Long Changeable Poems

Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

Read More

Sweet Rose of Virtue
by William Dunbar (c. 1460-1530)
loose translation/modernization/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

after William Dunbar

Sweet rose of virtue and of gentleness,
delightful lily of youthful wantonness,
richest in bounty and in beauty clear
and in every virtue that...

Read More

Lament for the Makaris ("Lament for the Makers/Poets")
by William Dunbar [c. 1460-1530]
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
 
i who enjoyed good health and gladness
am overwhelmed now by life’s terrible sickness
and enfeebled with infirmity ...
how the...

Read More

Shallow-pitched tiled rooftops sparkle vividly
 When lavishly sprinkled with needle-shaped grains  
Of shattered mutton-fat nephrite; 
    There, clinging forlornly against the hanging grey   
  Smoke, tinged with barely...

Read More

Oh, For The Simpler Times
Y2K is coming
Written: by  Tom Wright
2000 

I eagerly watch,
as darkness gives way to dawn;
as preening birds
begin to stir.
I sip hot coffee, 
stretch and yawn,
and lament that things
aren't as they were.

The...

Read More

What is human nature and how can we define?
Human nature is adorable and understandable.
Human nature is actionable and appreciable.
Human nature is appraisable and affectable.

Human nature is affable and affectionable.
Human nature is admissible and admireable.
Human nature...

Read More

I awaken to the sound of your voice, your words, calling to me...
Calling to me...Petitioning me... like an ethereal Siren's Song
Moving towards me just as waves journey toward an empty beach...
Always and forever...moving towards that...

Read More

the illness clung like poison ivy to the foundations of her resolve

poisoning hornets injected her wings and she was stung into arrest

Maria did not know what was worse the cancer or the failed cure

the proud...

Read More

In the midst of great turmoil and strife, 
There is a force manifestly to be heard…seen….touched
A voice—ever so soft… yet loud enough to break mountains at their base
It can make a grown man cry—can distort...

Read More

My heart shrivels dry, blackened rose in bitter anguish, ...
 Do you feel my pain? 
   Why must the flame of day dwindle dim? 
    O' fortune, like the moon,...

Read More

Ravishing Predawn Vision, Return To Me

My panacea, vision shining forth, wee hours of morn
Her chatoyant hair, flowed in my all consuming dreams
Her demure gaze, always smiling, never a look of scorn
In paradise, ingénue bathing in...

Read More

Sweet Just the Way I Like It

you're a genius she moaned
there can only be so much money in circulation
he replied halfheartedly fingering her abacus
the moon arose sharp as a razor
and they set about creating a...

Read More

Attempt to shine
     flickering figurative klieg light
with the help of hyperbole
     on poverty wrought
debutante material, this predicated
     on my own unbiased thought
initially related...

Read More

Little mud with thatched hut
Many were in this hut from my forefathers
All are passed away

I saw there was an old banyan tree on the corner of home yard
A tamarind tree was there on the east...

Read More

The time we’ve spent has been the most fulfilling time my life has ever 
experienced.  I know once I tell you this one thing you will close up and shut me 
out forever.

I know...

Read More

 
"I must have flowers, always, always ..."
-Monet- 
________________________

mother taught me about gardens ...
        all winter she would ponder ...  and make plans
    ...

Read More

Be not harried by apostasy spates
Surcease ye flux of basilic imprecations
Adhibit ye ,supernal paracletes  
The pith of divinity

An Achates,
Vae victis
In this temporal realm

Chatoyant fanfaronade
Sursurrant congeries
Erelong abate
Shun the gaffer's gammon
Arcadian maundering

Avaunt kaleidoscopic zealotry  
Bandy...

Read More

I know you exist in this world;
You know I also exist somewhere,
But our ways to each other are hidden;
We can find no trace of them anywhere.

In the changeable colors of nature,
In the evening lights nearby
We...

Read More

mother taught me about gardens ...
        all winter she would ponder ...  and make plans
       selecting flowers by texture and shape
...

Read More

mother taught me about gardens ...
        all winter she would ponder ...  and make plans
       selecting flowers by texture and shape
...

Read More

He is caught between one life and another
while my pain lengthens like a shadow of the moon
We are like leaves, played with by the wind

O lengthening dark vision
reaching across our lives
It came, at last, without...

Read More

You know there was once this girl called heather
Someone that I met back in nineteen ninety three
The only thing I wished is that we'd got it together
I would always be thinking about us two her...

Read More

A restricted freedom is not
a true freedom at all...
to allow the mind to think less;
keeping with wishes will not
endow you with the power
you pursue and without a good cheer
and a bit of fortune you seem...

Read More

Chatoyant: Having a changeable luster. A chatoyant stone or gemstone, such as the cat's-eye.
Cynosure: Something or someone who is the centre of attention.
Demure: shy and modest 
Glamour: defined as the elegant, exciting or attractive quality...

Read More

Born into a world of lovely things
Lovely dreams and childish beliefs

That in this word I think
I shall be treated as a human being
Despite my skin color, my ethnicity, my breed
Well, I am broken-hearted, crushed dreams,...

Read More