Long Enfeebled Poems

I listened to his heart profusely, 
For a beat like his was much to ponder
I often wondered, his thoughts, and,
A light in me knew, with wretched wonderment
What the whispers in his mutterings meant to me

They...

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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...

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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...

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The inky black water sucks her in further
As she descends into the black depths of the abyss
Cloying dark swirls cover her head as soundlessly it reaches
Possessing her every inhalation – exhalation - it envelopes her...

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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...

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Brief Mane n' Tail shampoo tall (tell) tale

Living social amidst 
crime infested urban jungle 
bumping uglies cheek to jowl 
analogous fate being housed in jail
escape room of great outdoors 
spurred subject matter in question
to journey...

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I wax poetic as lifeblood imperceptibly doth wane

Mine body electric analogous 
to Google map pronounced 
with arteries and countless varicose vein
visible popping blood vessels  
leeches haven grand old time 
at expense of poor sucker...

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Once in a time a story begins
So many believe and some repent
People do live in a kind of teases
But a few of them do live of hunt
        ...

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Aging baby boomer
no longer fit as a fiddle
accumulating extra adipose tissue
around the middle
ain't no impossible mission
whence thumbs I twiddle
to shed unwanted 
weight methinks exorcise to unriddle.

Call to action necessitates
yours truly to acclimatize,
calling fitness trainer
whereby honed...

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At eventide,
Under the roseate glow
Of the receding evening sun
I sauntered down the road
To where my beloved dwell
Not far-off from my own abode

Fast by his threshold 
A low moan issued from his room
I made open the...

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The sadness of getting lonely, weary and old
is none other than the anguishing thought,
we can't avoid feeling or mentioning at all cost;
daily unrest triggers the awful death word! 

Will all frighten when that time comes?...

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Looked up and down, right and left
Wondering why life suffers a theft
Subtracted beauty from my chin cleft
 
If I deserved and preserved the best
My love could lavish to attest
Why my love passed a preset test
...

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PIERCING EYES
                                 ...

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2

Bourne loosely through the chill gusts,
Disordered fragments of summer's life go hurried by,
Harried to their last resting places
Into piles of brittle, browning drifts
Scattered on stiffening ground.
A cold sun, coursing ever more briefly
Across these hard, blue-white...

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I thought I saw the butterflies inked on your skin
Flying away 
Your vial of tears was spilled out on your journal page 
I couldn't see the words of the letter that you wrote 
But I'm...

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In times when seconds and hours are pearls of sand,
And each of us, travelers under the same sky, tread cautiously,
We have all known the shadow of loss, the cold of death lays enfeebled,
And the muse...

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I came to you on enfeebled feet
Heavy of heart downcast in eyes.
And, in a flash, you threw your arms 
Around me in  such a loving embrace
The joyous euphoria of those who dare.
In a flash...

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These days, when He watches her, she unconsciously moves 
                      a fringe of hair...

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It was once the pride of a prairie farmer not too many years ago.
Now, long abandoned it stands forlorn on a wind-blown plateau.
Its rusting blades slowly turn at the whim of every passing breeze.
It has...

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MY CAR MY BUCOLIC.
    
 The speed of my automobile exclusively,
 Depends on the wheelman which earth born, 
 Crave where the passengers await it's destination,
 Seeing an endless road ahead.
 Every...

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No, she said, it just wasn’t worth a try.
Her life, she said, it must come to an end.
Goddess Latona of the darkness said goodbye.
Mother enigmatic could no longer pretend. 
Her children caught in advancing adulthood,
we...

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Beautiful... Is all they see
oblivious to the crippling underneath
Not of limb or sight nor speech 
enfeebled truly when it comes to need
The potters wheel held steady spin
yet hands that formed were cruel
creating pieces that could...

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Slovenly winter's sojourn lingers, but dwindles away.
Petulant cold snaps, squalls and hail the exit price you pay.
Riddance wrung from season squeezed by hugs to relent reluctantly.
In dawn's budding yolk core, a sign of hope that...

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I've noticed our Republic's
RightWing Tree of Life
reacts to root-systemic problems
as if oak strong branches
lifted to majesty worshiping heights
of supremacy
need not be concerned
with watering
and feeding democratic roots
of nutrition
nurture
empowerment.

Such behavior feels less intelligent
than a sacred Tree of...

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Refuse to hang the innocent
While your gang acquits the guilty
In a tooth for a tooth pronouncement
You state in collusion with the mighty.

Accuse with the ruse in your news dissidents
Whipped into submission
To the coercion of incidents
Incorporated...

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