Long Campion Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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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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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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NOVELTIES
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

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

This is my translation of a Latin epigram by the English poet Thomas Campion. In Campion’s...

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Go tell it on the mountain
That – twenty eleven is for Robin! 
Once I was on the road to perdition
And my mind was wrought
But then saw I the light
Shinning so bright
And all was right.
Now that...

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TWO   KIDS   REMEMBERING


There we were

Next to the railtracks in the middle of the industrial heartland of 1950s Tyneside

Martin and me 

Summer’s day and no money and no place to go except...

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Sit with me a while, here on the soft green grass, that hides the Gentian Violet and the Daisy peeping through and watch how the soft cool wind lifts the fronds of Willow, hanging down...

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Dappled light plays on a mossy bank
as the tranquil waters of an idle stream
meander dreamlike through summer, 
thick with nature's bounty. The only sound
on the pregnant air is the stirring of a 
dragonfly's wing as...

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You leave the car at what was once, 
in old reality, a farm and where the
National Trust democratise so now not cows 
but parking motorists feel alarm.

Across a road are loos, ex milking parlours 
still...

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Tagboard Media





                        
Hizzia Handfull  wrestled  Diffa Dank Hassinberg
to a twenty...

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The hedge sat quietly on the side street while people passed by on their daily chores
She bathed in spring and summer so sweet as red roses and campion grew by her side watching and listening...

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Teardrops, petals, ruffles and lace,
on my summer day walk, I slow my pace.
Beautiful, yellow gossamer balls of Dandelion,
white blooms drooping on a growth of Campion.
Underneath a tree grows vivid Periwinkle and Nettle,
and beside a flowing...

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As dawn undressed the night,
putting the purples of sorrow to flight.
It started to paint an horizon new,
in burnished golds of every hue,
that streaked the heavens and edged each cloud
with fire that danced and billowed proud.
Heralding...

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Again the machair blooms. Again these wild
Atlantic shorelines, battered but unbowed
as the marram grass, survive the wayward
blasts of winter, the silver sands endowed
with dancing colour, greeting the splendour 
of the budding year. A close bound...

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NOVELTIES
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

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

Original Latin text:

IN LIBRARIOS

Impressionum plurium librum laudat
Librarius; scortum nec non minus leno.

Keywords/Tags: Campion, Latin, translation, epigram,...

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I knew a place down by the brook 
where, in the breeze, the willows shook
and wary hare's in summers haze
would leap and sport among the maize,
startling pheasants into flight
who'd hurdle hedgerows burning bright
with campion and...

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George's isn't too bad
At least not so far
I like it here better than Campion
And it's much better by far
The only thing missing
Are the extras and the girls
Only tough ones from Alpha
Dare venture into this world
The...

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In his youth he became an Anglican deacon,
but the doubts about Protestantism beset him
and after further study,
he returned to Catholicism.

Young Jesuit priest,
arrested by priest hunters
in Anglican England 
for teaching about the Christ.

He was convicted of...

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