Long Harrows Poems

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

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Poems of Recanted Bachelorhood

bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ALARMING
since my resolve
dissolved!

*

Disconcerted
by Michael R. Burch

Beth, my sweet,
fresh as a daisy,
when I’m with you
my heart beats like crazy
& my future gets hazy ...

*

What Goes Around, Comes
by...

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The First Valentine Poem

Charles d’Orleans (1394-1465) has been credited with writing the first Valentine poem for his wife in 1415. Charles wrote the first Valentine poem in the first year of his captivity while being...

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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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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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LOVE POEMS I by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about passion, desire, lust, sex, a first date and dating, a first crush, a first girlfriend and...

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Sappho fragment 22
loose translation by Michael R. Burch 
 
That enticing girl's clinging dresses
leave me trembling, overcome by happiness,
as once, when I saw the Goddess in my prayers
eclipsing Cyprus.
 
NOTE: This is a translation of...

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Yours truly shirked fidelity regarding faithful vows
bequeathed courtesy angel of mercy,
who pledged her troth
July twenty fifth nineteen ninety six
five months (not quite to the day) before

"star student" birthed
on December twenty second,
(now gainfully employed
at Certified B-Corporation
San Francisco,...

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Preposterous Eros
by Michael R. Burch

“Preposterous Eros” – Patricia Falanga

Preposterous Eros shot me in
the buttocks, with a Devilish grin,
spent all my money in a rush
then left my heart effete pink mush.


These are poems about Eros, the...

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SAPPHO TRANSLATIONS

Eros harrows my heart:
wild winds whipping desolate mountains,
uprooting oaks.
—Sappho, fragment 42, translation by Michael R. Burch



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

No droning bee,
nor even the bearer of honey
for me!



Sappho, fragment 113
loose translation/interpretation...

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Written: November 10, 2023, For Edward Ibeh Contest 
             __________________________________________

As if to atone, I gaze into the obscurity of my soul.
When I glance...

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Nationwide Insurance twas on my side yay
cuz, earlier this July forth
     two thousand eighteen ja way
windows closed, doors locked, and

     car keys visibly splayed
   ...

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March 10 Scripture Meditations Based on 2Samuel 22-24

Key Verse – 2Samuel 22:3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower,...

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He was the village blacksmith
To us children he was known
As our adopted Uncle Wilf
They’d no children of their own.
Six days a week he worked,
His hours long and physically hard.
Our cottage back door opened 
Straight onto...

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The laugh like cry of the April woodpecker happy in the early spring,
And the dry harsh note of the Jay, awaken the forests and everything,
The dusky wings of rook’s glance in the sun, they are...

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We never thought, Life could be this easy,
Cooking up variety, like we’re making jalfrezi,
Smoking clouds the mind and harrows the heart,
Prevention is the cure, so in the end; don't start.

‘Cause we believe in no scag...

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to my kindred soul
...i know you are out there
somewhere on the other side
across cobblestone streets
that scorn my feet, like hearts
on the pathways and wrong turns
of so called love

i've been kissed
but not by your lips
nor with...

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A mystery within the cottage sublime                             ...

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Fielschgenuss erster Gute
They spoke of her as a bedswerver
words that only made it more difficult to
understand why I had become privy
to these conversation.
The Harrows and Quick Hitches were
new and unused. The flail mower
and adapters were...

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When gray, we are away
 From light that brightly shines
 As if around under a cloud
 We roam, spirit forlorn.
 Our thoughts turn inward
 And we dwell in a well
 Of self righteous indignation
 Which...

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Two lovers requite one is lonesomeCalling of a loon in the darkest nightCannot ascend or descend without the loving water              ...

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There goes Pochahontas bent.
Sent with flaming arrows.
All that anger's meant to vent.
Just for faming harrows.

Lost to others who were sent.
Darrring Blaming sparrows.
Cost of all who met their fate
sought for claiming parrows.

All that land was meant...

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I pour the source of my pain
down the drain
Doubled over I purge
the muck from my mind
stars spilling from my eyes
shining in the soapy froth
as I scrub the sink clean
of the remnants of rancid dreams 
hopes...

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The clear, sweet evil of that simple name, 
so redolent of sweaty viciousness, 
of Spite is Right, of sin divorced from blame, 
of seedy placemen, bloated with success, 
did not fit with his flinty newsreel...

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Faith flies to this heaving breast in sorrows,
Strengthening its hope for brighter days
Will take up the position of valorous ways,
Prepare the journey for brighter tomorrows

Wise the soul that seldom trouble borrows,
Knows the residence where value...

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