Long Ballade Poems

Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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Oft in My Thought
by Charles D'Orleans
translation by Michael R. Burch

So often in my busy mind I sought,
Around the advent of the fledgling year,
For something pretty that I really ought
To give my lady dear;
But that sweet...

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Dog Daze
by Michael R. Burch

Sweet Oz is a soulful snuggler;
he really is one of the best.
Sometimes in bed
he snuggles my head,
though he mostly just plops on my chest.

I think Oz was made to love
from the...

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Film Noir

By the lamppost at night
with the pale moon shining bright
but obscured by the fog
I saw her in the harbor
standing where my boat lay moored
but she knew that
her azure eyes beckoned me to come
smoke from...

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The reading of Villon poems at West Berlin’s Free University, Winter Semester 1957-58
                      ...

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MURI A KAPAGODAS

l
Magodas ako Gadong,
a igagador ko Alam,
na Sagayanan onSnang,
ko Gapa a Simalawn,
a Dayamonthaya ragat,
ko alabat sa Slangan,
a inikarantangadat,
na Piyaladkho Marinaw,
so inambar o Pakato,
sa bapya pha-paroman,
ka oba mBolanaw Mobar,
na Kabayomboran Maog ,
So Lombay a Mitatandp…
ll
Sarmpangn...

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HIROSHIMA
I remember it well, that first day in Hell
             So long ago, I know

As the sirens sounded our Yankee foe
Decided that now his...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife

I mull mortality 
thru lens crafted occipital orbs
regarding a better future
experience sing a space oddity – 
whar incessant yaks
exuding a big hurt
emanate as cosmic atomic 
bipedal hominids replete roof lee wax
during a...

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On the spur of the moment forecast by eternal script in the stars

The Bard strummed his guitar and sung a ballade from heart’s lute 

Wild horses would not keep him away from her as he...

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Pyramus was the handsome young man
Thisbe the fair maiden of Babylon.
The houses of their parents did adjoin 
Neighborhood brought the two in relation.
And the acquaintance ripened into love
And the fire within them burnt with bright...

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Canvas is heavy, full of lovely thought
to place a young maiden beneath a willow tree
maybe beside a quaint pool where seasons wrought.
The youthful maiden known to others as Marie,
trapped hearts of many callow gents' curiosity
sending...

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Could this be, that this is of no common concern to our Creator, as to just what we all use that moves us? 

Just as long as we ask this "Power" to help us never...

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this is more than a feeling;
Life's struggle like a fishing line;
I am a fish reality got me hook, line and sinker;
Reeling I struggle to hold on like a mountain climber;
These rocks got me, tripping me...

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Marriage has lost its security and the vow, its invincibility
especially in a generation so saga and scandal loving
and a society rarely frowning its face to traditional unfaithfulness.
Setting up the stage for lots of pests 
to...

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Wave a sea softened
                  and a pain and a tenderness
        ...

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born two days 
after ole Punxsutawney i.e. the Doctor Phil - 
of woodchucks Latin Name = Marmota Monax 
nest resembled Rastafarian hair weave, 
which creature rattled with ire and peeveishness, 

when rudely roused from his...

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Animal Poems II

These are poems about animals, limericks and other forms of doggerel.



Ballade of the Bicameral Camel
by Michael R. Burch

There once was a camel who loved to hump.
Please get your lewd minds out of their...

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Oh 
                                 ...

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People of Good – strengthen your ties!
      Glory to the heroes-defenders 
of the Donbas 
//////////////////////////////
Message to the Ukra-President

?? who sows the wind, reaps whirlwind

How can you live, oh, “Independent” leader,
A...

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Dog Daze II: Poems about Dogs

Epitaph for a Lambkin
by Michael R. Burch

for Melody, the prettiest, sweetest and fluffiest dog ever

Now that Melody has been laid to rest
Angels will know what it means to be blessed.

Amen

###

The...

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Guyana

Georgetown Guyana, Sunday morning
the market is bustling with people voices
buying vegetables and other food items
a variety of different brands and choices

as the sun shines in the sky
behind the white clouds, it glows
and across the land...

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 The "BABY" that still really exist in you and me "Inside" will "Cry"!!! The "Baby inside of me woke up and cried when my mother passed away: She did not die! I realized that...

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Can this ever stop
The world is blacked by the lunar love of my heart
By the vapor of my mind 
All the tides have gone undone
The mist covers my sight
The beast comes out tonight
-- The Storm Comes...

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Fifteen years of togetherness seemed so short after her loss,
He spent all night twisting and turning,the poor man didn't get any sleep,
While he touched the empty side of their bed,memories with her would cross,
His confused...

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White dove over troubled waters, she flew into the morn
As sun surfaced over sails lit the wreckage of midnights storm.
A tiny dot upon the waves, shackled to a beam.
The condemned man has survived against all...

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