Long Cantatas Poems

A combination of Prose and Free Verse:

The most thrilling and inspirational piece of music ever to reach my 
ears is, without doubt, Handel's Messiah. I've never known anyone 
who could experience a performance and remain...

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Vera Pavlova English Translations of Russian Poems

I shattered your heart;
now I limp through the shards
barefoot. 
—Vera Pavlova, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter? a beast.
Spring? a bud.
Summer? a bug.
Autumn? a bird. 
The rest of the...

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The winter has in store a vast supply
        of church cantatas, Christmas gifts, and joy;
           of Santa, snowball...

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Sleigh bells jingle as o'er the snow they glide,
To the little country church this Christmas Eventide.
Folks anticipate the fellowship that awaits them there,
As they celebrate His Birth with carols, love and prayer.

Steeds were eased to...

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Sleigh bells jingle as o'er the crystal snow they glide,
To the little country church this Christmas Eventide.
Folks anticipate the fellowship that awaits them there,
As they celebrate His birth with carols, love and prayer!

Steeds were eased...

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Mystical labyrinth of twisting harmonic warnings
Gazing into infinity’s composing handiwork –
 Moonbeams in silver sung sonatas –
  Ivory hued cantatas resolved from heart pacing crescendos
Spring’s soothing birdcalls after tympanic thunder.

Measured tempos of rhythms search...

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Wan is the hiemal world outdoors, 
The biting breeze blows bitter,  
like a blizzard building in momentum, 
Cold creeps in through the closed windows,
But his harmonic heart is happy and warm, 
touched by tantalizing...

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The winter brings short, frigid days,        
but we can find so much to praise
when sun’s bright and the redbird sings.				
Short, frigid days, the winter brings.

December’s here with plans...

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I love the sights and sounds of Christmastime.
The gifts, bright decorations, scrumptious meals,
cantatas, carolers--all are sublime,
all integral to how this season feels.

To nurture Christmas thoughts throughout the year,
I play my jolly carols in July.
In March...

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You float in on a late September breeze
with still-warm days and mild, cool nights in tow.
It’s not your way to bring the first hard freeze
before November when your cold winds blow.

The trees, a color riot...

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His music, written centuries ago,
is still beloved and performed today:
cantatas, fugues, concertos, preludes, and
the mass in B – perhaps the greatest piece
of choral music ever to have been
composed. From soaring tones, the voices build
a sound...

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Operetta

Opaline arias glow in moonlight
Shimmers in the whip-poor-will’s reminisce,
Opalescent anthems silvery delight
On the still waters, moonbeams leave a kiss.

Iridescent serenade sonatas
Echo across sleek undulating swells
Choruses of nightingale cantatas
Rise up in sheer murmurs from argent wells

Midnight...

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