Long Ale Poems

Story has it you used your power to run amuck
Putting fear into the people, and brides in Uruk

So the people of Unuk pray to the sky God Anu
To sort out Gilgamesh, without any further ado...

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Now Regan and Megan were down on their luck
    and faced with little or no choice.
So with a quiet trepidation... a deal was struck
    and from now all would...

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The Pictish Faeries
by Michael R. Burch

Smaller and darker
than their closest kin,
the faeries learned only too well
never to dwell
close to the villages of larger men. 

Only to dance in the starlight
when the moon was full
and men...

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Once upon a time, or a few times per day, we ponder just how many ways in which we must die. There are forewarnings. Let's consider the simple fairy tale - did anyone do a...

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The Tale of the Bumpalump

After the Knight had unraveled...Flagan decided to travel
    and get away on a long holiday.
He thought it quite grand to visit a new land
    and...

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Every January first of the new year...

finds me (a doggone muttering Homo sapien)
to give pause for reminiscences
and to take stock (sh lock and barrel)
about mein kampf in general
and previous three hundred
and sixty five days in...

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The Letter         

A young man strolled along the waterfront,
His mind and heart at ease.
Said an old man, sitting on an upturned punt,
Gazing out towards the sea. 

“Come...

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An early wintry storm hit late last night on this date, September 11th, 2035. There was strangeness in the air like a stale aftermath of partying.  Frigid. Strange that people still celebrate Freedom Day...

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                           I
On the hill betwixt Carlisle and Deep Creek
...

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The figurative nail hit on the hirsute covered head!

Eventually vices will witness me crow king
cough'n affliction caw hearse courtesy 
smok'n since me yay high,
hence appellation (mountain) wheezer 
natural set of adult teeth (rotten to the...

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I had an old auntie called Mable
Who could drink men under the table
She’d tell folks of her gout
Sup up six pints of stout  -
then stagger to the loo when able!

11~23~16

WRITTEN BY JAN ALLISON


My paternal...

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The following fictitious scenario I evoke

Analogous to fire breathing 
puffed up imaginary dragon
(in a land called Honah Lee)
ye might rightly think
what the deuce
haunting spectre ace of spades 
goodfella aiming to be a poet all about,
meaning...

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Well, it all started when
Jim Beam bet Jack Daniels
that Captain Morgan
couldn't go out
and get himself
some Wild Turkey.
Old Fashioned, like Old Granddad,
Captain Morgan like some of you,
really enjoys his Southern Comfort.
But mostly in the form of...

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1. Write a poem
2. Call up an old friend
3. Read a book
4. Make sandwiches to save for later
5. Call your mom
6. Go for a walk
7. Go for a jog
8. Draw fantastical creatures
9. Eat healthy snacks
10....

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OCTOBER TALE
Go south and follow the sun’s traverse
As it heads t’ward Capricorn
When days and nights are in equipoise
And slight chills happily born

Go beyond the wide stream where Siegfried roved
Past the dark forest’s sylvan span
You then...

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Bartender Oh Bartender
(a stout rendition of O Captain! My Captain!
Perfect rhythmic rhyme with tonic 
when the doth ale).

Mine eyes espy the glory per the ending 
of another work day beckon Baileys Irish Creme
with Absolut certainty...

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       CLOSING TIME AT THE PUB


The joy, the camaraderie, the smoke.
The great ale, my great friends in Chicago.
Old Town, North Avenue, twas Chicago,1967.
O' Rourke's Pub, where else?
Smoky, filled with...

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'Twas the night before the New Year. Gawd! All the beer had gone dry
Not a house or a tavern could renew our supply.
Was I too drunk to recall if what followed was fact?
While we drunks...

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His mind has all the meaning of a madman that is screaming
Tortured and tormented, a life lived to be lamented
Drained and defeated, his family finally retreated 
Leaving him believing that he was beyond redeeming 
The...

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London

The tour of London begins
 In the streets of my mind,
  Through past and present
   Intrinsically entwined,
    Through people and places
     It's heart we will...

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The Trapper


Through the deepest snow, I somehow carry myself forward.
In a biting cold wind that blows me back.
No other sound to be heard.
I have to find an animal to put in my knapsack.


With boots of...

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Farewell Advent!
by James Ryman
translation by Michael R. Burch

Farewell, Advent; Christmas has come;
Farewell from us, both all and some.

With patience thou hast us fed
Yet made us go hungry to bed;
For lack of meat, we were nigh...

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II.
When this affair had gone on for six months,
Reth realized it was just a matter of time
before Saleesa’s taut belly would swell,
revealing their love to suspicious eyes.

So he took a week-long liberty and
rode on out...

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Because of you, I'm in a Seattle kind of mood
When I look out my window 

And see the rain drops gently falling all around
And I feel that special Seattle kind of chill

In my bones 
I...

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From every birth to every death
Underneath the sky
Every day in moments of music and tears
Every week month and year
Opaque and clear
The constant continuum
Containing millions of shades
From blades of love-grass
To mass of pain and scum
In between
The...

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