Long Unraveling Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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My husband and I always enjoy visiting
GrandMother Eartha
on Mother's Day

She often shares
last night's dreams,
which too often follow rather disturbing peak experience themes

Because,
you know,
or maybe not because,
how would I know?

Dreams about Her Straight White AlphaMale trauma
were...

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In Colchester, CT,
and possibly in your town too,
we have a LongTerm ReCoVery Committee
looking at 20/20 prevision
for post-pandemic climate health revisions
for wealthy local and global EarthJustice.

So, what have I noticed
that might be economically
and ecologically win/win useful?

In...

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Beckoning
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Yesterday the wind whispered my name
while the blazing locks
of her rampant mane
lay heavy on mine.
And yesterday
I saw the way
the wind caressed tall pines
in forests laced by glinting streams
and thick with...

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Wounded Sacred Dementia: Part Two

Dementia's derelict WinLose SocialWorker
suboptimizingly hesitates
when I tell her
I have not changed my mind
about not adopting Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
into my vulnerable home
with a seven-year-old AfricanAmerican boy
blind
and unable to defend himself,
or even run...

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Let Me Give Her Diamonds
by Michael R. Burch

Let me give her diamonds
for my heart's
sharp edges.

Let me give her roses
for my soul's
thorn.

Let me give her solace
for my words
of treason.

Let the flowering of love
outlast a winter
season.

Let me...

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Today, our first “All About Me” History class begins
when we comprehend every day and night
co-arises with “All About We”
full-octave
Zero-centric
bicamerally encultured
and regenetically reiterated
in and through,
by and for,
before and after,
each moment of Earth Tribe’s timeless surfing times.

If...

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I listened to his heart profusely, 
For a beat like his was much to ponder
I often wondered, his thoughts, and,
A light in me knew, with wretched wonderment
What the whispers in his mutterings meant to me

They...

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MODERN SONNETS I

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.


Maker, Fakir, Curer
by Michael R. Burch

A poem...

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Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

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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If God is EggWhite
then Tao is His embryonic EarthYolk.

Why would you say such a confusing and silly thing?

What is the difference between a Paradise Tree of Life and Death
and a Great Chain of Being?

Is this...

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I remember several prayers
to invoke God's blessings on America,
a reminder of traditional political 
mindfulness?
Fundamental lack of awareness 
of righteous economic investments
in win/win GoldenRule
positive social-psychological security.

No one "keeps"
or "makes"
this confederation of uniting states great,
unless we democratically...

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When passion plants a multicultural seed,
then justice flourishes a polypathic trusting flower.

Permaculture and polyculture, 
grow holistic cause-effect karmic significance 
for our physical, and mental, political and spiritual health.

Permacultural, as I intend it this morning,
refers to...

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A prayer for God to bless NativeAmericans
is also a reminder of traditional political mindfulness,
basic awareness of our economic investments in security.

No one "keeps" this confederation of uniting states
safe with alien immigrants
unless we invite them.

Second, prayers...

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Dear Andrew Cohen,

I am riveted by “Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening.”  Your theme that enlightenment need not be limited to elitist and eisegetical experiences, memory, but invites us to become co-travelers...

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Why does my multicultural applauding message,
my polycultural cheerleading,
sound so monocultural chant, rant,
a passionless litany of redundant verse?

Who would have it said of their voice
It remains both too rich
and yet wandering on far too long?

Even resonance
can...

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The Republican congressmen,
and I do mean white privileged straight men,
came to their Democratic opposition
concerned about how depressing
December can be,
and all of winter,
come to think and feel
of dark discerning Advent,

So maybe we could stage
a comedic debate
about...

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EcoMinisters of Earth Rights
CoArise!

EcoLogicians of sustainable tribal might
CoArise!

EcoLegislators of bicameral balancing disposition
CoArise!

What is our highest and best Commons Sense
of currently elected policy-choosers?
Where are our optimal outcomes of Commons Sense?
What does this vast emptiness of positive...

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My early 20s Eldest Black Lives Matter Son
wears his disabling ADHD label uncomfortably,
impatiently,
like a possibly self-redeeming crown
but with unfortunate MessiahComplex thorns
as the Great WhiteMan's sacrificial lamb.

His First, and hopefully last, Girl
is an ADHD Latina,
with sparkling...

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Wise Elders are patient,
fully embrace non-violent communication
and health care
of climates and landscapes,
persons,
places,
things,
plants
and planet,
hopes
and dreams
rebuilding positive faith.

Wise Elders non-violently listen
for karmic grace of love
sometimes overflowing.

If Wise Revolutionaries for change,
clearing murky swamps,
then Wise Elder non-violent evolutionaries
toward peace
restoring...

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It's hard to think in Either-Or Deductive,
while speaking and acting in Both-And Inductive.

For example,
If my Brother is kind and loving
(and he usually is),
and really not all that judgmental and condemning
with his wife and kids especially...

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"How Do I Feel Today"
written out of depravity of sleep, of self assurance of happiness
written out of love and vulnerability
I was so sure, aware; I had a plan!
but as the case with all my well...

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If we,
especially in China, Russia, and USA,
were more cooperatively in charge
among our EarthSouled selves,
and less about competitively charging at,
shooting at each other
and our homes
and gardens,
less rapacious supremacy 
against formerly extended cooperative family farmlands
and forests;

Punishing each...

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Potawatomi language,
says Robin Wall Kimmerer,
does not verbally divide us into masculine and feminine.
However, unlike most English verbs,
Potawatomi verbs distinguish between animate and inanimate objects.

For example,
we use sit down
when speaking to an unruly son
and set down
when...

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