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Footsteps Led By The Light Of The Moon

These streets that I walk Are treacherous with every other step No compass in my hand to guide me I allow the light of the sky to illuminate my path There’s no straight and narrow to speak of Wishful thinking that’s been a forever desire I have the mental bruises that show the impatience of wait I have the physical pain in my feet from the many travels I’d rather have the moon than a simple candle Any wind can blow out this fire light it wants to give me The moon has a mind of its own and never loses its power So large it is, the sky holds it, and no need for me to do so I thank this moon
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Sailing Silvery Seas

Man had dreamed of Luna’s silver seas
Since first He gazed into the spangled skies.

What secrets lay behind Her gleam?
What treasures hid beneath Her skin?
Would She welcome Him with open arms,
Or spurn His advances with cold distain?

He tried to catch Her fancy with sacrifice,
Howled like the wolf with bloody hands,
But still She hung impervious,
Indifferent to His pleas.

Forward swept the sea of time,
Moonlight guiding Man’s ambitions—
One by one the continents fell
Conquered by the hand of Man.

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Villanelle: The Divide

These are villanelles by Michael R. Burch, including an adaptation he calls a Trinelle or Triplenelle. There are also related poetic forms with refrains, such as the rondel, roundel and rondeau.

Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day,
with the moon―a pale beacon across the Divide,
the brighter for longing, an object denied―
the tug at his heart's pink, bourgeoning clay?

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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.

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LISTEN!

"Listen" is a prophetic poem I wrote around age 17 or 18, then revised and completed around 20 years later. 

Listen
by Michael R. Burch
also published as Immanuel A. Michael

Listen to me now and heed my voice;
I am a madman, alone, screaming in the wilderness,
but listen now.

Listen to me now, and if I say
that black is black, and white is white, and in between lies gray,
I have no choice.

Does a madman choose his words? They come to him,
the moon’s illuminations, intimations of the wind,
and he must speak.

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Infinity

for Beth

Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your soul sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then scuttled inside to be safe, out of reach?

Might I lift you tonight from earth’s wreckage and damage
on these waves gently rising to pay the moon homage?
Or better, perhaps, let me say that I, too,
have dreamed of infinity . . . windswept and blue.

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Howling at the Pink Moon

Howling at the Moon

On a moonlit late night
I sat in a bar
Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew
Just an unhinged lunatic
Dreaming of howling at the full moon

Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions

When into the bar
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive

I did not know what to do
As this vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar

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The Moon

The moon shone bright that night

Beautiful and full.
I can still picture it.
It was magical the way the light danced.
It swallowed every star in the sky
In its majestic glow.

Tonight, however, the moon is gone.
I don’t know where it went.
I wish it would come back
To light up the darkness like it once did
But wherever it’s gone, I hope it’s happier there.

I may never see that light again,
It may never again shine on my face
Like it did that night,
But at least now
I’m able to appreciate the beauty of the stars.

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