Long Gawain Poems

It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give...

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At Tintagel
by Michael R. Burch

That night, 
at Tintagel, 
there was darkness such as man had never seen...
darkness and treachery, 
and the unholy thundering of the sea...

In his arms, 
who is to say how much she...

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The Pictish Faeries
by Michael R. Burch

Smaller and darker
than their closest kin,
the faeries learned only too well
never to dwell
close to the villages of larger men. 

Only to dance in the starlight
when the moon was full
and men...

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The knight of knights, Sir Lancelot,
From far away in Camelot,
Went by a way that he knew not
And thus, by chance, spied Astolat
With sunset's gleam upon her tow'rs:
T'was there he met the maid Elaine,
With hair as...

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Note: the "dd" in Welsh names is pronounced "th."

Merlyn's Birth
by Michael R. Burch

I was born in Gwynedd,
or not born, as some men claim,
and the Zephyr of Caer Myrrdin
gave me my name.

My father was Madog Morfeyn
but...

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Influenced by "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Rape of the Lock," my goal is to write this completely in iambic meter with (mostly?) rhyming couplets. (Though the intro's meter varies, the main...

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The Wild Hunt
by Michael R. Burch

(King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been reported as ghostly hunters, near Devon, around Halloween.)

Near Devon, the hunters appear in the sky
with Artur and Bedwyr sounding...

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Look Back in Anger to June 2024

You, current denizen of Number Ten
With gleaming Colgate smile and Gucci shoes,
Take serious pause for thought, reflect on when
The voters all reject you and you lose.

Your pledges, that you...

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Feasting and exchanging gifts in full swing
On the New Year day in King Arthur’s court
A green knight armed with an axe enters
And challenges anyone present in the court
To strike him once with his axe on...

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With the might of nine men
And with his head full of red hair
His brusque fashion and his acumen
He carved his place at the King's fair

There was only one other
To whom he looked with honor
Always by...

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Ah, look! 
here is a fat white samurai, 
goes by the name of Jeffy.

I see him,
drunk and slurring insults in the direction of his brothers
what a shame.

He might have been someone
yet here he is.

If only...

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