Best Piers Poems

Used to live in
Strasbourg:
9, Quai de Paris.
The piers in that
city
Were on canals.

Window flower boxes
On Alsatian cafes,
Choucroute garnie
entres
With onion tartes.

Venders sell hot
chestnuts
In Orangerie park.
I'd sight-see after
dark
La Petite France.

Notes: Choucroute
garnie is sauerkraut
slow cooked with
Riesling white wine,
potatoes, ham,
sausages, and
cloves.  Tarte a
l’oignon is also an
Alsatian specialty.
 La Petite...

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May sunshine and scattered showers
Countdown days and sleepless hours
Village maidens creep from their bowers
Meet amongst the meadow flowers

In a circle they skip and dance

Whilst chanting their love one's name
Enticing as moths to a flame
Each to another and all the same

Jethro, Saul, Piers and Lance.

As storm...

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This time of trouble so torn by terror,
time of deep darkness and all-devouring death,
this time of woe, high wages and much wenching
is no time for pleasant pastorals and praises.
I wander weary this winding way and wonder
what future ills befall our faltering folk.
Lady Favour fools high...

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Heaven send your showmanship,
Brave steps creaking along this pier,
Rotting and unwieldly,
Get to the edge with the sun above your dreams
And throw your sword into the sea.
Inhale with angel steadiness the peace of loss.

Retreat or sit-down.
Crash through the fishy wood,
Or find the widest intersection.
Allow your pain...

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seagulls looked for garbled shreds,
scouring up after stray throngs
signs creak to swing of ocean
conducting to the depressed pranksters.

Written: March 6, 2022

Lind30nr Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Chantelle Anne Cooke

Lind30 form: 7-7-7-9
HMC.COM...

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These are English translations/modernizations of Medieval poems written in Old English and/or Middle English.


The Maiden’s Song aka The Bridal Morn
anonymous Medieval lyric
translation by Michael R. Burch

The maidens came to my mother’s bower.
I had all I would, that hour.

  The bailey beareth the bell away;
...

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