Long Well heeled Poems

Villanelles

The villanelle is a poetic form based on repetition, with a double refrain. 



Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day, 
with the...

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Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 1

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

He'll heal his heel.
They sow so they sew.
His aide aid with an ade.
You saw a ewe eat a yew.
I ate on the ait eight...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV Part Two
                 II

The first signs reek tell-tale
Buffer-to-buffer...

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The scenery was magnificent, and the morning was slightly hot,
Our land cruiser was windowless, and sitting in a lovely spot.

The giraffes were splendid, and much bigger than I'd expected,
One could hardly gaze at the vast...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

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I posit picayune propensities prevail among pesky management

Most favored renter status imposed on us
i.e. meaning myself;
(one tarnished prince of Highland Manor)
and the missus, his princess consort
who must abide by rigorous writ
of tidiness, whereby
every flat surface...

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When at five-thirty
In the rubbed-eye haziness
Of ferreting lonesome night walks
The camera-eye refugee
Asleep in the half wakefulness
Of the hour
Peers out of his high turbanned sockets:
Hyde Park's through road links
London's diurnally estranged couple -
The Arch and Gate.

...

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Part 2

The passengers were a well-heeled lot who
    Had no experience to the rigors at sea.
And their disillusionment grew... on seeing the crew
    Entirely encrusted with earwigs and fleas.

But...

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In Truth, He Dies

"Kevin"

Drug buy,
for one it went good.
Drug buy,
for one it went bad.

You see Kevin,
wore high heeled sneakers.
You see Kevin,
was his junkies' keeper.
 
But one day;
the junkie didn't have it,
so Kevin didn't give it,
but...

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Unquotable quotes: Fashion modeling with an eye on footballers – XXVII

Isn’t “haute couture” like “cordon bleu cuisine”? Both equally edible? You still have to pull the shrimp scales apart to get at the meat.

What do...

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If Thou take not our hands,
and feet,
our bodies
hosting ghostly minds,
our organic inside lives
flowing out emphatic love

We will continue to fail,
to fear,
to feel tired,
retired,
weary,
untreaded,
worn.

When I try to sing this earnest prayer
with only my heady voice
from the...

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A lad is stopped by roving cops, who shoot in disregard.

His face is black, he’s on his back, a breeze is breathing hard,

he bleeds and dies, his mama cries, the screaming sky is scarred,

the sheriff...

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Midnight at Blackfriars 
  
The city spires are hidden, 
It’s getting colder fast, 
It feels as though we might have 
Some snow this month at last. 
The wind sweeps keenly through St. Giles(1) 
The...

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"AOC"

AOC, AOC,sitting on limbs of a dead
green tree,
Shooting innocent cows so merrily!
They must go, this socialist screams!
Deaf to God's creatures painful moos 
and cries,
As their carcasses pile up to the skies.
And their sanguine blood soaking God's 
earth,...

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...
Just walk up to her!
Just move on leg in front of the other and move your lips up and down for speech!
Then suavely put your hand in her hand and walk together!
It's that easy man!
...
Yeah...

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When the bus first got there, the Medic was tending to Brick and it took 
all of five minutes for that to turn around. Brick was tending to the nurse.  
No surprise, Bill thought...

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The truculent night opened its ears and eyes
to acknowledge the fervor of the melee raging in her brain

She woke up with ringing in her ears
was it tinnitus or a heart attack?

She didn’t know, 
but it...

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WALKING ON WATER
	
Saint of the Golden Gate Bridge
they called her, blessing the
crowd with her tears, performing

to the cheers of the enchanted,
flinging, first her pink raincoat,
her high heeled shoes, fluttering

down like doves, dancing, twisting
out of her...

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For the daughter I love and miss.

There’s a change that’s like a season that I’ve noticed in the air
I couldn’t tell what niggled me but now I have to share,
I feel it in the morning...

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THE STRANGER MAN (2)

They who posses tire
out and loose more
in keeping.
As homeowner never
have I felt at home
But closer home as
squatter and
settler.
The crop man crops
his way through
life,
The dry cleaner
cannot subdue the
muck;
The well heeled
can’t afford inner
balm with...

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She was an Indian Barbie, long curly lash 
And brown complexion. The hair was 
Perfect, shiny black and she had on a small 
Pink gown to cover her 36-24-36 body. 
Last seen, she still had...

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