Long Freshest 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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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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Many of us have a favorite possession from when we were young, and this 
93-year old gentleman is no exception.

               ...

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"Backhand"



You have turned me
inside out, cut open
like a tennis ball
I used to beat backhand
along with the racket
hard against the garage wall

To make sense of it all
as a child, the grief stolen
all too swiftly and replaced...

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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...

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Now as the years passed by everyone became so tired
the heaps of things scattered around became too much to bear
some benevolence was certainly grand but this was too much
the two felt unable to undertake ...

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INSPIRED BY CHARACTER OF CLARISSA DALLAOWAY IN VIRGINIA WOOLFE'S STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOVEL "MRS. DALLAOWAY"



                    ...

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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...

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Though I'm ashamed to say it now, I never took conservation seriously,
Just living life as if nothing else mattered, full of wonted complacency.

I would hear intense talk of the climate, recycling and global warming,
But I...

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Lisa and I had a party to hit-up. I can’t stay inside all the time, not on a Friday night anyway and a rooftop is the perfect place to mull over big questions and get...

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Dried up like a reservoir
In the mid summer heat
The cracks in the ground
Are like
The life lines, upon my face
I have weathered many a storm
As if
I have lived a 100 lifetimes,
Instead of one! 

Bare, rough, dirty...

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Asian Epicurean Quest

At the heart of China Town, Kuala Lumpur (capital of Malaysia) is Petaling Street.
  
Domain of hustlers, hucksters, cheap-jacks and diblers; purveyors of street food, rude t-shirts, and rubber sandles to put...

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I was an artistic, floral designer, intoxicated by the sweet-smelling blooms,
Like magenta butterfly swarms, at a standstill, intoxicated by floral fumes.

Gold days were full of my bloom designs, each one so original and unique,
Just as...

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Going Home

His home, where He was from, Heaven,
eternal, everlasting, everything
good, comes from the heart who breathed hope,
the spirit whose song was never ever wrong,
it trembled with rhythms of light, soft,
inviting the wonder to emerge from...

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I was a creative choreographer, for superb Broadway musicals and plays,
As musical winds choreograph motions, throughout any of our rosy days.

I lived for charms of elegant dance, for its beauty will forever be with us,
As...

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My uncle's farm lay nestled in the central Wisconsin hills
A beautiful location sure to cure this city boy's ills
So imagine my delight when invited to stay a week
During summer vacation, this was certain to be...

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Slowly with unstable steps, she approaches.
The room is dank a foreboding intensity permits the air.
She is shaking as the memories wrap their inky hands around her throat.
The terror starts to build as the anguish she'd...

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~Under the Same Moon~

P.D.
Our days are different, living under the same moon
Down here in TEXAS, life carries a different tune
This world spins on its lovely axis
Listening to our Tex-Mex of our English lexis
We share a...

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*I love David's Psalms and wrote this as if he did (I did not copy this). There are 5 books and 150 Psalms in the KJV Bible. This would be "Book 6" with verses 1-10*



FROM...

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It's morning as I make a special trip to the
fish market. There, I will look for the freshest 
mussels, large shrimp, and Maine lobster. 
 
A large crowd has formed mostly chefs 
wanting to get...

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As a writer, people are my vocation. 
As for humanity, men, women 
And other abstractions, 
Their interests constitute little more 
Than my hobby; I can only deal in people. 
As soon as I start dealing...

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There is only ONE who knows me well enough
To silence the dark inside me, sprinkle light that decides
For me to hear the joy inspired by sun and moon,
Stars who glisten like a mirage of glitter...

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