Long Banquet Poems

Left:
Let's start at the beginning
of your ecotherapeutic day.

I'm talking today with Fr. Time,
Earth's only fully self-ordained ecotherapist,
and recently published author of
"Journals of MotherEarth."

We have no corporate sponsorships to report,
although we are for sale
especially if you're...

Read More

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,...

Read More

Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

Read More

Explain your historical evolution radically, inclusively, expansively, good-humoredly; 
not carefully, deductively, reductively, sarcastically.

We once had a school of thought
among up and coming geneticists and historians
that the precursor to the regeneration of a species,
or even an...

Read More

Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

Read More

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A babe born, in darkness braved
Bring love to the world if only for a day
No questions asked, nor answered, nor saved
Let peace abide in every child, we pray
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they stood watching their son, enthralled in...

Read More

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...

Read More

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...

Read More

Last evening I noticed another disconcerting Trump headline.
This felt and smelled more like a deadline
for disintegration
than a lifeline,
a bootstrap, if you will,
toward integrity of health and regenerative safety,
which I thought was front and center
in our...

Read More

Moods oscillate in cadences of peaks and valleys
Music to fractious emotions on greasy dance floors
Mistimed cues of flares smouldering relationships

Angst of redundancy seethes from within as lava
Anger is camouflaged with the cloak of reticence
Ardour suffocated...

Read More

JOE VERSUS THE RACCOON 
By Kate H. Stark


Each night ‘twas the same old proverbial shout. 
“Hey Joe, will you please take the garbage bags out?”

Joe sighed, rolled his eyes as he walked toward the door....

Read More

China Tour Diary Moment #1
--------------------------------

KUNMING THOUGHTS


Sunday morning flight to Kunming city;
East bound to explore vignettes of China;
New vistas to sight, postcard memories;
Feast visual galore on tour agenda.

Yunnan province greets our earthly landing;
Brisk clearance and we...

Read More

Oh, Is This What I Was Waiting For?

When I was just a baby in the womb, my mother rejected me and I believe that the Lord told me many years later that she had wanted...

Read More

For every step I take toward the sun,
the spark that lit the fire inside me dwindles.
History slated on unforgiving stone erodes;
A weakly chiseled dream.
But I will remember it all,
and tongues shall breed these words
and hold...

Read More

Down deep beneath fathoms icy keep, where deadmen’s
Scream in utter silences aquatic hell, amongst the devils
Graveyard of wreckage's carnage, there exists a ghostly harbor
Of phantom ships!
Anchored are the souls of the undead, and vessels craft...

Read More

Pronoia's Paradise of CoEmpathic Trust
is what happens in
and on
and as a holonic soul of 
Earth
when we expect,
anticipate,
the absence of Business As Usual (BAU) 
Win/Lose 0-sum Paranoia.

Paranoia is suffering in fear
and concomitant chronic anger management
and ambivalent...

Read More

with a cat lying on my lap
a sough whispers in the trees 
as a summer day begins fading
the tiger lilies below bend as if trumpeting
a musical for ears yet to come into existence
evaporating the din...

Read More

I was driving home late one cold Winters night
It was minus ten and the moon shone bright
Then in my car headlights a young girl I did see
I swerved hard to avoid her and hit a...

Read More

American Thanksgiving (1621)

Passengers in England boarded the Mayflower
To sail across the Atlantic to the New World,
And escape religious persecution for their faith
In worshiping God, which they believed to be righteous,
With separation of God and King,...

Read More

Here rests the realm of the
thorn-tongued truth ~ 
a mortal mirage of doomed pentacles,
where forks and kettles speak
  the language of witchery,
  the dialects of the diabolical,
listening as feral desires fill
the aquatic hues...

Read More

A goose in a noose got loose today. At last. At times he had watched as bodies of his fellow feathers had been brought out of the shed having walked in just fine. On the...

Read More

Ten Lepers sought the Lord 
carrying their badges with a Plea 
unclean unclean was the cry 
Mercy alone was their Plea
The King of mercy heard their cries 
by his word He healed them all 
One...

Read More

Ten Lepers sought the Lord 
carrying their badges with a Plea 
unclean unclean was the cry 
Mercy alone was their Plea
The King of mercy heard their cries 
by his word He healed them all 
One...

Read More

Chapter 14d (King Ptolemy the second, cont.)

https://www.amazon.com/Odyssey-Africa-adventures-Phil-Salmon/dp/197392479X


“And upon the open ocean
Far from land in roving sail-ships
How to find the congregations 
Of the sharks and rays and tuna

“Where the seabirds thresh the water
Diving after shoals of...

Read More

Moods oscillate in cadences of peaks and valleys
Music to fractious emotions on greasy dance floors
Mistimed cues of flares smouldering relationships

Angst of redundancy seethes from within as lava
Anger is camouflaged with the cloak of reticence
Ardour suffocated...

Read More