Long Vicarious Poems

A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening...

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Silence reigns supreme in my reich

No don (except me)
doth trumpet within the aborted
barren reach of freedoms within expansive realm,
I annexed courtesy manifest destiny,
which peoples now inhabiting said jurisdiction
circumscribed by following coordinates -
Latitude: 40° 16' 22.20"...

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Precious priceless progeny 

     Hands down the most dramatic change ever needed to make the most profound impact awoke from helping beget the first offspring. An internal paradigm shift reshuffled priorities...

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"Wonder
or radical [polypathic, polycultural] amazement
is a prerequisite for an authentic [ecopolitical] awareness
of that which is;
[regenerative love-rooted v degenerative fear-rooted
messages,
actions,
choices,
decisions regarding democratically cooperative
egalitarian
health and security for all];

it [polypathic open-systemic (0)-sum Wonder]
refers not only to what we...

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RESURRECTION OF A HEROE:
This is ANDERSON WALKINGSHOES... 
CHORUS:
Far from comparison, far from fear.
Failure part of the journey; shed no tears.
Man...do... the best you can do.
Talents in your hand's only for you. 
No body cares...what you...

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1  Where are we

The path appears as we walk upon it,
crystallising right before our soul’s eye,
enabled for those with resolve and grit,
who to attain God, are ready to die.

If the God-search task seems like...

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S/he wonders why
when we breathe in
our left sides
feel right mind dominant
when our rights inside
feel LeftBrain capital deviated,

Dysfunctional
disappointing
disharmonious
sad and lonely 
dissonant
disturbed
unbalanced
uneased

Constipated
blocked
trumped

Stuck
obstructed
oppressed
suppressed
repressed
not fluently holistically impressed,

Pressured
disabled
disenabled
feminized
marginalized
enslaved
disempowered

Unenlightened
unarticulated
not understanding
not cooperatively experiencing
co-investing in questioning

Why we continue longing
for bicameral win/win engagement
of all...

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These are poems about Ann Rutledge and her romantic relationship with Abraham Lincoln. 

Winter Thoughts of Ann Rutledge
by Michael R. Burch

Winter was not easy,
nor would the spring return.
I knew you by your absence,
as men are...

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(A recent virtual chat with thine youngest daughter
awakened poignant memories adjusting to 
fatherhood for first time).
     
December 22nd 1996 Bundle of Edenic Joy
Twenty one plus years ago 
   faux...

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My educational system
has a diseducating problem.

How to engage young minds,
like young ideas,
easily distracted,
and potentially miseducated,
by vicarious
and often trivial entertainments.

Superficial disengagements
too much the reverse
of social capital investment
in re-educating research
fully engaged in cooperative design

Therapeutic redevelopment plans
by and...

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It’s been 36 days since you were dethroned 
You were the free-standing house, I was the fist that ripped the power line in half 
You’re the ouija board to my spirits of the past,
You keep...

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Imagine with me
a bicameral NatureGod named PositiveYang
dipolar twinned with SpiritGaia named NotNot Yang,
or WinWin, for reverse dualdark YinSquared shortness 
of ecologically balancing Time.

Imagine us,
self-regenerating Positive Yang LeftBrain dominant,
as also decomposing dualdark notnot WinWin Time,
dipolar co-arising...

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Lima describe how yours truly went Peru zing...

thru truckloads of his personal communiqués broadcast
(methinks quite some years ago) across world wide web,
but now still smarting from selfishness, I feel quite aghast.

Yes practically every word
needs be...

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Though all are blessed with eyes to see,
Eyes never lay sight upon the seer;
No retina perceives the seedling
beneath its iris.

Ocular nerves sense Occam-ented pictures
Of identity: portraits framed by
Ourselves, Us, and Others
- Whose eyes perceived whole
But...

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Canto I: The Words of Laozi  

The Divinely Illustrious Sage  
Prays for every soul to heed:
That neither woe nor weal
Heaven has foreordained,
But wrought by men alone,
The fruits of virtue and vice
Pursue the begetter...

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As we then thus rest in dynamic stillness of innocence 
Attentively watching with a loving longing
We detect ripples of thought as obstructive interference
Blocking us from with our lover entwining

Stilling not our stillness we now let...

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VOLUNTARY

Jesus came to die for our sins
of His own volition in His great love
He took on the cross at Calvary
having come here from heaven above

VICARIOUS

Jesus died for sins not His own
for He was sinless perfect...

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Every time I look in the mirror I see the face of god.
What a vicarious view of vanity. My eyes sin and 
Reflect past.  My envious tongue licks the gluttonous,
 glory of gratuitous teeth...

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Look at them, tangled in insignificant conversation
about politics or stereotypes of  blacks, whites and Asians, 
lack of youth education, weather ruined vacations, how inflation squeezing their arm like “yo, I got you taken, 
and...

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Where do you begin with Ravichandran Ashwin...intellectual impresario

Red ball romeo... conceptual maestro..the Kingpin of spin..leather lothario

Perpetual taunting...teasing..bubbling cerebral cauldron formenting..haunting

Troubling.. flaunting...tormenting..vaunting..fermenting..pleasing

Luminosity...but another one of the band of badger brothers

Reeks of unique chic tweak at its...

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Where once verdant rolling highlands...

Spanned into infinite vista
far as these myopic eyes can see
now yellowing Whitmanesque
leaves of grass encompass field of vision.

Nary a dark dreadnaught cloud in sight,
nor unbeknownst if/when threatening storm
looms on horizon slaking...

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What do you dote on?
Who do you dote with, if anyone?

"Dote" is an old-time word for ruminate,
to dwell on and within,
to become absorbed by and with.

Then there is also "antidote".

Let's imagine that our massive events...

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Over saturation with 
welter weighted Yuletide
drenching world, web, wide
equal and/or greater
effort demands energy tide
to global warming,
lest apocalypse doth ride

high and mighty mandating,
inculcating, buoying... pride
toward planet Earth, the
apathetic, demonic, horrific,
plastic... malleable passive
can no longer run and...

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To reach nirvana
Poet paradise
You have to reach the third level

It's a journey to forever
It may take some their whole lifetime,
and others may never get there

It's a quantum leap
fraught with uncertainty
First it takes writing skill,
then an...

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Methinks muss elf akin to a cold prickly...

being analogous to a
limp biscuit viz
wussy wonky willy,
yet back in the day
rolling in hay worm
may at large cavorted
frolicked, and idealized
as a warm fuzzy.

Though aforementioned title
slightly risqué and silly,
yours...

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