By Michael R Burch
Observance Here the hills are old, and rolling casually in their old age; on the horizon youthful mountains bathe themselves in windblown fountains . . . By dying leaves and falling raindrops, I have traced time's starts and stops, and I have known the years to pass almost unnoticed, whispering through treetops . . . For here the valleys fill with sunlight to the brim, then empty again, and it seems that only I notice how the years flood out, and in . . . ("Observance" has been published by Nebo, Piedmont Literary Review, Romantics Quarterly, Poetry Life & Times, Verses, Setu, Better Than Starbucks, The Chained Muse and in the anthology There is Something in the Autumn.) At Once for Beth Though she was fair, though she sent me the epistle of her love at once and inscribed therein love’s antique prayer, I did not love her at once. Though she would dare pain’s pale, clinging shadows, to approach me at once, the dark, haggard keeper of the lair, I did not love her at once. Though she would share the all of her being, to heal me at once, yet more than her touch I was unable bear. I did not love her at once. And yet she would care, and pour out her essence ... and yet—there was more! I awoke from long darkness, and yet—she was there. I loved her the longer; I loved her the more because I did not love her at once. ("At Once" has been published by The Lyric, Romantics Quarterly, The Chained Muse and Grassroots Poetry)
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Michael R. Burch has over 6,000 publications, including poems that have gone viral. His poems have been translated into fourteen languages and set to music by eleven composers. He also edits The HyperTexts (online at www.thehypertexts.com).
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