Best Forgoes Poems

My top ten will always be my fingers and toes.
One more makes eleven if you’re counting my hose.
Oops, was that a Freudian typo, I meant my nose.
Without my top ten, couldn’t walk or flick off, if I chose,
let alone spray water on my favorite red...

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O - Olive that was her first name
O - Oli, eloi, bloss her other names
O - Overall, any of these is acceptable
O - Only she prefers most her one name

L - Life come upon her by 13th of August
L - Living with her grandparents first
L...

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Fair was she, whose nature’s proudest beauty 
Of irises brown, and hair darkest hue 
Winter soon wilt, reckless what bare eyes see
Dare look at her, with love slowly brewed 
A need be called forgoes a need too dwells
My voice, my visions and my leisure fold
Below...

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A happy little girl. Bright colors and sunshine. She grows older and enters middle 
school. She is teased constantly. Not the right hair. Not the right clothes. It hurts, 
oh God it hurts. She forgoes colors. Black and gray are good enough. She gets older...

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Fiery hate-fueled war
Fierce, continued conflict
Frightful heart-breaking blight
Ferocious, savage sight
Forgoes chances to mend
Forsakes pleas, “This much end!”
Flouts God’s command to LOVE*




*Mark 12:31 (King James Version): “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”...

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We claim to love
but foolish pride swallows apologies
wrecks reconciliation and forgoes forgiveness
rendering sweetness bitter
it is an emotional hoarder
an insatiable sin
incessantly collecting resentment
commoditizing the priceless
bankrupting unity and burning optimism to ashes
it is an assassin’s bullet shattering the windows to the soul
it is a death kiss
pernicious and...

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The long and short of it is . . . forever

                                  ...

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My gaze is lost in brushed delight
Of prism ray that sails afar
Across a mountain peak divide
All hushed, against one shooting star,
With tints of orange and mild- reds.

Each creature halts in voiceless awe
While I, another soul enthralled
By wonder owned by godly hands,
As dappled sceneries unfold
Like celestial...

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Medieval Poems



Wulf and Eadwacer
(Old English circa 990 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

My people pursue him like crippled prey.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different!

Wulf's on one island; I'm on another.
His island's a fortress, fastened by fens.
Here, bloodthirsty curs roam...

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The Wild Horse

He who seeks only control
becomes drunk
on the clouded waters,
drawn from the wells of will.
And his heart,
remains the size of a thimble.
He is the flamboyant fool in the velvet coat,
whose starched collar
chaffes the wrinkles at his throat.
He grips an ancient map
charted by ancient men,
plotting...

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My fair raven haired maiden,
Parting from you causes me such longing.
Many are the thoughts with which my mind is laden.
Of us, hand in hand, in our place of belonging.
Of us, eye to eye, our days prolonging.
Our course through life, together we would chart,
And while I'm...

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Fiery, vicious, ire-filled dispute
Ferocious, savage, shocking fight
Flagrant show of hate so acute
Frightful, vitriolic blight

Forgoes any chances to mend
Forsakes God's command: Let hate end.
Fails to deal with furor's root.



June 4, 2018, entered in Joseph May's Pleiades Contest...

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The miser and the model
are a couple, you might say,
yet they don't speak to one another,
she treats him like a brother,
how to add a little romance 
and excitement to their day?

He forgoes his prime obsession
and decides on a surprise
for his delectable companion
with such sadness in...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life created this sun
and graciously provided its radiant engine.
I was gladdened...

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Nascent thought provoking
threads flit to and fro
unseen solitary pinball wizard
cavalierly fiddles indiscriminately
leveraging outcome

silently holistic thought fragments
strewn staccoto scattershot
attenuated blitzkrieg
brain storm saturates,
par for course sandtrap engulfs,

chaos reverberates within
besieged cerebral corridor,
quotidian mental onslaught
spurns refugee exodus,
psychological ploy asper viable coping

function forgoes figurative
foothold toe tully forfeited
tenuous grasp slips forcing...

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