Long Voles Poems

State of the Art (III)

These are my "ars poetica" poems: the ones about the art and craft of writing poetry in a modern world that doesn't always recognize the artists or their work. 



Come Down
by...

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Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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.                          NOW

Well, GI Jack is welcome back, he left his...

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The moral mortgage of mice and men 

Yours truly quite astute,
especially regarding cute
little field mice, also known 
as meadow voles,
which imprecation one doth emote,
when aforementioned animal burrows inside
leaving pellet size poop in their wake
suddenly presenting...

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Smaller than a dinosaur, 
But bigger than a bear, 
A boulder’s tucked back in the woods,
Forever, it’s been there.
It’s wondrous in its natural form,
A nursery, home, and den.
You may not notice at first glance,
Come closer,...

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I once was a grand and old oak tree,
Wearing my crown with shades of green.
A protector of fields, a watcher of night.
I stood with my pride, till the mornings soft light.

I watched the burrows, and...

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A post from the past.....just trying to put down all the ones I have written but deleted when I left the site for a while......this is almost too long, but I couldn't find which animal...

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A warm sultry summers night, a silver crystal formed in
the corner of an eye. Trickled and rolled a gentle cheek,
fell to earth where all was dry. Whence it touched the 
ground did speak, an Orchid...

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Ghillie Dhu.
Forests lie deep and dark with never ending looping paths,
Known only to those who dwell within and live their lives 
In undergrowth and leaf litter fallen from tree tops high,
Like a carpet of leaf...

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Out of the burrows and hedges and dreys
Heads began bobbing and eyes were agaze.
Rumours were twittered and grunted and squealed:
‘The combine is coming to harvest the field!’
The moles and the voles and the rabbits and...

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When I am on the hunt if I want fresh
I choose young, it is always fresher meat.
Young bunnies, squirrels, rats, moles, voles.
Tastier, and less of a struggle.

But when my mother’s heart catches their eye,
And I...

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I used to garden naturally,
but now I'm guard'in chemically.
I've traded in my life bucolic
for one much more diabolic.
I'd rather play in the dirt chem-free
where weeding is great therapy:
tending herbs and building beds,
watering and dead-ing heads.
I'd...

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He discovered
how to connect and merge,
or such discovered him.

His five senses did not become six,
but a number closer to one.

It came upon him,
that he was one with everything,
all that his mind and eyes perceived,
be they...

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He speaks for the uprooted.
A man of sorts, a twiggy Buddha.
He who interprets
the conferences of frogs,
the unpublished works
of kestrels and voles.

He’s an advocate for the underbelly
of a microbial heaven, for every kind
of uncouth animalcule.

Ancient is...

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I: Sheep
 (A poem about Covid)

next door to 19 chimneys
and 'the dark satanic mills'
a flock of sheep is grazing
oblivious in the hills.


II: Other Animals
(They do all exist!)

goblin sharks and pangolins
sea pigs, star-nosed moles

mata matas, sugar...

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The hoarfrost bites the tender limbs, with hard snow on the ground
The water surface mirror like, in the forest there's no sound
The footbridge wears a coat of ice, flashing in the sun
Awaits steam blowing joggers,...

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A warm breeze, its source unknown, yet upon its breath
Carries the scents of my garden, thyme and sage and rose
Moving over warm soil, picking up cricket calls and aromas
Brought to me as I lay in...

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Charming Ghost did not want to leave, so he stayed to play.
He got older and bigger and was alone at the end of each day.
His relatives all died, and left him behind, not knowing he...

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The Edge of Extinction

Silent humming birds
Great ocean whales
Deep unknown rain forests
Dark eyed Polar Bears
Ancient Loggerhead turtles
Ivory tusked Elephants

North American Indians
Eskimos
Australian Aboriginals
Lost South American Indians

Kiwis and Kakapo’s
Sperm whales
Blue whales
Narwhales
Killer whales
Prairies covered with Buffalo
Humpback whales
Deep forest Wolves
Ospreys...

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He speaks for the uprooted.
A man of sorts, a twiggy Buddha.
He who interprets
the conferences of frogs,
the unpublished works
of kestrels and voles.

He’s an advocate for the underbelly
of a microbial heaven, for every kind
of uncouth animalcule.

Ancient is...

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The forest was usually clean of dangers, but today was different.
White stag sensed a new evil in the oaks to the east. He ran to see.
There was a predator there, a violator whom he had...

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Cattails grow up out of my muck
taking root in  the mire on my bottom

creeping along in my soft blue clay,
shooting up in long cylindrical spikes
with a velvety fruit, encouraging

red-winged black birds to nest, feed,
caw...

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He speaks for the uprooted.
A man of sorts, a twiggy Buddha.
He who interprets 
the conferences of frogs, 
the unpublished works 
of kestrels and voles.

He’s an advocate for the underbelly
of a microbial heaven, for every kind
of...

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Haibun 2017 - Me Feeding The Ducks Winter 2010/11
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feeding the hungry, ducks, geese, swans, moorhen, coot, and gulls. The image depicts me in the winter of 2010. I hasten to add that to this day...

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