Long Afire Poems

Family Poems

Mother's Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother's smile, no softer touch
than mother's touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than "much."

So more than "much, " much more than...

Read More

Erin, for a girl who embodies Ireland
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...

Read More

Poems about Children


The Desk
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes.I wonder how
he learned at all...

He...

Read More

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

Read More

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

Read More

Final Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

Sleep peacefully—for now your suffering’s over.

Sleep peacefully—immune to all distress,
like pebbles unaware of raging waves.

Sleep peacefully—like fields of fragrant clover
unmoved by any motion of the wind.

Sleep...

Read More

Mud and leather
dirt and nerve
bloodied laughter
collision to serve,
distance, drive and demolition
battle axe ambition in the wild air
muscle and mind joined in steeled instinct, 
a stitched pigskin ball, the grail of the Fall
to fumble it means...

Read More

Lusting Abyss, his Darkness.
.
Darkness is he, soulless totally
It's abyss he commands desiring what he sees

In front of him stands a virgin pure as the driven snow
For white he knows it is, upon she his darkness...

Read More

Pardon any absent adulation, bequeathed capitulation, devoted dedication, indiscretion, blabbering peroration, improper salutation or any unintended vexation if this unknown earthling sent a nearly identical message. He over-looked a small number of errors and hoped...

Read More

Darkness is he, soulless totally
It's abyss he commands, desiring what he sees

In front of him stands a virgin, pure as the driven snow
For white he knows it is, upon she his darkness will show

Long haired...

Read More

Their rending cries, when all is still, reecho in the moonlight;
They lie about in fitful slumber on the ground at noonlight,
Their virgin hair spread in the dust; for nothing really matters:
Who then will see their...

Read More

Hidden beneath the hopes and dreams, gentle
Feelings, inspiring me to trust, believe
Fondness this alive isn’t accidental
It feels amazing, just like Christmas Eve,
Joyful and inspired, like a heart afire
Breathing whispers of light over the soul
Remembering the...

Read More

When In Love's Immense Depths, You Are Truly Cherished
 

Mystical web spun memories of our sweet nights,
love began under stars and brightest of moonlights.
Hold onto that image, its joyous dreaming dreams;
fiery echoes, night trysts and...

Read More

In the blinded moments,
Before the mist rises over the tumbling surf…
Blueness tempting awake my dreams,
A heartbeat from the flaming blaze,
Sunshine pouring through the clusters of 
Feathery clouds, like the breath of peace
Aroused from the falling...

Read More

I AM HARMONICA DEONTIA BALDWIN!

Somebody said Harmonica Baldwin was a smart child.
That she would grow into her womanhood and set the world afire.
Her characteristics inform her personality.
Harmonica Baldwin is magnetic.
She is perceptive and mindboggling.
Within, Harmonica...

Read More

Part Two Of, Emily Dickinson, dedication series

(1.)

What Started As Bliss Has Brought Death's Black Hand
poets dedication series

As a tree full of crows looked down on my bloody head
that long dark shadow falling ever so swiftly...

Read More

Those kittens bounded through the flap and started to play
Raisin said the flowers look so pretty today
She went to sniff a daisy but an insect flew out
And so she hollered, “Watch out, Rum, there’s waspies...

Read More

Mystical web spun memories of our sweet nights,
love began under stars and brightest of moonlights.
Hold onto that image, its joyous dreaming dreams;
fiery echoes, night trysts and pleasurable screams!
Love's greatest truth rests in thy bosom and...

Read More

Circa sixty one years ago July 6th, 2001 -
birth of dear beloved wife

We now get along swimmingly
analogous to this bro and his older sis
on the cusp of our gifted silver married years
if her presence absent,...

Read More

Then through the mist, the Sun was set ablaze
and all beneath its realm fell to their knees.
‘Twas but a fire that filled the coming days
as mortal ashes wafted through the breeze.
Her wreckage wailed in bellowing...

Read More

Candied dreams, burning away the twilight
Sandcastle memories, taken 
By the softest glow of a Southern moon,
Coloring the thoughts in reflections of sincerest
Beauty, rising like the breathless winds
Roaring through the pines, whispering sighs,
Risking moments bought by...

Read More

To boil with all the energy of Hell
may set aflame untethered wherewithal,
for once expended nothing can foretell
the limits of demise that may befall.
A single match may flicker to a flame
or simply set the whole of...

Read More

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...

Read More

I watch the sun fall from the sky
tumbling soundlessly, the horrid quiet deafening.
As I see it touch the horizon, the world burns
and clouds, like kindling, burst into flames
set afire, until their brilliant hues burn to...

Read More