Best Riche Poems

The tulips in the vase, 
   a clan of lassies fair.
      Their buds they hold the gold, 
   the pollen of their youth 
and promise sunrise told,

      the tulips in the...

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

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

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain green;
for your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain.

By...

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This town, this Silk Road had no toll to pay
  yet from the east caravans again fill its
pharaonic marble and glass temples. Monolith

malls rise its clefts, eco-wilderness morph
  into multiplex cinemas; mini golf 
and carparks - the 20th century gold fields.

A new rush...

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She wore a tiffany hat with a bow and six big plumes of red and white,  
it had an ultra wide asymmetrical brim that rolled up to one side.  
When it came to dames like this I believe God ran out of humble...

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Asian Epicurean Quest

At the heart of China Town, Kuala Lumpur (capital of Malaysia) is Petaling Street.
  
Domain of hustlers, hucksters, cheap-jacks and diblers; purveyors of street food, rude t-shirts, and rubber sandles to put your feet on;
 - genuine imitation Rolex watches and handbags...

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Poet, Rich of my quiet cherry trees,
Of my peaceful lilacs like pink stones,
Rich in my willows in ardent prayer, prose,
I can finally think of your tranquil eyes.


Poète, Riche de mes cerisiers tranquilles,
De mes lilas paisibles comme des pierres roses,
Riche de mes saules en ardente prière,...

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It is like a drunk
or addict reaching that 'so called' stopping off point. That point
where one can't imagine life with or without the fix. Writing is like that.
Obsessive, progressive, addictive. A fix. Scribes need it to 'feed the rat.'

Recently I have felt
overwhelmed reading all of...

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Medieval Poem V

A Proverb from Winfred's Time
anonymous Old English poem, circa 757-786
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
The procrastinator puts off purpose,
never initiates anything marvelous,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

2.
The late-deed-doer delays glory-striving,
never indulges daring dreams,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

3.
Often the deed-dodger avoids ventures,
never succeeds, and dies...

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Permacultural Designers
are taught to multiply the number
and networking depth
of relationships
between species
and organisms
and systems
and cooperative economic networks,
rather than the simpler adding functions
of traditional agriculture;
Where,
if you plant eight crops,
you get eight maybe interdependent functional relationships,
and maybe not so much,
especially as we learn to add the evolutionary trajectory
for...

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To head rhymes or alliterate,
to find a word for its mate,
perhaps a rhyme to please the eye,
peut'etre French,I'll give a try;
Then vary it with a rime riche
and harmonize to find a niche;
One of the identical  kind ?
internal ryhme is on my mind,
slang or,royal for...

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the Manitou heathen have sunken two of your majesty's king Rupert's ships                       a fierce battle with in minutes after a warning of shots...

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Decades ago, we met one afternoon
the talk was of change that was coming soon.
Betty Jean's dad gave his insightful view
that the elite life may not continue -
in his gracious estate on Cheswold Lane
across from the Cricket Club's courts of fame.
Peering out of his big picture...

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On my street there are many MacMansions
Full of stuff but not many grandsons
No pets with dirty feet
Just black balance sheets
And morality they have abandoned.

These nouveau riche Ole moneyed Scrooges 
Have dinner talk of subterfuges
The poor they abhor
Not a tear on that score
No mangers please, they’ll...

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I wouldn't call Bill Plotkin's WildMind
unmitigated Wild RightBrained,
nor would I call his WinWin therapeutic thinking
with PositivEnergy feelings
entirely LeftBrain domesticated, diminished

Commodified, capitalized,
colonized and conquered,
deduced and reduced
down to a slow-grown dark pearl
of Negative YinEnergy
seduced by Yang Supremacy
yet still resiliently whispering

Sweet-felt nothings
to speak of dipolar Wild Risks
are also...

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Albeit cold shower with sudden zoo
ming onset of
brisk fallen temperatures
may not be amenable to you
dear reader, but after Matthew
sets to washing
creating substantial lather,

visited with healthy slew
of frothed shampooed hair do
(cuz - jest like
Spongebobsquarepants,
I like abundant suds),
which initial shock
     of cold water...

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