Long Dunbar Poems

Medieval Poems



Wulf and Eadwacer
(Old English circa 990 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

My people pursue him like crippled prey.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different!

Wulf's on one island; I'm on...

Read More

Dream of Infinity
by Michael R. Burch

Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your soul sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then...

Read More

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

Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

Read More

My most popular poems on the Internet (I)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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

Oh how I want a doggy, 
a bundle of love and fur.                       ...

Read More

POEMS ABOUT EROS AND CUPID

These are translations of ancient Greek poems about Eros. Eros was the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. While today we tend to think of Cupid as an angelic cherub...

Read More

PRINCESS DIANA POEMS

Fairest Diana: an Epitaph for Princess Diana
by Michael R. Burch

Fairest Diana, princess of dreams,
born to be loved and yet distant and lone,
why did you linger?so solemn, so lovely?
an orchid ablaze in a crevice...

Read More

As soon as I heard 
You were the First African American Male
To win the Pulitzer prize for Poetry
I wanted to run out and celebrate
I wanted to wake up Hughes and Dunbar
And Baraka and say we...

Read More

Bigger than YOU Think

The internet, 
is large... indeed. 
It starts here and never ends. 
It just starts over somewhere else. 

In the beginning AOL, 
time spent waiting to connect. 
Now we sail across the sea,...

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

You God, the Creator of the universe.
You are existed before everything else.
You made us the same image of you and
Take good care of us. We, human are dependent of you.
We love you, we adore you,...

Read More

Stop Killing My Country

Accused of political banter, 
to speak the words, God Bless, 
and America in the same sentence. 
Bespeaking the fear, 
of being proud, 
just to be born in a land free from tyranny....

Read More

When I was young,                               ...

Read More

The Mask of Fate
(This poem deals with the Corona Virus. 
It is very intense.)

My kid's school called.  
The college. 
They said that there had been...
a national concern; regarding the Sun. 
No... 
That was not...

Read More

As a child I loved playing with teddy bears,                          ...

Read More

Why people hurt people? Why we do hurt?

We do hurt people because, we get hurt.
We do hurt people because of; foolishness, selfishness, greediness, 
Jelousness, enviousness, dis-contentedness, and evilness.

We punished people because, we our selves are...

Read More

Why people hurt people? Why we do hurt?

We do hurt people because, we get hurt.
We do hurt people because of; foolishness, selfishness, greediness,
Jelousness, enviousness, dis-contentedness, and evilness.

We punished people because, we our selves are hurting....

Read More

Take a glass and fill it half full of water.
We have often heard by some the glass is half full,
by others the glass is half empty.
Now which is it half full or half empty?
It is...

Read More

The great tribulation of Jesus Christ as a son of man on
Earth and a son of God in heaven. The prophesy of 
God fulfill on the cross. The debt of sins paid by the 
Blood...

Read More

As I slept a spell fell over me                           ...

Read More

Run Through in Babylon

Friends, I wish to speak, 
but they have cut out my tongue. 
So I fumble...

Instead,
I hear your words, they are strong, 
and your passion true. 
However, it is the content of which,...

Read More

As I look down                               ...

Read More

The day my life changed when I was seventeen,                          ...

Read More