Long Weights Poems

Poems about the Coronavirus I


yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote...

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Instruction
by Michael R. Burch

Toss this poem aside
to the filigreed and the wild tide
of sunset.

Strike my name,
and still it is all the same.
The onset

of night is in the despairing skies;
each hut shuts its bright bewildered eyes.
The...

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Poems about the Coronavirus II


This World's Joy
(anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 14th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters...

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Medieval Poems



Wulf and Eadwacer
(Old English circa 990 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

My people pursue him like crippled prey.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different!

Wulf's on one island; I'm on...

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A dream of a Rainbow coloured family

In the ocean there is a raging storm 
And a lot of boats 
With rudders that are shattered,
Compasses lost, sails that are torn.
And dreams that are faded or tattered
With...

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(Continuing the trip through Hell of Dante with poet Virgilio)

Pah-peh Sah-tan, Pah-peh Sah-tan al-ept!”,
Started Pluto with his hoarse voice toss
And that gentle wise, who any knowledge kept,

Told to encourage me: “don’t have a loss 
By...

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"The Crow Bar"

she said,
here I bury my dead,
you can hear them sleeping
somnulent forget-me-nots,
snoring blithely unaware,
in neat rows between 
the thick,
ink injected lines,
their soiled lives
ploughed and 
turned over 
replanted
sunnyside down
expunged and 
wrung out

eventually,
not totally oblivious, 
they...

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"Ground Level Entry"

“She fits the bill”,
they say it 
insouciantly

visions of being 
carried in the beak 
of a bilious pelican 

where it builds
its rudimentary nest, 
it uses sticks and debris

no stones, yet,
from irreverence
thrown at it

no higher...

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Once again I tip the scale
And mutter, whoever invented it was a man from hell.
It was not a woman who created weights for size
For women can look past the outer shell
And search deep for what...

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Once in a great while your soul stands up and takes notice of someone and your inner voice screams yes that one. So loud your sure others heard.
When you are apart you can feel your...

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The Silence In Me
I have been on this road several times, and I have been contemplating 
the movement of the clouds, the direction of the trees, and the depth of the sea. The heart of...

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Money
and Manna
both root back to Maneh
of deep and weighty Babylonian coinage.

Maneh transcends spiritual/natural divides
to nurture nutrition's co-present values,
dew-fall grace from Earth's diamond curious treasures
tribal communions inspired with physical bread

And yet also 
more deductive
reductive Win/Lose seductive...

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Mother, sometimes memories are fraught

                              ...

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“Goooood morning!  I’m Wade, and I’m having a fantastic morning here at Starbucks! What can I get started for you today?” 
I look over at the Starbucks drive-through lane from the Goodwill donation drop-off...

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THE CHIMNEY
The once fine air, refreshens with dust
Between the village horizon and crest
Since the sailing of a death chemical chimney.

Young green plants seedlings growing on slope
Are left to sip these  carcinogenic dusts, sapling
And entwined...

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Now, I am not a huge man

I'm not large by any means

In fact it is surprising

I still wear normal jeans

My pants don't have elastics

I still use normal towels

But, my BMI stats tell me

I'm a word...

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I’m feeling that feeling
I felt in the beginning 
Times flying by 
my minds still spinning
I think I’m losing ground
And my patience is thinning
Getting tangled up in 
the webs Life’s spinning 
Further from where I’ve been...

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Ech day me cometh tydinges thre
"Each Day Three Tidings Come to Me"
(anonymous Middle English poem, circa the 13th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Each day I’m plagued by three doles,
These gargantuan weights on my...

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(continues after part1)

When he agreed, his neck I held and climb;
And he waited for proper time and place,
And when the wings were open at the prime,

He clutched the hairy ribs with strong embrace;
From fleece to...

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I looked into the mirror and this is what I saw
Overweight, bloated and extremely out of shape
Put me in a purple shirt
And I'd look just like a grape
The time had come to buckle down
It was...

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I returned home after forty years to my home island of Hawaii. Its preferred nickname is the Big Island, lovingly a.k.a., the Orchid Isle, and yes, a.k.a., the Volcanic Island. Rightly named as the sole...

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Man makes his plans in the heart
but the Lord brings answers on the tongue
Man thinks he knows everything
God is the one who holds all to be stung

Those arrogant at heart God will punish
only in fearing...

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In Search of 50 Names(couplets alphabetized for ease of footnoting the names)

A) A tom cat sits in heather nearby a willow tree.
Rose and jasmine fill the air. A billy goat I see.

B) 50 words that...

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It's very time consuming
Driving yourself mad
But not quite mad enough 
To commit to the mental torment
So trying to balance 
Very precariously
Whilst throwing tiny weights
Onto the wrong side of the scale
So existing forever in extreme stress
About...

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Walk with me to the gym and do the African spin; walk with me to the gym and I will show you where it all begins. The love for money, the love for culture has...

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