Long Wick Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems VI



An Illusion
by Michael R. Burch

The sky was as hushed as the breath of a bee
and the world was bathed in shades of palest gold
when I awoke.

She came to me with the sound...

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the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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Rejection Slips

With over 5,700 publications if I count poems that have gone viral, I suppose I shouldn’t complain … but I do have some poems that have never been accepted for publication. Here are a...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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Do you recognize me anymore?
Do you realize that my heart is sore?
Let me memorize your heart’s melody
Let me see right through your…melancholy…

Do you ever wave goodbye to yesterday?
Can’t bear the thought of you leaving me...

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He sung all the day, all the night of the fourth,
Endlessly, relentlessly, angrily and passionately
Deafening my ears in the wet sugar of his words
In an eternity of hours,
Slowly and dopily, darkness billowed away
Sifting along to...

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Suddenly, two Indian boys throw themselves into the water like meteors
swiming towards camp chatty as prarie dogs,
they hail from a Teton encampment of 74 lodges a few miles up river
most of the men are feeling...

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?Universe interconnected?      
            ®O?N~§ € £ F€º 
?{Interconnected»«Universe}?
    Pen's Broadcasting Name
     ...

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I keep on observing couples pass me by oh so merrily,
Getting me all perked up, but at the same time, a bit of jealousy
I am deserving of no one and I know you'd disagree
Getting me...

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Old blabber mouth gets on my wick
His attitude makes me quite sick
He plays to the crowd 
Is brash and so loud 
My husband thinks he's an idiot!

Inspired by Stevie Wonder Song on the Radio today...

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I crowned the write full missus "champ paean practical joker"

The following moniker “innocent prankster” 
awarded, hashtagged, and qualified wife
as trickster de jure appended 
to alluded spouse 
(then of twenty five plus years),
when she pulled a...

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Spring had sprung and the weather was wild, the winds were everywhere.
Yep, it was time to fly kites, but with Dragon involved, a time to be beware!
A great kite-erian was invited this year, from Japan,...

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Silent thoughts


Candles burning brightly bring visions to my eyes.
Shadows dancing in the corners give this room a supernatural vibe.
As I sit here under the covers, all fears are held below;
I gaze into the broken mirror,...

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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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I am sorry I gave you the cold shoulder and now I murmur
I was in hot lava in my broken-apart heart that was tough
I want to be devoted to you, my long lost lover…my lover…
I...

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                                  ...

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A dull ache becomes masked by a generous shot. More and more opium pours into her trampled vein. Her heart slowly beats, the mania creeps, and she slowly loses a piece of herself. Drowning her...

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Aftermath from this er...

attempt to break thru Hadrian's Wall
while roam'n across cyberspace of urban sprawl
dark shadows spill across 
the outer limits of the twilight zone 
whereby edge of night 
creeps brow of me, a Neanderthal!

Yours...

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Lost beneath the mantle of ancient trees
On crumbling road I hope will lead to you
Cold and weary, near falling to my knees
By lantern light, the world is painted blue

Searching for hours to find a sign...

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Becoming the prey 
I’m melting away like a 5 foot wick
To show a skeleton of who was once the author
Now the pencil tips break and the pens ink tends to escape 
My eyelids worked overtime...

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The real fealty
Fellowship with Deity
Not aseity

Where is His power?
Do not let His will sour
Why you don't flower

Man is not the cure
His righteousness is manure
God-Man must procure

Can't laugh off this One
Demons in the swine are done
To...

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CHINESE FEMALE POETS: ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Creamy Melons
by Chao Luan-Luan
translation by Michael R. Burch

Scented with talcum, moist with perspiration,
like pegs of jade inlaid in a harp,
aroused by desire, yet soft as cream,
fertile amid a warm mist
after my...

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...........................
What blood, what dish,
For obozhatelnitsa dreams!
Leaving a modicum girl
Vamp quickly flew away in the night.

So they came slowly - 
Fed with the darling child,
While the girl gradually
From bloodsuckers in the coffin came down.

The little girl...

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