teen

These are my early poems, which I began writing around age eleven to thirteen, although I didn't make a conscious decision to become a poet until around age fourteen. 

Shadows
by Michael R. Burch

Alone again as evening falls,
I join gaunt shadows and we crawl
up and down my room's dark walls.

Up and down and up and down,
against starlight—strange, mirthless clowns—
we merge, emerge, submerge . . . then drown.

God, I am thankful for Jesus Christ,
and I am now reborn by his light!
But I didn’t know my spirit laid perishing in the night.

I am thankful you provide me with physical food,
but I didn’t know my spirit starved for spiritual food.

I am thankful for eyes which see your glorious creations,
but I didn’t know my soul was attacked by unseen situations.

I am thankful you gave me a brain to think,
but I didn’t know my soul was ill with ignorance.