Best Whan Poems

Instruction
by Michael R. Burch

Toss this poem aside
to the filigreed and the wild tide
of sunset.

Strike my name,
and still it is all the same.
The onset

of night is in the despairing skies;
each hut shuts its bright bewildered eyes.
The wind sighs

and my heart sighs with her:
my only companion, O...

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You're sorry that you're late?
I have been waiting all day,
And now that you've finally shown up
That's all you have to say?

Whenever you wanna hangout with friends
I understand, really I do,
But you always expect me to drop everything
So I can make time for you

Everytime you "forget"...

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Oasis
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for Beth
 
I want tears to form again
in the shriveled glands of these eyes
dried all these long years
by too much heated knowing.
 
I want tears to course down
these parched cheeks, 
to star these cracked lips
like an improbable dew
in the heart...

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The Writers Tail liaT sretirW ehT
by Charles Robert Hice on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 12:22pm ·
The Writers Tail
the poor writer can not post a poem anywhere to be recognized himself as a poet unless he writes a longish Devels tail complete with hooks and...

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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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I do not walk for it's something I choose,
There is no transportation, only dead mans' shoes;
This empty highway is the path I tread,
So cold and remote, all colour bled
Before the white sun with no shadow cast,
Beneath the full moon whan day has passed.

I will not...

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Look at what you've done to me...
You've gone and shattered my pride...
And what's worst of all...
Is it that you've broken my heart...
Once I saw your back turned to me
And the image of you fading before my eyes
That's when I decided to
Seal away everything that I...

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here we are,
we just met,
and yet,
i can't seem to get you off my mind.
i know that it's wrong,
i know it's not right,
but that doesn't seem to matter.
when i first saw you,
i admit,
that it was your looks,
that had my heart beating fast.
the longer that you were...

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For the benefit of any non-Middle-English
speakers, a literal, word-for-word translation
has been provided beneath each line of
the original:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote!
  When we've already had enough! of April showers

Whan priketh hem Governeur in oure corages
  Our prick of a governor locks...

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