Best Compassed Poems

                             I dreamed I went to heaven,

          ...

Continue reading...

This is to me,
This is for me,
For me and I only,
Many turbulence days I have seen,
Many meandering roads I have walked, 
I have been in the tempest of life,
Life's billows have compassed me, 
I have walked on roads
 fraught with thorns and thistles, 
I write...

Continue reading...

5.

                                            ...

Continue reading...

Far beyond the horizon we gazed at sunlit skies 
glowing from gigantic mountains, thick blue clouds
hang peacefully over our heads, painting hopes and 
aspirations as we journey relentlessly to recapture
our dreams.

We have been climbing this mountain for years,
clinging desperately to our dreams, with nothing 
in...

Continue reading...

Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has been passed.
I tell you truly, needless now to feign:
Your beauty...

Continue reading...

Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern wind's blast—
its severe weather strong. 
Alas! Alas! This night seems...

Continue reading...

(A Presentiment: two lost Wint souls alone converse,
so mind the grown gap——Longshoreman’s Fall hearse.)

"The last boat draws near, allow us depart."
All aboard, all aboard—!
"So Time has pierced now, as a bull's-eye dart."
All aboard, all aboard—!

I. On Nocturnal Sea

Ye are the salt of the earth: but...

Continue reading...

**Deuteronomy 32:4 - He (God) us the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He."

Also Psalms 10:14-18


You promised me endless love
Everlasting life after
Infinite promise from ‘bove
Guaranteed a new chapter

You welcomed...

Continue reading...

Having commenced in God's salvation grace
I continue* in His sanctification grace
...calling unto Him through His supplication grace
...cleaving to His satisfaction grace
...clinging along His sufficing grace
...communing with Him by His strengthening grace
...choosing to stay inside His settling grace...

Being crucified to Him with His sealing grace
I'm clothed...

Continue reading...

Like a blanket God so covers me 
In my head my ears bleed 
And yet I can see my weaknesses revealed 
Some evil ones try to constrict me 
Fowl evil spirits try to convict me 
Yet still the still small voice that I hear 
In...

Continue reading...

am black, am black
i will say it loud
for that am proud
it has compassed me all around


am black, am black
from my head to toe
no matter where i go
wither high or low


am black, am black
black is beauty
this is my identity
for i can only be me


am black, am...

Continue reading...

Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



Rondel: Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words...

Continue reading...

me  known  kinds  
the  sorrows  of  how ,
and the  me  grown ,
finds 
the  arrows  of  die .
me  gotten  and  may a bee  for  
gotten ,
the glotten and the ...

Continue reading...

The Christian life is not always all easy
for the Lord's way has many a bumpy road
those that deny this are biblically in error
scriptures clear, His seed will be sowed

The believer believes in their saviour
but also is called to suffer for His sake
to walk His road...

Continue reading...

,,, ---…C l o u d s…--- ,,,

Wondrously enchanting
clouds have pulled my sight above…

Greeting me with “Behold our beauty”
clouds constantly check my appreciation-appraisal
engaging me to thank the Supreme Being beyond the sky…

Captivating me since childhood days
clouds present images worth pondering 
kindling my desire to know...

Continue reading...