Long Anglo Poems

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...

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Medieval Poems IV



IN LIBRARIOS
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.



Brut (circa 1100 AD, written by Layamon, an excerpt)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R....

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Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has...

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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...

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I have had a highly redundant,
one might even choose polypathic,
graduate studies experience
spanning my adult life to date.

This began with a semester of Philosophy.
Just enough to learn I wanted something more experiential,
a more communitarian environment of...

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Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
And sadly...i start to drive.
Through the unremarkable village with its tall 
Georgian Bay window panes, lightless,
devoid of visages; outwardly staring back at my 
Abject countenance with detached contempt and...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

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The First Thanksgiving (Sept. 3, 1578)

The shortest distance to Cathay 1
(Land of riches: silks, teas and spices)
Lay to the north to the South Sea. 2
Didn’t Barlow tell the King, 3
Was reserved for England.

The routes ‘round...

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Deor's Lament

(Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem circa the 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland endured the agony of exile:
an indomitable smith wracked by grief.
He suffered countless sorrows;
indeed, such sorrows were his bosom companions
in that frozen...

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"Worship in spirit and truth"

With Easter approaching, many people Christian and non-Christian are exposed to this celebration and may have questions concerning the various teachings, rites, rituals and traditions that are promulgated by public worship...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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Gott, oh mächtig, Trump iz on the warpath again!

Glad for birth write to express views
aware cunning linguists 
will apply figurative screws  
in an effort at blatant mud slinging ruse
exercised courtesy mail in ballots, 
or...

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"Exegesis"



At 7 he was 
thrown to the wolves

Bede marked his territory
hidden secrets 
kept in the abbey

he escaped
went to war
where the unwanted trod

First regiment,
Vietnam
he took with him
like a comfort blanket
his Nicene creed and God

and on returning...

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Ech day me cometh tydinges thre
"Each Day Three Tidings Come to Me"
(anonymous Middle English poem, circa the 13th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Each day I’m plagued by three doles,
These gargantuan weights on my...

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ENCHANT ME!
(A Contemporary Animist’s Prayer) 

To the shared breath of life:

Enchant me!
Whisper to me in the cadence and rhymes, 
the deeper susurrations of this tellurian realm
with its numinous places that already call out
my name!
Talk to...

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HealthCare giving
in a cognitive disability space
includes cultural LeftHemisphere trauma,
perhaps chronic autistic distress,
disrupted thrival flow
of wellness serotonin
and safe happiness dopamine
internally felt
sensory

Elder RightHemisphere spiritual
nondualistic
eco/theo-logical
outside/inside
warm womb-felt therapeutic
win/win
EgoChoices/EcoVoices
of health and safety resilience.

When we combine
what we know
about bicameral 
bilaterally contextual...

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Sham(e) full travesty regarding fourth of July celebration

American independence day
linkedin severance from English crown
Continental Congress representatives
parlayed courtesy thirteen original colonies
yielding Declaration of Independence
immediately rendered null and void
established vassalage courtesy British rule.

Fast forward two hundred and...

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the wealth of norman England is poised to grow
  towns enlarge, markets exchange, a fresh fertilising sprinkled culture
  kingdoms extend with numbers reducing
  old and new empires jostle, reshaping across continents and...

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As a historian I was focused, on the long record of writing,
Considered an expert in the field, I found it most exciting.

For countless delights have arisen, out of the written word;
And we only knew crude...

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When you are in the mood just do what you have to do and don’t get confused; when you are in the mood take a voyage to the moon and plant some poles in the...

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across the Doggerland dogged people trudge
  Neanderthals, Heidelbergers...Sapiens, the last ones standing
  hairy mammoths, heavy life bearing down
  the mighty maw of an ice wall crunches, enforcing southward retreat
  remoulding the...

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Ill suited for madcap twenty first century world

One garden variety generic male - the
very writer of these words feels akin
to an anachronism, whereby his being
alive at this juncture within the space/
time continuum (July 29th, 2022...

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