Long Unpaid Poems

These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

Read More

     by how many badbyes can you measure the length of your day

                 first comes...

Read More

Good boy gone bad enters the stage with a spotlight overhead, despite being misunderstood in my ghetto neighborhood

The lonely applause celebrates in my cracked, corrupted, and crazed cranium
I exaggerate too much and so too much,...

Read More

			I

The Holy Bible said seven kingdoms would arise,
then like windblown grains of sand, fall to the dust
Six kingdoms have come and gone, blinked their eyes
and we’re now, in these last days, living on the cusp

But...

Read More

Feminist ecotherapists,
deeply immersed in polycultural ecology,
a systematic teleology of cooperative nutrition economics,
remain rarely flushed out from their safe spots.

A self-isolating,
often eremitic,
subspecies,
with shamanic nature-as-spirit tendencies,
our most articulate mentors often wander off
to pray for,
breathe and suffer and...

Read More

Paradise of passion has dawned upon my mind of my once dusked mindset (desired future of peace that has transformed my mind that was of darkness for the better) 
I'm envious of others' ecstasy for...

Read More

The moral mortgage of mice and men 

Yours truly quite astute,
especially regarding cute
little field mice, also known 
as meadow voles,
which imprecation one doth emote,
when aforementioned animal burrows inside
leaving pellet size poop in their wake
suddenly presenting...

Read More

Sometimes
When we have a loving relationship
Life gets in the way
The pressures of work money worries
Piles of unpaid bills
Not enough time for each other
The relationship erodes and folds
You try but you go separate ways

When we were...

Read More

In Shaker Heights, Ohio,
founding fathers co-invested in:

Change doesn't happen
without planning

This, despite
unstraight
unwhite
unmale volatile experiences
feeling sometimes victimized
and sometimes blessed
by unexpected weather transitions,
despite feeling like vulnerable chameleons
on a highly complex day,
despite feeble farming
in narrowing spaces
between floods and famine,

Despite...

Read More

The Antics Of A Yoyo Thief

Potential life of as juvenile delinquent
(ala bam mean future streetwise thug)
stopped dead in the tracks – manacles
the above two lines hopefully gives hint
nearly changing changing life of one boy
an undersized...

Read More

Why is it
as I watch The International CEO Actor
unilaterally Ordering disinvestment
in both domestic and Earth's cooperative-organic health,
I feel cold harsh January snowblow storms?

Dismaying cold
calling me toward hibernating silo of unencumbered sleep,
possibly to dream of sequestering...

Read More

I lie awake inside my mind's ride
Gotta body-quake it away side by side
I fly away from my cage inside
And…I…and I tried to peacefully hide

I…tried to peacefully hide – denied 
Please don’t subside...don’t kill me with...

Read More

MEMORIES OF A SNATCHED HOMELAND

Traverse of The Masses
Over the years, our land has seen,  
Rulers so brutal, with blood so mean.  
They seized our land by guns and bold  
Bullets and armored...

Read More

These are her stories of why; the sad excuses of mother's life;
Her oft-honed chip, accented with her mother's old mink stole,
Tears most lovely in her eyes as she spoke of the beautiful farm;
Telling of the...

Read More

LET THE DRUM SPEAK

Go to heaven before the heavens goes to hell,
Going home from home is dangerous with a child.
To the cold virgin earth shall woven sleep be
Taken out from the children' eyes early.
Who shall...

Read More

"What is wrong with me?" I keep asking. 
You would think that after all the nasty words and crying, 
the fist fights and after all the begging,
all the hating, and hiding knives so that I...

Read More

A Letter To My Son  Shawn (1967-1999)

 You left so suddenly shocking all of us who loved you  
 We could not understand why God called you Home 
 You were so young...

Read More

...At first he said, “It’s okay, babe.
I work hard, I deserve my play.
For several years he managed it,
played to the masses in the pit.

They lived the high life, best they could,
for a good while it...

Read More

it was the meeting of an epic bout in the Motherland
two heavyweights in the ring battling hand to hand
it was on, it was a rumble it was fight night in the African jungle
one fighter employed...

Read More

Television information commercials target senior citizens to purchase life insurance polices. All in order to have their loved ones have no unpaid bills and final expenses! But there are no info-commercials targeting preparations on ...

Read More

FREE VERSE VI

Reason Without Rhyme
by Michael R. Burch

I used to be averse
to free verse,
but now I admit
YOUR rhyming is WORSE!

But alas, in the end,
it’s all the same:
all verse is unpaid
and a crying shame.



What the Poet...

Read More

don't you watch the news i ask?
arent we at war?
who is our enemy again...
and who do you work for?
why do i have no hot water?
why is my window cracked?
why can't i do my laundry?

sound like...

Read More

Now scores of years 
after botched minor theft penchant 
courtesy security guard
analogous to inquisitorial trenchant
unforgettable verbal lashing
(suppressing me ululation to vent)
unwittingly arresting snitch behavior
plus potential life of crime.

Not a peep passed thru 
pursed lip o'...

Read More

I just need to be satisfied and full of cheer
But, I am complaining up in here…
I fear I’m getting crazy over you…
Dude, you be netflixin’ and chillin’ too…
My heart, soul and mind is full of...

Read More

Across the cracked concrete slabs,
past a fallen dogwoods left lying like so much litter;
at the red brick base of the courthouse, the jurors strode.

Through the doors too heavy for a mere woman to open unassisted;
and...

Read More