Long Debussy Poems

Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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Spring
by Charles d'Orleans (c.1394-1465)
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab at whatever passes,
so we can...

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Well, this morning began “a fine kettle of fish” to my taste
(ambiguity present and somewhat ironic), no waste
of intent here. ‘Walk’ mentioned proforma, ‘glazed doughnut’ from Stan’s (1)
tasked, a possible ‘chaser’ to sweeten the plot....

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Antithesis

In May, the lion’s ear blooms immaculately,
As if the night sky is on fire.
It excretes a ravishing untarnished beauty,
A mesmerizing compelling beauty
Only the mad mystics and poets can discern.
Here, put on these rubber sandals;
The pair...

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Today, there are no busy little feet running through the house
    with high pitched voices that threaten to pierce my solitude.
    I made it clear to my lover and...

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I would practice each day without satisfaction,
longing to capture the moon's oratory.
DeBussy, God, help me, I should say that I'm sorry!
Though my fingers were nimble, I'd lose concentration,
and fumble along with a grumble and sigh....

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Oh, I dreamed so of marriage when I was a boy,
Of a girl I could cherish, might love my whole life!
In the 'first' grade, a girl (my first love) called me "Roy," (1)
Of course, I...

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To Do Or Not To Do?
                        by Odin Roark

To do or not...

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A not so gentle kick in the patooty and sent on
I would prefer to need no recourse to your legal so called expertise and that goes for your medical too I repeat
I'd prefer to do...

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I gaze over landscapes, whitewashed in the moonlight
with bittersweet etchings
only pale sketches, of what has been left behind 
Distorting places I once knew, under a veil of haze, that swallows time

I can't distinguish what is...

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Sky of twilight , thoughts take a flight ,
Walk down the road, wear masquerade,
House illuminated at mid night,
Barren eyes, gaze at keys of piano,

Sing and celebrate the pink rose,
Gifted to me on that special day,
Rays...

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You're ...

You’re the roof that gives shelter, more home than abode,
and in times of your absence, known truth’s ‘roof is gone!’ (1)
It’s your presence that nurtures my garden of rhyme.
It’s the air you breathe out...

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They billow just above that far hill
I think I see old Zeus peer out
    the piercing eyes    ulotrichous beard
        hair a roiling...

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Every morning, I flee the toxic effervescence of cities,
Where no one controls his thought, that of the birds
Where people mate in the thousands,
Without knowing what they will do, without love,
Where one is more tired in...

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My late father 
    played gorgeous music 
on his Steinway 
Debussy, Ravel, Beethoven 
    along with his own compositions
He set eight of my poems to music 
  ...

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Aperture,the open eye
you cannot bear to look away
silent observer
ahhh but I think
not so innocent bystander.

Was it not you who has inspired
and moved the inner forces of our mortal coil?
Births recorded under your full attention
prove it...

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If life goes too fast for us, where are we? Where are you going?
I have no fun then, I like to enjoy the summer holidays,
A few weeks, a few days, even a few evenings, ...

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Upon perception, a rolling wooden box 
                 with three pedals a misconception

Slick ivory keys the color of milk with...

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Wrapping him in  a blue blanket he hands him over to me 
outside the snow is falling, as I gaze at him my hearts about to burst 
all the pushing is over, now its...

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Down by the only lily pond around here
the air is brisk and not particularly subtle
as it blows its windy nose.

It's not exactly a Monet painting
the setting is a little too municipal
and certainly not in winter,
but...

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I thought at the time
It was something by Debussy
And every day the same tune
Those same troubled places
DAY AFTER DAY!

After a few weeks it was almost maddening
The easy first twenty measures or so went swimmingly
But then…..
But...

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Silent Chord

Strings of melodies stream together
Vibrating from inside without a sound
Welling up in silence
With accompaniments of feelings and the mind
Calming measures blended, refined like bitter grapes
Sweet memory that aches upon a silent chord
Heard only in...

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A washed out rainbow barely holding rings 
the moon. Across her distant face rush herds 
of silent clouds, blending into each other 
as if pursued by some unseen dread – 
a music of vapors, fluid,...

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These thoughts of mine
sing serenades, 
out of key,
and silently.
Sentences into phrases
is what I want.  
I want the wanting.
Your phrases are 
beautiful
but unorganized. 
Do you even realize?
She says you’re too smart
for your own good. 
For...

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Image by: Kimberlee Baxter
The nonpareil of a a violin plays late into a golden era
its "An Autumnal Farewell, by Debussy"

With magnificent beauty in dazzling colors of dying
she spindles and pivots in outer space flaring her
senescent...

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