adults often asked us
What do you hope to be
when you grow up?

But, our brothers and sisters
were more likely,
and probably more wise,
to ask
Who would you most hope to become?
To be like?

Which implies,...

Read More

The air is thick with the weight of things unchosen,
paths untrodden, doors closed but never quite sealed.
A shadow clings to every decision,
the ghost of every road not taken,
whispering — what if, what if, what if.
We...

Read More

The indecision builds 
while staring into the velvet covered bible
and knowing that you have already
read more than was necessary.
Yet you stand and read on and on
hoping that one small word
will shine into the dark crevices
separating...

Read More

Further post-millennial dialogue with Abraham Heschel:

"The problem of our youth is not youth.
The problem is the [learning] spirit of our age:
denial of transcendence [in our homes and schools],
the vapidity of [learning] values,
[competing] emptiness in the...

Read More

Yang's guerrilla tactics
explode my two way mirror,
unveiling camouflage Yin's indigenous strategies.

Messianic Yang fascinations
uncover Yin's mutual mentoring solidarity,
salvific yeast transmorphing light's power
into wriggling heated function,
fertilizing Her benign wet redeemer 
hospitality.

Positive forceful forms of Yang
double bound convex...

Read More

POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 5: EVOLUTION



Fly’s Eyes
by Michael R. Burch

Inhibited, dark agile fly along
paint-peeling sills, up to the bright glass drawn
by radiance compounded thousandfold,—
I do not see the same as you, but hold
antenna to the brilliant...

Read More

Ursula, oh Ursula

As constellations go

Ursa Major in the sky

Forever do you glow.

________________________

Onto a world you gaze upon

Your perch upon a star

Lovingly you're watching me

A dear friend from afar.

________________________

Ursula, dear Ursula

The heavens cry out, too

For nothing...

Read More

Everything is made from atoms
atoms are made from neutrons, protons, and electrons
neutrons, protons, and electrons are made from quarks
energy makes up 98% of every quark
Imagine yourself as the energy of the Universe 
existing with no...

Read More

Can you see them run to me – arms wide and laughing,
calling me, Mama: keeper of the stars, moon and hearts?
Can you see them kiss away my pain, healing every hurt
that’s ever marked me broken,...

Read More

When you were born
I was sure you were 
the most remarkable thing
on the planet
as you grew         I knew it was true
everything    I had experienced...

Read More

You who sexless heard the pounding of the sex
     nerves    conditioned to the tune
            through all the...

Read More

It’s become so self-destructive,
the weakness of our modern times,
to the point it takes our children,
pollutes unformed, unready minds.
Now this was always a real risk,
but it seems in the decades past,
when young adults did something dumb
we’d...

Read More

A night, again, in waking sleep,
Unuttered words that write the wall
From depths of darkness figures creep
Beneath the million fathom fall

Unspeakable the dreams that fright
The squinted eyes belie the wake
Beneath the sheets to flee the fight
And...

Read More

I love how twilight transforms
My curtains currently are an art work
Of light, shade and mystery
Where the growing light creeps in
Producing patterns and pictures
Giving places unnoticed previously
The limelight, a moment in time
Imperfections add character
Ever changing as...

Read More

You hear so many say, “Forwards,”
a slogan of the day,
especially amongst lefties,
it’s all some of them say.
As if it’s always a good thing,
an unbreakable truth,
(Not to mention an easy sell
to young and unformed youth!)
But a...

Read More

My pain is constant and buried deep within my bones,
And in this darkness I am left alone.
The cartilage throbs and ceases to remain,
Yet I'm left in the silence with my pain.

And where water and trees...

Read More