Cruising along on a rolling highway,
Petals blowing in a passing breeze,
Bejeweled distant blue skies above,
And a ruby redbird crowd goes past.
The sun is in jade, luxuriant grasses,
And the hills are among ivory clouds,
Colored leaves make pretty scenery,
And russet apples fall from the trees.
Autumn breeze in my hair disheveled,
So common where wind has reveled,
......
PROSE POEMS by Michael R. Burch
These are prose poems, experimental verse and free verse by Michael R. Burch. The first prose poem, “Something,” was the first poem I wrote that didn’t rhyme, around age 17–18.
Something
―for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba
by Michael R. Burch
Something inescapable is lost—lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void.
......
tell the flowers—they think
the sun loves them.
The grass is under the same
simple-minded impression
about the rain, the fog, the dew.
And when the wind blows,
it feels so good
they lose control of themselves
......
Free Verse Poem
We drink and use water,
Without knowing what it does,
What benefits it gives,
Water is around but has decreased,
......
Years go by like a purple blur of time,
As when the ripest grapes are turned,
Into the most luscious and aged wine!
Then memory itself often comes calling,
In sweltering sunshine and in the rain,
Like roaming bluebirds' memories of home,
Or the sweet memories of the honeybee!
Seasons come and go so colorfully vivid,
Obeying a golden rule of sunshine cycles.
Hectic time goes by quickly like rainbows,
......
Bonnie and I enjoy ballroom dancing
But we are not ballroom dancers
There is a difference
One manifests enjoyment -
A joyful response to the urge
To get up and move with the music
as when a waltz or rhumba begins to play
When that happens, we must move
lowering and rising, 1-2-3
......
(free verse)
Churning nuclear giants
radiating intense heat and brilliance
on astral mirrors of dark still ponds
reflect
as tiny cool mimic stars
❀
......
(elegy)
Prologue
In a small New England town, in a Church cemetery
at edge of a family plot with room scarce to bury,
stand twin stones to Agnes M. 1887 – 1897,
and to May, who in chiseled 1901 birth year also entered Heaven.
Missing burial records for these two is a local mystery,
As to why memorials appeared many years later, we are not yet privy.
......
O memories of long ago
I never thought I'd miss you
I still remember those times
Never thought they'd be the best of times
Oh, how I long for those days
Hard as they were, painful even
They are the loveliest, nonetheless
Younger me would've been perplexed
If she knew I want those days back!
But perhaps that's how life is
......
Black onyx night, of the pearlescent moon,
diamond dew kissed, musk rose red.
Deep purple and white passion!
Phantoms dance in lilac dreams;
around the corner of blooms,
with memories of sunshine.
Comparing lovely costumes,
in fields, beds and flowerpots,
just steps away from moonlight.
A polka dot rainbow flared.
......