Long Wraithlike Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch

In the Whispering Night
by Michael R. Burch

In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
while...

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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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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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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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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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I heard the dreadful Dryad's scream
As axe bit into woody flesh
The sap oozed out as scented cream
My veins stood out in rictal mesh

My wits all scrambled left me quick
My hands and face were full a-sweat
My...

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Pandora's BoX

Whom to blame?
What woman now walks, the lethal ancestress
Of the original ancestress, that one named 
Pandora, that one with the gleaming eyes that said:

   "I want; I need, to know?"

Where is she...

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Baseless incriminations heaped upon head of missus...
courtesy evil ferocious wraithlike grimace

Acrimonious scurrilous words
flew out the mouth
of vicious nasty shortish brute
leaving yours truly
as a key witness dumbfounded.

Outrageous spluttering claims
of stolen parcels
plus ransacked jewelry
totaling to the tune
of...

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Dedicated to Robert Lindley. Warning this tale is dark.

THE DOVE

A bloody stain upon the sheets, how cruel!
Soulless weight of the wretched beast who’d rule.
With his bare paws and downward thrust he’d crush,
Rake over the virgin,...

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Far away from the pain and hate
Having descended into the Darkness within
You wake alone within a room

No doors No windows-
Hidden from the world.

Balling up your fist 
Banging upon the bare walls

Crying out for answers 
Till...

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Within these apartment walls 
Depression looms, 
Permeates, destroys. 
Its sterile white walls 
Are oppressive,
Even claustrophobic.
Silverfish slither 
Across white ceilings, 
I pray they don’t drop 
Into my mouth
As I sleep.

I lay on my roll out sofa,
Praying...

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When a heart breaks, there is no indication,
Some sign, heralding the pause,
Between hope and hopeless, between
Music and total grief, between 
Poetry and prose, between
Light and loss, between
Joy and miserable, the mystery
From the heartbreak, comes as...

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In the tenebrous, xenial realm of the lake, where human cadavers oscillate, suspended by verdigris chains, a lamia of unholy provenance, orchestrates a gambits cavalcade.

Each mortal she ensnares, a lugubrious, ghoulish spectacle unfolds, as if...

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The rocks tripped me; I trod forward, upward to my lesson.
The wind chooses not to make its presence felt, yet.
The sun bursts gloriously into the flat, baby-blue, sky.

The red brown earth held its moisture greedily.
The...

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The rocks tripped me; I trod forward, upward to my lesson.
The winds choose not to make its presence felt, yet.
The sun bursts gloriously into the flat, baby-blue, sky.

The red brown earth held its moisture greedily.
The...

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Stand I here upon the Precipice of Time
between madness and derangement-
In a grief so profound
ambiance of rage,
with darkening clouds abound
marring my every breath
Declaration to  your joy unsound.

Yet- from this stance
I envision you, my perfect
seraphim...

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Common Ground


They would emerge
sandy grisly looking beings
mysteriously become a presence,
a part of a momentary event
Following the scent of happiness,
creeping past the invisible sentries,
blending into the fabric of time’s
need for companionship.
They carried the rudiments of fun,
a...

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An old man, worn and wearied by the toils of life, 
stood alone in a darkened hallway, 
each wall hung with brightly lit paintings. 
He walked by the Mona Lisa, and as he passed 
he...

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Numbness prevails over me,
Masking me… sending me pangs of suppression
Deadness tears its way inside of me,
Consuming me… devouring me with yanks of oppression

Darkness frowns upon me,
Dragging me down…sending me scraps of sadness
Gloominess molds me inside...

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Bright-coloured butterflies flutter in the morning sky, 
Their filmy fragile wings throbbing in dawn's tranquility, 
Like little heartbeats dancing in tandem with the tawny sun... 
They flit from flower to flower, sipping sweet ambrosia, 
Like...

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wraiths, figures of mist, four dimensional misfits of
used to be dancing reruns of former frenzies, hung
in timeless movements of spaced out incoherency
like milk spotted eyeglasses still running wetly
such are the thoughts of a freaked out...

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