Long Unsold Poems

Pretenders in the mouth like lemons.
Hamartia.

Is wishing
Denying?
Do I
Deny You?

A dirge by the pier
is the darkness I hear
when You are not here,
when I tell myself
I will always fear.

Yet You visit, still,
my lightless room
and the Breath of...

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Epigrams VIII

Less Heroic Couplets: Word to the Unwise
by Michael R. Burch

I wanted to be good as gold,
but being good, as I’ve been told,
requires something, discipline,
I simply have no interest in!



Brief Fling I
by Michael R. Burch

To...

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“The heaventree of stars” (in Ulysses as said Joyce)
“hung with humid nightblue fruit” (ah that Bloomian voice)
could evoke a masterpiece the world has come to know,
The Starry Night, so treasured now, by Vincent van Gogh…

In...

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That nothing in life comes 
without a cost
not a price tag
but, something more at depth

To truly live 
u must have been close to death
at a time in your life
because in a blink of an eye...

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Today wasn’t a good morning at all for Hassan,
a victual merchant in Baghdad
Thirty four customers got killed by a suicide bomb
A jihadist Arab wearing an explosive vest,
proclaiming to be fighting against the west,
ended up only...

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Through thinned forests where the dew of time is carried, the ancient chant of desire roams,
And shadows of men, like spirits in festivity, stretch their endless palms of wanting.
Sleepwalkers amongst stars that never slumber, searching...

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(Author’s note: This poem is a humorous satire on how a modern media mentality would view the story of Christ’s Ascension.)


The Ascension (with Rewrites)

By Mark D. Stucky
Look!
Up in the sky!
Not a bird.
Certainly no plane.
It’s super...

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Mating Calls, or, Purdy Please!
Limericks by Michael R. Burch

1.
Nine-thirty? Feeling flirty (and, indeed, a trifle dirty),
I decided to ring prudish Eleanor Purdy ...
When I rang her to bang her,
it seems my words stang her!
She hung...

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Once you were a plundered people,
your ancient culture an excuse
for vainglorious swords to take by force
Yellow gold, Aztec Blue,
that rightfully belonged to you.
Your faces are now sometimes light,
sometimes sombre-
sombre as those hidden tombs
within which glittered...

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Beauty smiles
Truth keeps watch;
Joy murmurs

~~~~~~~~~


Jacuzzi trip
Clear water massage;
Aqueous healing

~~~~~~~~~


Midtown moments
Sunny side up;
Poignant flavours

~~~~~~~~~


Walkway charades
Morning fiesta;
Umbrella cacophony

~~~~~~~~~


Old Mister Lee
Two years gone;
Tembusu memoir

~~~~~~~~~


Such silly antics
Blindside politics;
Monkey business

~~~~~~~~~


Glimpses of home
Michelin Star meals;
Vivid prosperity

~~~~~~~~~


Dark skyline 
Thunder and lightning;
Rainy dawn...

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The best poetry stays silent and deep
It cries for attention below still waters
Each one melting into oceans weeping

I still fish poorly in infinity’s pool
With no reward that satisfies
How the fishees goad me cruelly

Titles of poems...

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Hard times just like now? 
The looting in streets of Britain made me think back to my own childhood. 
Winter 1948, mother had two newspaper rounds one in the morning one in 
the afternoon. The...

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She wasn’t thinking about her time and tomorrow
She broke out without a rendering word
Nothing sat well or sits well within her 
In fact, she would rather pillow the past then paint a new picture

She still...

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Many churches today 
have a food pantry that never
had a pantry before.

I attend a church like that.
Some folks are well-fixed, 
others poor, most betwixt.

Some had money before
but not enough now to pay 
the mortgage and...

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*Neighboring Mauna Kea has been sleeping for centuries, but notice the red flows popping and flowing in the gray areas below Mauna Loa's actual summit. Those are rift zones that pave through gray areas untouched,...

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In the velvet hush of evening’s fall,
Where shadows weave a gentle thrall,
The whispers rise, a sacred call,
From hearts that wear the night like shawl.

Beneath the moon’s soft silver veil,
Their voices strong, their spirits frail,
Yet through...

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I've been listening to your eyes 
for what feels like eons,
noticing how the rain cries
unto your purposeful lips,
excited also, by the sounds of your
beautiful breaths in the smooth sunlight,

Tapping the pool of love blood,
rippling rose...

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Mom is No More

My brother phoned ‘Mom is no more’-
My head slumped and I heard no more.
Her mortal remains lost all earthly hold;
When I touched her hands, I felt the cold.

The hand that once caressed...

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The fatal flaw
The internal void
The lack of worth affliction
Finally realising it is a state of being
It's true but also fiction
I had inconsistent attachment
That's the formal phrase 
My brain has made adjustments
As I coped in different...

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I told the man, I'd write a poem, right now,
about the wind, but the strong warm breeze,
blew my words away over the hills;

and he smiled; a language understood, as if
to say;

" there go your words,...

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Knocking every door
Polite or rude
A poor sales boy walked.
A burning stomach
And a load of unsold goods
Dragging his tired feet
He walked to yet another door.
A young lady answered
His modest heart 
Could only ask for a drink.
But...

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How did we fall this low and sink – 
To depths men go that cannot think.
And pluck a weed while flowers grow,
In hope our needs his heart will know.
Although he stumbles at the brink –...

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*Image of Orange Rose Watered Down by Giphy.


The Moonlight Fades From Flower And Rose


The moonlight fades from flower and rose,
A treasure laid forgotten, unfold,
Tis said chaptered verses that are prose,
In a limbered respite be unsold,
Tossed...

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SHEEPSHAPE

If not a ram then a sheep is a ewe
White and woolly, docile it’s true

One of many, as part of a herd
Clustered together, as preferred

Various strains are kept and bred
Unless taken for mutton instead

But there...

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It's A Recession going on out here
Cars left unsold houses left empty and bare
No jobs, no food,no money for nothing
Everyday your out there hustling

It's A recession going on for everybody breathing
Baby's crying no milk no...

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