Long Yeats Poems

State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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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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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...






Beast 666
by Michael R. Burch

“... what rough beast ... slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”?W. B. Yeats

Brutality is a cross
wooden, blood-stained,
gas hissing, sibilant,
lungs gilled, deveined,
red flecks on a...

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State of the Art (II)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



What the Poet Sees
by Michael R. Burch

What the poet sees,
he sees as a swimmer 
~~~~underwater~~~~
watching the shoreline...

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Various Heresies 2

You
by Michael R. Burch

For thirty years You have not spoken to me;
I heard the dull hollow echo of silence
as though strange communion between us.

For thirty years You would not open to me;
You remained...

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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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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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"The Sleeper and The Supernaturalist"


The Sleeper
shone as she walked 
through the Woods

shining alive 
like nothing
natural could

caught 
in the moonlight 
unaware

the innocent
red-caped roses stared
the trees whispered,

"beware, beware"

barefoot softly 
the Supernaturalist 
transfigures instead

from under shine 
she bares...

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A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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“But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
–“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” by W.B. Yeats 

“I love you...

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Lux Vitae Love Stories of The Fey:

“In the Clouds”



“What are you looking at Mum?”
“They come in the clouds you know”, she said to her daughter
“Every night, the same time, the numbers seem to grow,...

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Unquotable quotes: Poets, Poetasters and Platos – XXXVI

     For James McAuley – in remembrance of a memorable week in Cardiff 1965 

The greatest poet ever is NOT Homer, Lao Tse, Ovid,...

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“The Seance” 

It was macabre you see,
we were all summoned,
and therefore found ourselves
in the front parlour of Ballylee;

In our dreams
we thought we were poets
of fabulous notoreity, 
the head ghoul set us straight on that.

The planchette...

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Coping with Agoraphobia well you are basically pent up 
in your home for me it finally took it's toil my therapist 
came to my home because I was basically limited spending 
hours in a room...

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"Laureate"



Laureate 
speak now lofty phantom
to my mind

guide my hand 
I write I write I write

receptor of communication
things that are not mortal
Luminiferous aether 

sublime 
not normal writ
medium calculating in the script

In that other time
there you hold...

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Deep In Newly Disturbed Soil, Lies My True Love

(  “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them” – George Eliot.)

Deep in newly disturbed soil, lies my true love
'neath a canopy...

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"The Formidable Gambit"



Silence 
calculated and distinct

conspiring with rules
plays within the 
confined squares

of a strict and
ruthless mind
preying on all moves

untraceable 
unpredictable 
irretrievable 

in the opening move
the long-legged fly
is caught in the web

silvery and slippery 
life remains...

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1.    John Desmond Patrick Keegan
2.    Alfred, Lord Tennyson 
3.    Sally Aline Mae Beller
4.    Charles Edward A. Berry
5.    Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce...

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Those rarer men I once fondly 
knew...                            ...

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It snowed last night and outside my window is a winter wonderland.
It is -6, sunny and the wind is 24 kilometers, the afternoon
temperature will be about -4, that's not bad for Canada.

The first thing,...

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A Poe-M
(The morning
I felt the sun
in the mode of Lip sync,
In feeling in me and my mom)

How are you, my cello sun?
I got a tremendous deal.
Just in need to be blissful,
in the best counseling zeal.

In...

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"Life is fragile and temporary. The faces of today quickly become the faces of the past. Sorrow, pain, and anger... it all fades, except love. Love is forever and there after, even when we've fallen...

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Running fast thru Autumn’s dream, Vincent-bright in village winter’s light
Topaz-treed streets, eaves-filled , singing with saffron and  gold,
A Rocky Mountain cold cornflower sky over English hills
Vivid with Vincent-fuzzy ice-finger edges 
Photo-album best parts of...

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"Life is fragile and temporary. The faces of today quickly 
become the faces of the past. Sorrow, pain, and anger... 
it all fades, except love. Love is forever and thereafter, 
even when we've fallen to...

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