Long Yellowed Poems

Lady’s Favor
by Michael R. Burch

May
spring
fling
her riotous petals
devil-
may-care
into the air,
ignoring the lethal
nettles
and may
May
cry gleeful-
ly Hooray!
as the abundance
settles,
till a sudden June
swoon
leave us out of tune,
torn,
when the last rose is left
inconsolably bereft,
rudely shorn
of every device but her thorn.


The...

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The Tender Weight of Her Sighs
by Michael R. Burch

The tender weight of her sighs
lies heavily upon my heart;
apart from her, full of doubt,
without her presence to revolve around,
found wanting direction or course,
cursed with the thought...

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LOVE POEMS V

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch, about life, the dream of love, virtue, a first kiss, a first crush, the birth of a first relationship, the joy of a first love...

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A Night On A Wharf

The couple decide to walk. The boardwalk still lit at this late hour guides them. They walk hand in hand,..whispering softly with small talk...solemn.,. lonely , yet together. The walk is...

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New Year Poetry

Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
translation by Michael R. Burch 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed,...

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I don't know what came over me that day - an instant of weakness after years of resistance, I suppose.

My beaming spouse leads me, a dog on a short leash, into the forbidden citadel, the...

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As I ascend the podium, a predator of piquant pontifications, my eyes ravage the assemblage of adversaries, their countenances a canvas of consternation and morbid fascination. The atmosphere is heavy with the miasma of malignant...

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I grew up and out on a four family-owned,
and cooperatively-organized,
extended matriarchal farm.

Four interdependent 1940s through 1970s patriarchally managed businesses,
without substantial questions about who should wear pants,
yet with a surprising matriarchal cooperative understory.

The boxers outnumbered the...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

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                           The wind is blowing cold tonight 

 ...

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I cannot die tonight
I dog-eared a book
Of pages I haven't perused
You know how long that took?
Scent of pages
Frayed and yellowed
Always get me
Calm and mellowed
The spine cracked and worn
Each page a promise, a tale untold
In the...

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a collaborative work with Alfred Vassalo


The Stars sparkled in her eyes
As light interlaced with her shadow
Causing her to question her senses
Even though she closed her eyes
light continued to seep out

Her brilliance, competed with the sun...

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Severe surge regarding thou shalt not kill violations

Fifth commandment breached regularly
epidemic of gun violence in America
bullets fly, scream and tear into flesh
senseless rampant mass killings
rip across fabric of society
buzzfeeding, jump/kickstarting, 
paradigm of mortality.

Since January first
two...

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 twelve of us he choose to paint
    sons of Jacob in an earthen 
jar so sturdy
plonked us with vehemence
directed by neuronal cells 
skull protecting scrambled 
delicacy
     ...

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Ramapo, New York, a small town
Was rural ... to say the least
Where simple folks lived a simple life
And most residents could rest in peace 

But, tonight was prom night and
The summer evening was unusually cool
As...

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When vitamin and medication bottles became plaything of the missus

Mental health of yours truly
heavily reliant upon one selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitor named fluoxetine (Prozac)
aside from countless
(approximately seven) other
prescription medications kept
stashed in a plastic tray
until one or...

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Amélie Beth Harris -McGeehan

Acknowledgment of birthday gal,
whose invaluable priceless worth
exceeds more'n a bajillion dollars.  

First born of Boyce and Harriet
(both long since deceased,
albeit cremated whereby their ashes
- cremains scattered to the four winds)
in Paterson,...

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My First poem posted here May 2007 was  an enigmatic Lanterne

Viduage

Tall
nettles-
the dutch hoe
rusting in the
shed.

My First ekphrasis (poem no 2 here ) BELLA

Bella

He
opened
the window-
in streamed his first
love
with
flowers,
dressed
in white-
she haunted his
art.

An Ekphrasis in lanterne  sequence on Marc Chagall

MY FIRST POEM I EVER WROTE poem no 3 here. a favoured form  AN ALLITERATION

Connections
Confront,clash,collide
COMBAT !
Cold shoulder,chill,cool
CUT-OFF !
Cry,crave,collect
CALL-ON !
Constant,compassion,consider
CHARITY !
Confer,commune,converse
COMMUNICATE !
Convene,concert,consensus
CONCORD !
COVENANT ! CHRIST ! CHURCH !

MY FIRST IMAGIST POEM -REFLECTIONS

Reflections

Deep into the pool
A blue moon,ephemeral,
Below white-coated peaks,
Bleak and surreal,
The transient image too soon
Dissolves,and ripples into space,
As water though my grasp.

MY FIRST CINQUAIN (after Adelaide Crapsey)

Long days
Of August sun
Where nature blinks and shrinks
The dying grass,yellowed in sleep-
Held fast

MY FIRST HIKU 

On the wind,a bell
Muffled from across the square
Raindrops fill the air
why hiku ?

HAIKU means  the ' phonetical&cultural original 'in Japanese'

whereas HIKU

is the English language version(including translations)with similar economy of words without "telling all" thereby to ' show ' (conforming to the key to...

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Like every divorced couple, we were transitioning into a platonic relationship as friends full of understanding. My former husband seems entirely decided to give life a fresh try. He is thinking of another girl. He...

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(myself to myself on myself for myself)

When you hear the clamor of the birds loud
shrieking shockingly it shouldn’t frighten
you they simply don’t realize the magnitude
of the head of sand that gets washed away
onto your shoulders...

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(CRUMPLED THOUGHTS POETRY CONTEST)

When you hear the clamor of the birds loud
shrieking shockingly it shouldn’t frighten
you they simply don’t realize the magnitude
of the head of sand that gets washed away
onto your shoulders and violates sanctity.

Did...

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The Room of the Unrequited
By Roger White
    That evening, stillness permeated the lavender-scented room.  Dusk crept through the windows
smudged by oily fingers, The day’s twilight left a dull umbra on wall...

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with midnight dreams we dance
unyielding, i stir unwilling to awaken
incessantly seeking
You

like virgin wings of the monarch, your shape gently unfolds
i clutch the edges of slumber
aware in my wakening you will be gone
Again

you have come before,...

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The attic trunk, dirty, and oh so old
Had survived the many years untold
Sitting there midst the quiet dust
The hasp and hinges brown with rust

In the young girls’ mind she was compelled
To see what it was...

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I wrote you a lovesong
and I slipped it into my shoe.
The blue shoes;
the ones I wore to the dance tonight.
I put the shoes outside my bedroom door,
to be shining when I wake up.
When I wake...

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