Long Bleats Poems

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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And I begin my own steep climb into 
The Chalkland Downs                        ...

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(composed in head as woke up)
Mid yawn, self suffocation 
Out of your control 
No fear, you know how it goes
You're better at the end, than at the start
Have faith in the recalibration part 

(Composed in...

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Back to you Billy, for ways I whiled away herding ennui

Ah...a flood of memories wash over
this anointed Goatama Boo Da,
whose respected G.O.A.T status
among generic green acres, 
which swathed across Highland Manor 
analogous to petty coat...

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THE POET’S PANEGYRIC

“There’s someone I knew with talent unleashed
and a heart that had for so many relentlessly reached
This poet sought inspiration from the living and the dead
But I can tell you this about the poet...

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The mirtangist may never willingly hear
may not want to hear
the multaiyam announcing his cue
nor the melodist aware of the flautist's right
to the change in the raga
the plucking of the yal strings
to the goatskin drummed bleats
and...

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MYSTERIOUS HABITATS


Wonderful is the monument Tajmahal
It buries mysterious human track mole
It bears the memory of a love that compelled
To activate many to shed blood in sweat
It casts the reminiscence of a love forced
To shed blood...

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Come and touch the mirror of my soul before I grow old; come and touch the mirror of my soul before the sun goes down and the evening gets cold.

I wake up this morning with...

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Santa's New Team

Christmas Eve was coming
There was plenty to be done
There were protocols to follow
There were programs to be run

Presents needed wrapping
Elves had duties of their own
They've been doing it for centuries
They could call Christmas...

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Christmas Eve was coming
There was plenty to be done
There were protocols to follow
There were programs to be run

Presents needed wrapping
Elves had duties of their own
They've been doing it for centuries
They could call Christmas in by...

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GET IT STRAIGHT BBL

Let the wind be still
I wanna speak below my breathe
Let d breeze blow with ease
I want to sneeze but in peace

Let the beautiful flower blossom in red
I wanna speak and be heard
I'm...

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The birds of pray are on their way, in every beak the Word

(of ptomaine tomes by gnarly gnomes) whose meaning is obscured;

they roost aloof on every roof, obscene but always herd,

to tell the tale of...

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So, like I said
awhile ago,
I'm reading until totally dead
"Systems Thinking for Social Change."

With four primal turning and returning seasons
of natural yet spiritual developments
between dusk of where we disenchantedly are,
and dawn of where we would become...

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My Phone

I've just been down to Tesco to get some shopping done,
I never go with money cos I have a little fun
You see it makes me snigg*r when I hear old ladies moan
'What was wrong...

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BEFORE THE COCKCROW 

late at night, struggling with my heavy eyes
On my delicate eye lids it lands , the natural sleep
It is dark, quiet , a little dry
The moment a pin drop sounds loud like...

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The day Democracy died,
I was a little lad, yea, knee high

Papa turned on the telly
to watch the White House news
Curious to hear if the 
whether forecast rumor was true
Did the First Amendment reporters
get carried away
by...

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The Weird Guy


Aprils wet day has rained
Since sunrise
Mid-day
In a friendly café
The patter of skies falling water
Lost in the strangers chit chat

Un-listened to music
Bleats
But peaceful and calm
And glad we all are
Warm as we are
To sit and...

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An Afternoon Walk. 

It is after midday,
And, filled with wine and warm food,
We flatten the wet grass
With clumsy trudge.

Leaves reveal the sun’s prismatic flashes,
Intermittent arrows that offer
Blind comfort.

The damp air smells of twilight,
Though the day’s...

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You have led my course through fractured lanes.
Your groaning ballad my only light.
Kill blessings from stained lips safely float our steps.
Where would I be without you Michael?

Crow mother lies broken at our hand.
Eyes, lips and...

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In the midst of the raging waves,
they watched her gulp the callous cunning darts.
Her crumbly heart cruelly impaled; the fate that enslaves.
So fondly she’d mask the marks.
Her soul would ache and bleed from life’s glaives.
She...

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The morning has started with a trace of a dew
An ascent through the tussock ignites the new day
Trailing huntaways eager to work on the ewes
Awaited shrill whistles loose the dogs on their prey.

A new shepherd...

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IT IS TIME TO STOP THE STUPIDITY! 

 
The notes of a Shaka flute float to my ears 
like an Arabian midsummer night’s dream 
it flows through me like dinars in a Banshee’s pocket 
in...

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amid the bleats of lambs
and the moo of cows 
in a far away manger
a baby, swaddled in rags was born
     
though despicable in some eyes,
He was the clone of Clones
the one,...

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I saw the herons trooping across the evening sky
And wondered how far their white wings flew
What perils neath cosmic clouds their patient path defy
What change awaits them none ever knew
The call of summer seduces them...

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We aborted the Christ a long time ago
What with the successive thousands of gentle fetuses strangled.
Stop stop! Why lament? Let not the wind be rankled
By thy silly bleats and unbaked ego.

Thee killed the Christ
Thee impeded...

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