Long Athena Poems

They were gambling in front of the house.
Manservants and pages bustled about
Serving Suitors who just curse and carouse.
Few mix wine with water. I heard one shout,
"Clean down the tables with wet sponges! Rouse
Yourselves! And when...

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Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us...

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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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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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Sitting on the beach,
As dusk falls upon the end of shore,
I look at the lighthouse,
As I see a faint figure,
Looking beyond the sea.
She holds her chest,
As if she is holding a necklace.
She waits for her...

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Please Michelle Obama...
can you save American democracy?

I highly hugely grant 
Barack Hussein belated kudos
what with his wizardesses 
in tow wrought wonders 
to one nation analogous 
while an under dog
sweeping in like... 
It's a Bird... It's...

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For the third time Pandora stands before the box
Inlaid with jewels ivory and gold
In her hand is the key – she closely examines
Intrigued by its intricate patterns - so ancient- so old

Her Creator’s mandate she...

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Many years ago, I was reading the Revelation and came
across the seven churches and thought where were they
then and now for civilizations and some countries changed.
I didn’t have a clue and didn’t bother to do...

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catapulted by a magic trampoline I pass the gates of heaven

          no border control

            ...

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A GLIMPSE OF HERITAGE

To Visit the past, is to understand your future.

The storm was moving away, the noise no longer pounding,
Sky turned blue from dark, thunder abating, hail disappearing,
I took refuge under a bridge during...

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Finally to Burn: Icarus, Resurrected
by Michael R. Burch

Athena takes me
sometimes by the hand

and we go levitating
through strange Dreamlands

where Apollo sleeps
in his dark forgetting

and Passion seems
like a wise bloodletting

and all I remember
upon awaking

is: to Love sometimes
is...

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I wish I could immerse myself 
in the pages of history, time, 
and deep reflection...letting go 
of everything I think I know 
and give myself another chance 
to clarify my perceptions and beliefs
in the river...

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I was wondering when you will come, the year is almost done, and here I am in this place with little hope of joining the human race again. Here I am in this peculiar place...

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Closing your eyes just to disconnect
From the world of reality to the healing state
Walking through a wave length of all your times
Good, bad, sad, exciting, fear and life
Drowning your body in stress and remorse
Mentally parallelize...

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8.

As the people, sadly, walk through the gates,
they firstly bow before Turvehr, their honour dictates,
honour is shown to the Dark man, 
whose great glory known, before coming of man.
The history, the mystery, 
the great glory,...

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It has occurred to me now that humanity has come to lack the culture once held 
O’ so very dear to our own existence.

  As Dante once walked with Virgil, down an epic path...

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I sought a soul akin to mine;
Like Zeus’s Athena
And Alexander’s Hephestian;  
In oracle and verse-
Transient of continents
From the warm breath of the New World 
to the Whispering sands of the old, 
so Ancient and...

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She walked through the woods
 remembering his face
ashen and grey against the pillow.
He had been taken by 
the sweeping sickness
that had engulfed her land
taken so swiftly
that she had not 
had time to reach him.

The pain...

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Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace
you climb, skittish kite ...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there
so that all that remains is to

fall?

Only...

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This is a poem inspired by a heartbraker, who had no remorse for me.
   - She is now with another, and I haven't seen her in over a year.
    ...

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pure and simple
the smile and dimples
the vanity of being wanted

loved and adored,
 such admiration might
 cause one to be ignored

thus should such behavior
 cause others to favor
simply by the looks of the flesh

eyes can lie
and...

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7.

The Tigress stands at the side of Turvehr,
her head hung low, her face hidden by dark hair,
tears falling freely from her eyes,
in Heaven, the mighty cry tears from the skies.
Mortal sea does now divide,
Turvehr and...

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5.

Utamol takes his bloody fill,
tasting life's wine, never still,
Dark Man in majestic motion,
hate-filled passion, his chief emotion.
War played in an ancient way,
a horror too all, who fight this day,
yet all who escape this misery,
shall ever...

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“It Came in Our Dreams”

The Others 
watch on,
somewhere above us.

we, ant like
form our battalions
soldier ants 
with no substantial sting
repelling reptilian 
brains in flight
striking our oily deals 
sliding into our nightmares, 
acrid smoke, bee-keeping our hives
we...

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