Long Coverlet Poems

Villanelles

The villanelle is a poetic form based on repetition, with a double refrain. 



Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day, 
with the...

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Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



Rondel: Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot...

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please tell me ...

what happened?
what dire damage have i wrought?
what did i do to ruin it, that friendship, rare?
you once knew me better than most ...

my darkness didn't frighten you, didn't rattle,
you sighted those demons...

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Ordinary Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Indescribable—our love—and still we say
with eyes averted, turning out the light,
"I love you," in the ordinary way
 
and tug the coverlet where once we lay,
all suntanned limbs entangled, shivering,...

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Diet
 
The thin man held no answer 
he bent and swayed
struggling to focus through the last mirage of water
remorseless thoughts rolling unrelenting tornadoes
through his shrunken heart and wispy head
settling an empty groan in discomfort on...

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Winter's white coverlet has finally melted away
from over my garden's sleeping botanical beds. 
Babes from crocus bulbs peek above the ground
on this sun filled morn, warmly greeted by golden rays.
Zinnias of every color sway upon...

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They spread across the table
to sway injuries of oak stained smothers, 
Just as though my values in obscure realities, 
comfortable by the sound of thrashing drums, 
the acoustic vigilant in the distance... 

The spread carried...

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Lombard Street Memories       
                           San Francisco, 1975   
                 ~~~~~~
     I felt totally stupid cooking my first turkey, as I...

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While hosts of stars adorn the darkling night
beyond the coverlet of day’s embrace
neath firmament parading sparkling sight
with show of heavens’ mystifying face,

beyond the coverlet of day’s embrace
the lunar orb may spread translucent rays
with show of...

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depression in the other pillow is deep
	your head
	is a hot air balloon
i wish you’d be there when my hamster dies
	my heart
	is locked up, whirring
photo paper scrunched by anguish
	your eye
	invisible from fold line
i lay out my...

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Time is a coverlet 
of secrets not to be withheld, 
but dressed for the revealing, 
just as humankind sits down
among the gods partaking
of the succulence of truth,
and no priority may interfere
with that vainglory of the...

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If death ends all we see
in Nature’s laws—
to be, or not to be,
with no applause—
and seas of troubles flee
when life withdraws,

then how we choose to plumb
the waters deep…
or whether dreams may come
in final sleep
need never...

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Sunrise Softness


                    How do cats know what we need?
       ...

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Who is this person who can coax
the ordinary into magical so easily?
A grey, depressing winter's sky becomes
"a coverlet of lilac gossamer."

Are poets born with exotic words already
whispered in their ears? Are these words
their native language?...

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Breathless

Every touch dies
Urgent moments from you
Each kiss a voiceless whisper
Around you floats an undying breathless

Cool chilled your curls
Lay pensive at porcelain shoulders
Awaiting the warmth of
Assignations love

Each caress withers
At a horizons touch beyond you
A singular worship
To...

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I cleaned your room today,
while the scent of you yet lingered
in the impression where you laid your head,
caressing linens my heart hesitates to launder
for want of holding you near.

I long for this morning’s sweetness,
still cherishing...

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BEAUTY ATOP AN INFERNO

The dormant volcano asleep for a long time now,
collapsed caldera cradles crater lake on crust deep.
Dark andesite rocky lofty rim draped in shining snow,
on piercing trident peaks the hues of cerulean sky...

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Sad the dark of night has fallen once again,
Rapturing the light of another splendid day
Wherein I have many noisome dragons slain.

Reintroducing me to a night of nagging pain
Beneath this quilted coverlet for solace I will...

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It's back...
unsought...
that cold, wet lump
within the mind,
that Frost had known so well.
It bids me close my eyes
look at my hands--
then open them, repelled;
they do not sculpt as his,
nor dare to hold the clay.
His day enlightened...

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Crystallized red, gold, green nocuous clang
of vertigo, bird-toons tweeting, knees on the rocks,
rolling eyes, coverlet-lids closing, discovered
in fetal position, cocooned in butterfly net.

“Don’t you have to go to work?”

“Have you eaten yet?”

“Shouldn’t you use the...

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The day was falling,
enacting all its own regret 
with light, like washed-out technicolor.
One glance affirmed:
the rain would soon begin. 
Thunderheads played God, 
recruiting legions higher still;
I saw the sand provoked 
and furious upon the air.

I...

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It snowed last night
I awoke listening to the cold whisperings
of windblown flakes.

Peeking through the closed drapes
I can see that the snowfall fell just enough
to cover the base of the concrete birdbath.

The sky has laid a...

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Winter takes in its arms weeping stars as dawn draws in.
The sky turned from black to a steel gray; 
snow rest upon the roof tops and yards revealing the ingrain coverlet beauty.

I walk the halls...

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Curtains flutter over the nursery sill, 
Waiting for their mother to find
The coverlet tossed aside, hanging still, 
Patiently expecting mother to right the spill,
The beds, empty, the windows, the open kind;
 
Stars twinkle, restlessly above,...

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This precious heirloom from my grandma
is more than a little bit worn.
Sewn with infinitely tiny stitches,
it was much used  before I was born.

She was just twenty- three when she sewed it.
Her beloved was fighting...

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