Best On The Bubble Poems

Villanelles

The villanelle is a poetic form based on repetition, with a double refrain. 



Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day, 
with the moon, a pale beacon across the Divide, 
the brighter for...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . . .

and show me
once again?
how rare.

Published by The HyperTexts and The...

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Ordinary Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Indescribable—our love—and still we say
with eyes averted, turning out the light,
"I love you," in the ordinary way
 
and tug the coverlet where once we lay,
all suntanned limbs entangled, shivering, white ...
indescribably in love. Or so we say.
 
Your hair's...

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The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide ...
was man born to sorrow that first day
with the moon—a pale beacon across the Divide,
the brighter for longing, an object denied—
the tug at his heart's pink, bourgeoning clay?

The sea was not salt the...

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Because Her Heart Is Tender, for Beth
by Michael R. Burch
 
She scrawled soft words in soap: “Never Forget”
dove-white on her car’s window (though the wren,
because its heart is tender, might regret
it called the sun to wake her). As I slept,
she heard lost names recounted, one...

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An old wizen monk 
Lived high in the mountains
Miles from the nearest settlement
He spent his days 
Deep in mediation 
On the bubble of illusion
One day drinking tea 
He reached nirvana,...

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