Juvenilia Poems
Early Poems III
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA III by Michael R. Burch
Canticle: an Aubade
by Michael R. Burch, age 16
Misty morning sunlight hails the dawning of new day;
dreams drift into drowsiness before they fade away.
Dew drops on the green grass echo splendors of the sun;
......
Early Poems: Juvenilia II
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA II by Michael R. Burch
Premonition
by Michael R. Burch, age 19
Now the evening has come to a close and the party is over ...
we stand in the doorway and watch as they go—
each stranger, each acquaintance, each casual lover.
......
Early Poems: Juvenalia
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA by Michael R. Burch
Styx
by Michael R. Burch, age 16
Black waters,
deep and dark and still...
all men have passed this way,
......
Smoke
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about young love, written through the eyes of youth, The first poem, "Smoke" was written in my early teens, around age 13 or 14.
Smoke
by Michael R. Burch
The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in) my mind, and I can't say
if what we had was good or bad, or where it is today ...
The endless days of summer's haze I still recall today;
......
The Making of a Poet by Michael R. Burch
by Michael R. Burch
The Making of a Poet
by Michael R. Burch
While I don’t consider “Poetry” to be my best poem—I wrote the first version in my teens—it’s a poem that holds special meaning for me. I call it my ars poetica. Here’s how it came about ...
When I was eleven years old, my father, a staff sergeant in the US Air Force, was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. We were forced to live off-base for two years, in a tiny German village where there were no other American children to play with, and no English radio or TV stations. To avoid complete boredom, I began going to the base library, checking out eight books at a time (the limit), reading them in a few days, then continually repeating the process. I quickly exhausted the library’s children’s fare and began devouring its adult novels along with a plethora of books about history, science and nature.
In the fifth grade, I tested at the reading level of a college sophomore and was put in a reading group of one. I was an incredibly fast reader: I flew through books like crazy. I was reading Austen, Dickens, Hardy, et al, while my classmates were reading … whatever one normally reads in grade school. My grades shot through the roof and from that day forward I was always the top scholar in my age group, wherever I went.
But being bright and well-read does not invariably lead to happiness. I was tall, scrawny, introverted and socially awkward. I had trouble making friends. I began to dabble in poetry around age thirteen, but then we were finally granted base housing and for two years I was able to focus on things like marbles, quarters, comic books, baseball, basketball and football. And, from an incomprehensible distance, girls.
......
Smoke
by Michael R. Burch
These are poems about young love, written through the eyes of youth, The first poem, "Smoke" was written in my early teens, around age 13 or 14.
Smoke
by Michael R. Burch
The hazy, smoke-filled skies of summer I remember well;
farewell was on my mind, and the thoughts that I can't tell
rang bells within (the din was in) my mind, and I can't say
if what we had was good or bad, or where it is today ...
The endless days of summer's haze I still recall today;
......
The Making of a Poet by Michael R. Burch
by Michael R. Burch
The Making of a Poet
by Michael R. Burch
While I don’t consider “Poetry” to be my best poem—I wrote the first version in my teens—it’s a poem that holds special meaning for me. I call it my ars poetica. Here’s how it came about ...
When I was eleven years old, my father, a staff sergeant in the US Air Force, was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany. We were forced to live off-base for two years, in a tiny German village where there were no other American children to play with, and no English radio or TV stations. To avoid complete boredom, I began going to the base library, checking out eight books at a time (the limit), reading them in a few days, then continually repeating the process. I quickly exhausted the library’s children’s fare and began devouring its adult novels along with a plethora of books about history, science and nature.
In the fifth grade, I tested at the reading level of a college sophomore and was put in a reading group of one. I was an incredibly fast reader: I flew through books like crazy. I was reading Austen, Dickens, Hardy, et al, while my classmates were reading … whatever one normally reads in grade school. My grades shot through the roof and from that day forward I was always the top scholar in my age group, wherever I went.
But being bright and well-read does not invariably lead to happiness. I was tall, scrawny, introverted and socially awkward. I had trouble making friends. I began to dabble in poetry around age thirteen, but then we were finally granted base housing and for two years I was able to focus on things like marbles, quarters, comic books, baseball, basketball and football. And, from an incomprehensible distance, girls.
......
Early Poems III
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA III by Michael R. Burch
Canticle: an Aubade
by Michael R. Burch, age 16
Misty morning sunlight hails the dawning of new day;
dreams drift into drowsiness before they fade away.
Dew drops on the green grass echo splendors of the sun;
......
Early Poems: Juvenilia II
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA II by Michael R. Burch
Premonition
by Michael R. Burch, age 19
Now the evening has come to a close and the party is over ...
we stand in the doorway and watch as they go—
each stranger, each acquaintance, each casual lover.
......
Early Poems: Juvenalia
by Michael R. Burch
EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA by Michael R. Burch
Styx
by Michael R. Burch, age 16
Black waters,
deep and dark and still...
all men have passed this way,
......
