I remember the hidden chapel bells in her voice,
The little cloister of her abbey looks that opened
To a lovelorn courtyard of cisterns and well works,
The sounding pulleys and ropes from the springs,
I will miss her nothing said to my infinite misgivings.

For All That I Remembered
by Michael R. Burch

For all that I remembered, I forgot
her name, her face, the reason that we loved ...
and yet I hold her close within my thought:
I feel the burnished weight of auburn hair
that fell across her face, the apricot
clean scent of her shampoo, the way she glowed
so palely in the moonlight, angel-wan.

The memory of her gathers like a flood
and bears me to that night, that only night,
when she and I were one, and if I could ...
I’d reach to her this time and, smiling, brush
the hair out of her eyes, and hold intact
each feature, each impression. Love is such
a threadbare sort of magic, it is gone
before we recognize it. I would crush

my lips to hers to hold their memory,
if not more tightly, less elusively.

Published by The Raintown Review, The Eclectic Muse, Kritya, Gostinaya (in a Russian translation by Yelena Dubrovin), Boston Poetry Magazine, Freshet, Jewish Letter (Russia), Poetry Life & Times, Sonnetto Poesia, Trinacria, The New Formalist, Pennsylvania Review. Keywords/Tags: Memory, remembrance, love, name, features, face, hair, eyes, lips, mrbmem, crush, impression, recognize, recognition, remember, remembered, forgot, forgotten, angel, wan, night, flood

I am a nomad inside my own mind
I dwell in my thoughts for a short time
And then I’m off running
Through scapes of sandy dunes
Made up of sand crystals
That come from different dreams
Versions of a story waiting to be freed
And I run towards the water
Where happiness resides
Wandering over hills
Watching the sun set and rise
Looking at the stars
Searching for the times
When memories were moments
And my dreams were still mine

my first time picking up the handle
brandishing a weapon I feel like long forgotten
the lost mantle of a practioneer
a master if you will
so strange yet so fumilar
muscle memory a disaster
lashings of love slashes of hate
wounds so deep you can't erase the mistake
now my stance is off
each movement feels wrong
something inside still urges me forward
begs me to continue
now all is forgotten and only the feeling remains
my love for this violence welcomes me again
can you read this massacre
let me help you by turning the page
poetry my art form
the pen
my weapons name

Remembrance
by Michael R. Burch

Remembrance like a river rises;
the rain of recollection falls;
vague memories, like vines, entangled,
cling to Time's collapsing walls.

The past is like a distant mist,
the future like a far-off haze,
the present half-distinct an hour
before it blurs with unseen days.

Published by Romantics Quarterly. Keywords/Tags: remembrance, memory, memories, recollection, time, rain, river, mist, haze, blurs, past, present, future

dates changed,
months rotated,
and the years showed their back upon us.

it's been three years now,
since we met.

and yet again i find you there in
the same old hidden parking slot.
where the darkness ruled and light submerged.

On this bitter morn’
At the passing of the night
Inclined I am by the crack of dawn
On white paper rhymes to write.
These days spent in solemn peace
Had emptied my mind of thought
I could not see just how it is
‘Till this poem to me was brought
Once again rustled was my soul
Stood still did my heart
Blood in my veins icy cold
In this peculiar month of March
What hath been forsaken
Presumably by my mind
From ignorance was awoken
To haunt these very lines
To haunt or to bless
Whichever it may be
I call upon forgetfulness
For only she can save me
I never should have met you
Not here, not now
Yet the Lord had a different view
High above this petty ground
Though to Him, I pray
Every night, and every day
Keep her eyes bright
And send me on my way
Allow me to forsake
These memories of her
Allow for her just the same
May our souls no longer hurt
Call upon the weavers of fate
So our destinies may realign
And each other we could find
In a better place
At a different time.