Long Unmolested Poems

Winter
by Michael R. Burch

The rose of love's bright promise
lies torn by her own thorn;
her scent was sweet
but at her feet
the pallid aphids mourn.

The lilac of devotion
has felt the winter hoar
and shed her dress;
companionless,
she shivers—nude, forlorn.

Published...

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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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Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (III)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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The views and opinions herewith extemporized to spur discourse with me, or to be mindful when exercising the right to vote in the country of your existence, which expressed intimation predicated upon read reliable publications...

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Picturebook Princess

for Keira

We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter! 

With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her...

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The snow lay thick; the snow lay flat
Upon my roof, a pitter pat
A reindeer or an alley cat?
Sure ain’t Santa… can’t be that

For midnight came and midnight went
So, clearly Santa wasn’t sent…
Who pitter patters as...

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Pirate Pete
Pirate Pete sails his ship
Across the seven seas,
He`ll plunder loot and pillage
And bring you to your knees.

His fearsome ship the Mary Jane
Named after both his wives,
Their figure heads adorn the bow
To protect the sailors...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 3: EVOLUTION



Peers
by Michael R. Burch

These thoughts are alien, as through green slime
smeared on some lab tech’s brilliant slide, I grope,
positioning my bright oscilloscope
for better vantage, though I cannot see,
but only peer, as...

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From ‘The Woe of Roanoke ‘
It wasn’t just the gale that chilled his skin
As he mulled on the cannibal captured within.
In trembling state he clenched close his cane
To rap tap the gate of the jail...

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These are poems about animals by Michael R. Burch

Double Limerick: The Platypus
by Michael R. Burch

The platypus, myopic,
is ungainly, not erotic.
His feet for bed
are over-webbed,
and what of his proboscis?

The platypus, though, is eager
although his means are...

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Under the sighing sky I stood within the swaying grass
With the rain pelting me like tears of heaven fallen just for us, we the two
And where were you when open these arms did I to...

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I’m confined
Weighted
By this body of clay
I cannot soar
On the wings of my dreams
Or from lofty heights
Swoop down
To dip my hands in ocean streams
And then claim again 
My place in the sky

Confined
Weighted
By the cares of this...

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Massive, gray, these leaden waves
bear their unchanging burden—
the sameness of each day to day

while the wind seems to struggle to say
something half-submerged planks at the mouth of the bay
might nuzzle limp seaweed to understand.

Now collapsing...

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Fate propelled me into your belly 
When my own prayers went unanswered 
In the wake of the harvest of thorns 
When the alien- buffered by our silence 
Shackled, manacled and butchered 
Those of us that...

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"What's your story?"
she questions,
"you seem interesting."

wildflower eyes
                            ...

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no man is an island, 
part of the continent i believe thee to say
well some have chosen a peninsula 
free of cross-town traffic
friends are few and far between
we treasure our own thinking
less the frivolous conversations
with...

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The ‘Satan’s Daughter’ always knows the way she ought to go
There’s no-one left alive aboard to haul her rigging so
Her crew and Cap’n flounder on the seabed far below
But the ‘Satan’s Daughter’ sails on for...

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THE CLOCK

In the shadows of deepening twilight
remote in a familiar world;
each moment the tick of a clock,
each one added to all
that have gone before,
each, one less the total.

How many days have I
or should my time
be...

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The miasma of Understanding 

Been raining and the pale nature is green again like a new spring, but 
it is a fake spring, in end of November winter will pale all living plants in 
submission....

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Options Underwater: The Song of the First Amphibian
by Michael R. Burch

“Evolution’s a Fishy Business!”

1.
Breathing underwater through antiquated gills,
I’m running out of options. I need to find fresh Air,
to seek some higher Purpose. No porpoise, I...

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Restored Was His Heart, Soul And Might
   (The Woodsman)


Hollow place in the woods most deep,
now unmolested by man or by beast.
Reserved for a wise visitor's return,
a promise he swore one day to keep,
when...

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(Mary, Mary quite contrary, tending your garden just so;
planting your bells and cockle shells, and hoping to grow.)

I built a little house,
And dared to plant a few flowers in the garden.
Surrounded by gray stone walls...

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"What's your story?"
she questions,
"you seem interesting."
wildflower
in eyes
I reply, "NOW."

often people become confused
by such a unique response
not this one

she's a beauty
shiny minded stone
lives warm under veins
lacks definition of alone

alone she stands
tallest green blade
unscathed
each time the oily...

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It is time to get fresh America,
to be plucked wriggling out of that shining sea,
a fresh baked humanity, moon-beam buckled.
Pass no more pay-day-loans
into the purses of the pawn-shopping poor,
give no witness nor evidence
of city shame,...

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