Long Untarnished Poems

“The Fallen”



Remote,
he sees himself 
in the reflection of cold close 
yet distant shop windows, 
his final journey along the 
Hard Time Road
walking alone, 
unforgiven, no home
for the rest of his natural life 
a million knives...

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Thanksgiving, 1971,
a parachute pilgrim approaches Northwest Flight 305
as Dan Cooper, anonymous businessman,  anarchist airborne, 
black suit, black sunglasses, a black tie
and a black briefcase broaching black motives,
Portland to Seattle, prison or criminal pantheon, 
before...

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Back Door Side Door Front Door : Which door might a Confucian take
 
..................for René ETIEMBLE (Jan. 26, 1909 – Jan. 7, 2002)*

In homage - dedicated to the Chair Professor of Comparative Literature
.................at the prestigious...

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I sing my songs with rageful joy in mind,
Forgetting the past struggles, aches and sorrows
That intertwine with my mind’s eye, leaving all of me behind
Forgiving others of their wrongs for better tomorrows

You know who comforts...

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Embrace The Lines

Vitality marks gently stretch your soft skin beyond the wildest dreams of
beauty unbound where children had once or thrice embraced your womb
the soothing waters cushioning and cradling three miracles three water 
marks engraved...

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Written: March 4th 2024
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whilst waiting patience is a probity,
swifter straddling startled savvy scare
strong for people enduring anguish
trope for enthusiastic...

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The heroic books, even if printed in the character of our mother tongue,
Will always remain in a dead language for degenerate times;
And we must laboriously seek the meaning of each word and line,
Conjecturing a broader...

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have you not heard me?

borne upon the air at dusk, dancing ... I have whispered you in a million voices
    still, you descry not my utterance? Listen, yet, for all is precious...

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Born into this World, clean in both heart and soul
Untarnished except for God’s pure hands
Sitting up by myself, consuming more and more
A language starting to form in my head
My cries in the day and night...

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In the depths of my wandering thoughts, I turn back to 1989,
A time of uninterrupted innocence, a veil of unknowing that covered my mind,
Floating in a sea of uncertainty, where understanding was but an echo,
For...

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My thoughts drift...back 
...to days-long ago...
like faded photographs...
the sun is
bright... 
the day is brilliant and crisp...

I stand among the forest of lost moments
like, dear, that run and play...forgotten...memories
...the hunting grounds of my
youth...

Images of love vanished
...victories...

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In the depths of the translucent dusk,
I think of the dream of our independence, now a distant echo,
For the era in which we were masters of our own fate has faded,
And we awaken to find...

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Who am I?
This is a question that unable, I am, a definite
Answer to give
For
Buried I find myself,  under layers upon layers of 
Beliefs and prejudices that centuries past, have 
Deposed upon my helpless and...

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Forth from the heaven, from the misty moorlands of all sacred woodland greens,
drop by drop by striking the pebbles and untouched vegetations oozes, 
the intoning hallowed water of evergreen woods' crystal cascades, brooks and streams.
to...

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Early Poems XVI

The Beautiful People
by Michael R. Burch

They are the beautiful people,
and their shadows dance through the valleys of the moon
to the listless strains of an ancient tune.

Oh, no ... please don't touch them,
for their...

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Under the endless mantle of infinity, where ancient times hide their secrets,
History is a nightmare shrouded in veils of dark mystery,
A tapestry of shadows and lights, a labyrinth of untold destinies,
In which my wandering soul...

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And take the tasks in your own hands  the tasks of your own fate
      do not let the helper from elsewhere tell you what is best
   ...

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The world of Expectations

Expectations, do – in all likelihood – become frustrations.
They, in their painful anger, do become manipulations,
of both – both the aching heart and the fragile soul
and of the one’s you seem to...

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Part Three of Ancient doubles poems
  
(5.)
Tonight The Heavens Sing A Melody

Bright heavens are sewing new stars tonight
While earth churns its deep seas and pauses not
Sleep the children, all tucked in so tight
We thank...

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Golden leaves transcend autumns harvest, contrasted by
Blazoned reds burnt offerings of summers final sacrifice to
The changing of the seasons, oh what a palette of magnificence,
Is nature set to the rheum of our universe!

In the chilling...

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Together in Spirit.
	I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, we are forever together in love, heart, mind, and spirit. Their love was sealed upon each other’s heart’s as their eye’s glimpsed into the...

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For them.

To her the word love refers to a boy.
Something she yearns for and misses dearly.

The day they met was cold and fraught with January chill.

“Oh, that does seem so long ago.”

That is the untarnished...

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O!  Laurie-Jeanne, Laurie-Jeanne!  Belle of my Heart!
Why did you have to fly?
From me who sang you a lullaby,
From the hospital room, ‘neath the thundering sky,
Beneath the thundering sky!?

O!  I love my Laurie-Jeanne...

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Antithesis

In May, the lion’s ear blooms immaculately,
As if the night sky is on fire.
It excretes a ravishing untarnished beauty,
A mesmerizing compelling beauty
Only the mad mystics and poets can discern.
Here, put on these rubber sandals;
The pair...

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A room filled with sadness 

Standing alone in a room filled with sadness
Photograph smiles in a frame on the shelf
Ashtrays are filled with a death wish still breathing
Lighting another in spite of myself 

A hand...

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