Long Unsprung Poems

Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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The Making of a Poet
by Michael R. Burch

While I don’t consider “Poetry” to be my best poem—I wrote the first version in my teens—it’s a poem that holds special meaning for me; I call it...

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State of the Art (II)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer 
~~~~underwater~~~~
watching the shoreline...

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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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MODERN SONNETS II

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.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

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What are your most winterish
critical trauma events
in these most recent
three millennia?

Why 
just my traumas?
Why not their corresponsive
therapies
for restoring EarthJustice?

Please go on
and on
questioning my questions
seemingly without end,
like an arctic wind-blown 
starless night
in eternally restless January.

As you...

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those of us who caught or chased our love in every field
knew her best by memories that we caught.

anvils that we stood upon gave grain to find our shield
leave our stain upon the earth with...

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Brainstorm cometh, damning frontal hemisphere
jamming lookout, noggin perched, roiling thinking
uber wayfaring zealot, drills legendary phalanx.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *...

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        On a misty mountaintop, 
where eagles guard the skies, a priestess awaits, 
like a pacing dragon,
her lover's gaze to stair upon like a tiger from a pit,...

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When I was a kid of maybe six
And I put on my favorite kicks
I had a problem a kid faces
I couldn’t tie my own shoelaces
And with four kids, Mom’s precious time
Could not all be spent...

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In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The earth is full of rhythms so precise
the octave of the crystal can produce
a trillion oscillations, yet not lose
a second's beat. The ear needs no device
to hear the unsprung...

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I slipped on a teardrop and landed upright, 
With no tigers or werewolves to scare me, 
In the long silent night so salient and tight, 
Where there was no hunger and travesty.

Desiderata mounted as a...

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The winter time has had its day,
Was what we all believed,
As signs of spring were everywhere.
But seems we've been deceived.
Evil April brings Arctic blast
Now more snow has arrived.

It seems winter must dominate,
And tell springtime it...

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Like Broken strings from unsprung cords we fade away as rusted swords that know not the blood shed that lies in their use.
Deviating from our dreams to blindly pursue purpose is our greatest ambition and...

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Reluctantly I sat abusing
Some old and sad familiar musing
That for some reason kept refusing
To lie quietly

A thought that in a moment read
Was understood and put to bed
Now prancing once more round my head
O daring memory

Why...

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