War is Obsolete
These are poems about war and other calamities such as school shootings and floods...
War is Obsolete
by Michael R. Burch
War is obsolete;
even the strange machinery of dread
weeps for the child in the street
who cannot lift her head
to reprimand the Man
who failed to countermand
her soft defeat.
Sunset
These are poems about sunset, poems about the song going down and things irretrivably lost, poems about regret.
Sunset
by Michael R. Burch
for my grandfather, George Edwin Hurt Sr., on the day he departed this life
Between the prophecies of morning
and twilight's revelations of wonder,
the sky is ripped asunder.
The moon lurks in the clouds,
waiting, as if to plunder
the dusk of its lilac iridescence,
and in the bright-tentacled sunset
we imagine a presence
full of the fury of lost innocence.
Free Verse
These are free verse poems I have written over the last half century, and also a few rhyming poems about free verse.
Reason Without Rhyme
by Michael R. Burch
I used to be averse
to free verse,
but now I admit
YOUR rhyming is WORSE!
But alas, in the end,
it’s all the same:
all verse is unpaid
and a crying shame.
***
The AI Poets
by Michael R. Burch
Prose Poems
These are prose poems and experimental poems.
Prose Poem: The Trouble with Poets
by Michael R. Burch
This morning the neighborhood girls were helping their mothers with chores, but one odd little girl went out picking roses by herself, looking very small and lonely. Suddenly the odd one refused to pick roses anymore because it occurred to her that being plucked might “hurt” them. Now she just sits beside the bushes, rocking gently back and forth, weeping and consoling the vegetation!
Spring Was Delayed
Spring Was Delayed
by Michael R. Burch
Winter came early:
the driving snows,
the delicate frosts
that crystallize
all we forget
or refuse to know,
all we regret
that makes us wise.
Spring was delayed:
the nubile rose,
the tentative sun,
the wind’s soft sighs,
all we omit
or refuse to show,
whatever we shield
behind guarded eyes.
Originally published by Borderless Journal
***
Passionate One
This is a love poem I wrote for my wife Beth.
Passionate One
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Love of my life,
light of my morning,
arise brightly dawning,
for you are my sun.
Give me of heaven
both manna and leaven,
Desirous Presence,
Passionate One.
Keywords/Tags: poem, poetry, love, life, passion, desire, dawn, light, sun, heaven, manna, leaven
***
The Celtic Cross at Île Grosse
by Michael R. Burch
Passionate One
This is a love poem I wrote for my wife Beth.
Passionate One
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
Love of my life,
light of my morning,
arise brightly dawning,
for you are my sun.
Give me of heaven
both manna and leaven,
Desirous Presence,
Passionate One.
Keywords/Tags: poem, poetry, love, life, passion, desire, dawn, light, sun, heaven, manna, leaven
Free Fall
These are poems about fall, falls and falling, whether in love or literally ...
Free Fall
by Michael R. Burch
for Beth
These cloudless nights, the sky becomes a wheel
where suns revolve around an axle star ...
Look there, and choose. Decide which moon is yours.
Sink Lethe-ward, held only by a heel.
Winter Forest
blue air
snowbound pockets
sailing the covered land
that's drifting white
branches broken
between the light
we lie in the snow
to sink beyond
anyone's sight
the streamlets circle
they wrap us
in their ice-bound arms
and we are one
shining with the sun
Mirrors
i like to dress for an imaginary girl
(we will meet each other soon) by putting on
a silk tie with subtle Chinese birds
sewn in.
she may be picturing me in her mirror
as she applies exactly the necessary line
of mascara to lengthen her lashes and darken
her eyes.
whatever begins as a mystery ends as a
blind, the nuances so well known
that birds chirp violently at their mirror images
but the pools
as they are revealed in the sunlight of
every accidental nod of the eyes remain
calm as a mirror in which there is no