Long Victorian Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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"As other spirits sail on music, mine, oh my love, swim on your perfume." Charles Baudelaire

"Sometimes you find an old bottle from which the soul returns." 
Charles Baudelaire

"Smell is a Word. Perfume is Literature."

"There are...

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In Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"
she paints a nationalistically wealthy saint
where also lives a monochromatically utilitarian narcissist,
sucking on attachment to fame and power
for bought and sold ZeroSum accounting Souls.

If the perfectly powerful pure patriarchal patriot
were your...

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Salve
by Michael R. Burch

for the victims and survivors of 9-11

The world is unsalvageable ...
but as we lie here
in bed
stricken to the heart by love
despite war’s
flickering images,

sometimes we still touch,

laughing, amazed,
that our flesh
does not despair
of love
as...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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It was late in the balmy springtime, and I was attending a lecture,
On a topic of great interest, which was the history of architecture.

As a great lover of beauty, I admired structural geometric designs,
Like the...

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“I’m reluctant to share my secret, but being we are the closest of friends, I will share my secret with you. But before I do I’m going to ask you to pinkie swear that you...

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Ledger of Love

In the shadows of the Victorian night,
Where candles flicker with amorous light,
A forbidden love fiercely burns,
In a pounding heart, passion yearns.

Amidst the lace and satin array,
Where masks conceal bygone dismay,
A dance of desire,...

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During a bad storm one night I turned on my television
Grey and black flickering lines appeared, obscuring my vision
I went outside and saw the aerial had bent over but it would have to wait
Tomorrow I'd...

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.So this one was really just a bit of fun I wanted to try and incorporate some really old slang type language within the piece, I've included a glossary below for the old words but...

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I said, "let's do this" John said "Okay , if you'd like to follow me"
And took me downstairs to what seemed like a medical facility
There were about five others in the room waiting for me...

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It's been just over seven months since I fell off the roof
I'd never believed in miracles, but they happen I'm proof
Apart from a limp when walking I was feeling quite well
And that I'd suffered a...

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My “popcorn town”, Oak Bluffs
on Martha’s Vineyard,
always will be home to me
‘though I now live far away.
We were young when
we bought the old Victorian
with the wide wrap-around
porch. It needed a lot of work
but we fell...

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Ledger of Love

In the dim-lit chambers of the Victorian home,
Resides a wife, her heart a silent tome.
Once, love’s flame burned bright within her breast,
But now a thin whisp, a ghostly jest.

Her gaze averts from her...

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About Bill Posters and Bill Greenwell

Words not to use in poems

In 1993, I (Bill Greenwell) went on a three-day workshop with the poet Peter Sansom, who co-edits The North, and runs the Smith/Doorstop imprint. He’s...

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Jessica Casey the punters dream- Sequel to Shy Julie 

They came from near - they came from far
Bus ferry and train and some by car
THE GOLDEN EGG GRAND FINAL
One greyhound in mind
Jessica Casey -The Select...

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I've been having the nightmares for a while now each night,
      Although I know in my heart there is no chance of escape;
I really pray that this night will be...

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“The songs are casual and careless in a satisfying way, like the used condom your latest lover left lying on your bedroom floor, a souvenir you’re not yet ready to dispose of.” Candy Cotton, Modern...

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Shoreditch clung to its ruin
Its roughhewn gate staring out at corpses
And the clutch of travellers heading from the fields,
The shepherds rambling onwards,
The herders with their slow-moving cattle, hoofs
Thudding on the stones. Amongst them the knights...

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My mother's name was Seraphine
A sadder child was never seen 
Her duty was to serve the table
Of newly widowed Mrs. Grable

Her husband Mr. Grable died
To keep the British gratified
For which the lady, born and bred
Was...

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Roaring Twenties

Nostalgia and age like bacon and eggs,
With buttered toast and jam on the side for breakfast;
And coffee, and a glass of orange juice to drink,
And a memory in-between to rethink.

The day begins with boring...

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MY GRAND  AUNT
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


She is still as elegant as I dare remember
Those early springs: its now late december
She is sitting  with her back perfectly straight
I’m afraid she’ll chastise me for being late
She...

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A walk home 
...And there he lie in fetid squalor,
Upon the chaise in vacant parlour...

“What befell this young man?” a query.
A sorrowful tale - tis quite dreary. 
Tricks! The superstitious mind doth play. 
Bested -...

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Ne soyons pas rancunier – Translation of Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s “Let us not be bitter” by T. Wignesan

(Note : The fiery fearless rebel of Where we going (1964) and The Dawn is at Hand (1966) –...

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Trump started it,
with his arguments against transgender people
in the military violence business
of nationalism.

He seems to think trans-thinking
could not be sufficiently focused,
disciplined,
willing to accept ego-sacrifices
as necessary for successful long-term peaceful outcomes.

While this does seem to be...

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