Long Bedouin Poems

Poems of Recanted Bachelorhood

bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ALARMING
since my resolve
dissolved!

*

Disconcerted
by Michael R. Burch

Beth, my sweet,
fresh as a daisy,
when I’m with you
my heart beats like crazy
& my future gets hazy ...

*

What Goes Around, Comes
by...

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Fahr an' Ice
by Michael R. Burch

From what I know of death, I'll side with those
who'd like to have a say in how it goes:
just make mine cool, cool rocks (twice drowned in likker),
and real fahr...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Limericks III - Grab Bag

Being a peace activist, I once wrote a limerick in an attempt to stop needless wars:

Of Tetley’s and V-2's
(or "Why Not to Bomb the Brits")
by Michael R. Burch

The English are very...

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Sonnets XXXIII-XLI

The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch

She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must bend down to her to understand.
But she only smiles, and...

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Poems about Things that Break II
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter.
 
 
 
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
 
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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MODERN SONNETS II

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

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LOVE POEMS I by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, a first date and dating, a first crush, a first girlfriend and...

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Tell her you saw me ...

Tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape
during a gale, much too close to the rocks.
Tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges,
its roar far too loud...

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tell her you saw me ...

tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape during a gale, much too close to the rocks … tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges, its...

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Youthful temptress, aging oracle,
Nymph-like debacle, Gorgon spectacle,
Retreat from retribution’s precipice,
And a transient victory wrought by avarice,
To listen to a parable
Devoid of the empirical.

Several centuries ago in the land of the Saracen,
You were born to a...

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As I was set to go out on my horse 
One eve, despite pleads to stay from my course, 
Prone I was to take my hat from the rack, 
A whirlwind crested from the dusty...

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Did Turn and Toss Like An Albatross

Last Sunday was first Sunday
for our new priest. Saw his
name on program which was 
creased. Heard his sermon 
and  were pleasantly pleased. 

During our dreams we did turn...

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The She General
Arabic Poem By: Fayez Al-Haddad
Translation into English By:
Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_N_Silk)
===================
 
I beg your passion, O General of Love!
Grant me leave to say
Some of the divine revelation of love,
Though I don’t know but the...

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Closed
Arabic Poem by: Hammoodi Al-Kinani*
Translated From Arabic
By: Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_n_silk)
=======================
 
Closed, so said the first door
Dead End, so said the second door
Don't Worry,
Sayeth all the doors!
Destitution! Destitution! Destitution!
So shouts the beggar in my face.
Drought! Drought!...

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Oh, Friend Darkness, if I fall
                          I pray my tears
...

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Wherever I stand,
It will be my holy land!
Wherever I stand,
It will be my holy land,
Listen to what I say,
And read my lips Friend!
The world has dramatically changed,
And became difficult to re-fix or amend!
The world of...

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After an arduous days journey across the hot desert sands.
The Bedouin relieved the camel of its cargo with rough, calloused hands.
With routine learned from his ancestors camp was prepared for the night.
Camel tendered to, water...

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White-brilliant-dazzling,
limestone houses  in the morning light
between cypresses and laurels,
the fragrance of the East
passing through narrow lanes of the Old City.
The Arab merchants
praising their goods -
over there carpets, there Bedouin-dresses,
Christian devotional objects
between the smoke of...

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Scorned coquette
perched so solemnly
upon your death stool,
claw deep the fresh flesh of victors
bearing armfuls of decaying flowers
stolen from your mother’s grave.

A diverse parade -
clairvoyants and gigolos
tyrants and schizophrenics
junkies and Jesus freaks;
you seem to attract
an unending...

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If you have never felt the lure of the desert, 
you cannot understand why people like me
prefer to be surrounded by sandy dunes.
An inexplicable lure, that acts like a drug.....
Until I was kidnapped by four...

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My heart-beating demand a green light
in showy fashioning from your heart
and date cruder fit over pyramids
of nor realities been dressed
I craving mine sweet, info in you
arousing daily with me by anew dawn
from my bedouin as...

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Beyond a sandstorm’s gritty veil,                       
A solitary Bedouin,
Like a ghost in a sea...

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From the midday sky of smoldering fire
blazing splinters of sun shower as ember
on the barren sea of sand desiccated.
The last drops of brine-charged water
disappear behind the drape of arid air
shimmering on the furtive face of...

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