Long Embroidery Poems

Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has...

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Medieval Poem V

A Proverb from Winfred's Time
anonymous Old English poem, circa 757-786
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
The procrastinator puts off purpose,
never initiates anything marvelous,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

2.
The late-deed-doer delays glory-striving,
never indulges daring dreams,
never succeeds,...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

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Sometimes I have the courage to think of the things that made me what I am today,
My memory takes me back to terrible things far away far off into my bitter past,
My mind like a...

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Dearest sister-in law, 
 
Today, I met the person,  
you tried in your match-making effort for me. 
He was quite a nice one! 
Although, it did not offer  
stemming much of other thoughts,...

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Patrick, Pearl and Phillip were fond siblings, in halcyon days of fairy tales;
Long beloved of Mother and Father, like beloved ballads of all nightingales.

Father was a successful tailor, creating finest clothes for women and men;
And...

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In the heart of the night, next to the unmoved clock,
She lies, with the pillow—a saline lake of pagan scents,
Mourning something that was never spoken.
Prisoner in the castle of shadows, where darkness
Bearer of chaos, stretches...

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  Dear grandma, 
       you were my litchi  s u n r i s e, 
  encasing stars in honeydews of  h e a l...

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So i made the mistake of going on a date.
And normally
that wouldn't be a bad thing
except normally i dont go on dates
with the best friend
of the guy i genuinely love.
But anyway.
Usually the first
and only
thing out...

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This piece was inspired greatly by the horrors of the tornadoes that leveled miles of life in this Kentucky and neighboring states, killing over 100 people.  The grief I and so many feel, I...

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  separated by vows of abstinence but 
forever bonded by Light entwined 
two parallel Orders twinned
in material poverty firm endured 
with One Heart beating to  
missions of Love ordained 
in living Truth never...

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Princess Layla, daughter of king Philip, had her life set since the day of her birth. From a young age, she was taught embroidery and the duties of a wife. Now at the age of...

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The stitching across the genre                              ...

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As the apologetic sun
melts in hibiscus vase
of pastel-peach 
horizons and peels off
those pristine pigments 
of egoistic elegance, 
sailing upon 
aquamarine foam
of vanilla waves ~
where dignity
unveils a clemency
within catharsis, 
I dare to surrender
towards the 
pink-teal blends...

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To my rivers of thinking needles in my heart to the haters’ smile goes to the cake love, I cannot stop lamenting to lemonade. My comrades they were sealed in plastics bags to pontiff to...

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Vasava – An untold story                              ...

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"you are more than I deserve. It's a love I never dreamed I'd find. Happinesd like this is worth dying for..."
- Yasunari Kawabata-

Looking down, while flying midway between sky and earth,
I saw a dog on...

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In ancient looms of my homeland,
Fairies once shuttled across threads of rainbows
Weaving folklores of gods and goddesses.

Our tapestry needed no haberdashery of
Brabubahanas and Chitrngadas or a vijay panchali,
For no tantric-needle knitted our folktales.

I want to...

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2024.07.29, about a year ago,
Without BB, I visited the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.
Months before that he promised me,
We would travel wherever I fancied.
Even just days before the trip,
He raised no issue.
Well that...

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A Renga for Poetry Soup:


Meander

Time and the river
Endless silver morning
Autumn leaves float by

Shimmering streaming mountains
Pines swaying in constant winds

Morning mirror
Another gray hair
Ah! the wind of time

Spring's last daffodil
Plucked for a dinner paty

Diamond blue fragments
Reflecting off...

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(for those in Kwangju: May 18, 1980)*
after Dante

Taking this peach within the mouth, the tongue 
hovers around its sunset skin like a lover
and its Sappho sweet bite is heaven. A song

of honeysuckled rivers is like...

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JY and I met through a mutual friend in 1991.
We strucked a deal with a handsome transaction,
In which we both were in a win-win situation.
Since then, we became close friends,
Every week, she travelled a long...

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Breathe
     Sponsor: Mystic Rose


When the night claims you like a wayward leaf of old 
    and it takes you to the caves where anything turns gold 
 ...

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2025.4.16
Today, it is my late friend AP's 6th death anniversary.
This morning, I visited him
And brought with me not only the usual,
But three more new items
A popular book "The Art of Happiness",
A new published "The Holly...

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I remember you holding me in your arms
Rocking me gently while singing lullabies

I remember when you lived a short walk away
Relatives were local and get-togethers were the norm
I remember your amazing purple mohair sweater
You knit...

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