Long Hermitage Poems

Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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I take a four-fold spin
through Bill Plotkin's wheel
of bilateral identities,
iconic developmental faces,
ironic personalities.


FIRST comes Eastern-born
dawn of human infancy,
Innocent Sage infants
so WiseElder
in our LeftBrain emergent
wrinkling unfolding 
sacred RightBrain ways.

Searching for care giving eyes
to be sure we...

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Recluse by dint of circumstance

Proud anonymous troglodytes 
forerunners of mine
confronted threats less horrific
than forty fifth commander in chief
of United States of America.

He/him (matted hair, ratty, scrawny, 
and tetchy ugly villain)   
scurried into dark...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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Incomplete metamorphosis of distilled adolescent...

therefore he characterizes himself as an anomaly...any idea why?

Mortified, petrified, stultified, et cetera sheltered, 
and mortally wounded prepubescent,

I consider myself
analogously buttressed, cocooned,
garrisoned (for bing keeler), 
hardened, insulated,
where cell baited jumping frog
o'...

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III

Brahma thence forged a form— a female-head, 
Born of impending need, a weird form—
Black as born of darkness, tongue and mouth red, 
Eyes burning yellow, like a raging storm.

Uncertain she stood facing what was South,...

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My esteemed Rinpoche
repeatedly impresses upon me
Our humane democratic vocation
to become an enlightened individual.

Which sounds like a polyculturing lot,
for absorbent 
co-acclimating residents and guests
of Earth's cooperative green/blue hermitage
To accomplish 
in solitude,
in one semi-lifetime,
demi-deathtime.

While this seems ambiguously...

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Voting without aggravation...

Otherwise known as
absentee ballot/ mail-in ballot
if ye read no further... please exercise
opportunity to cast ballot
obviously freedom to choose,
but take serious stock of human bondage
(desperately calling out
for their Maugham me)
regarding: economy, integrity, monetary, xyz...

Anyway,...

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The Love Story of
Kacha And Devayani-
One


BACKGROUND OF THIS
LOVE STORY

This beautiful story
from the Indian
mythology
speaks, how love and
hate can go to
extremes
when it is guided by
motives. 

Kacha was the son of
Brahaspati*. 
He was sent by Gods
to become 
the...

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"50 Words for Poe: Immaculate"




Love Immaculate
Souls now in sync
Souls merge in time
Powerful Immaculate

Hunger comes fast
Hunger for Love Immaculate
Hunger for Pure
The Power to Be

The Power to Be
Free

Baskervilles was never a Raven Girl
Her name was Foxglove

She ran...

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Almost three years ago from today December 20th, 2022

self quarantined misanthrope...
pitched into purgatory wham!

Ably cane resign eternal damnation (mine)
courtesy devil specially engraved telegram
prestidigitation found me vanishing shazam,
without a trace I 
disappeared in thin air voila
Earthly...

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Alpha Bet Cap Cha

Just twenty six letters of the english language to whit
twisted in various & sundry combinations pit
this bull dog of a canonical wordsmith with true grit
to craft bone a fide filigreed grammatical parts...

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Self quarantined misanthrope pitched into purgatory wham!

Ably cane resign eternal damnation (mine)
courtesy devil specially engraved telegram
prestidigitation found me vanishing shazam,
without a trace I disappeared in thin air voila
Earthly travails atop horns of dilemma ram
into me...

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I had been placed in chains 
Where the cripples shed their canes 
And the blind regained the art of seeing.
It was a robbers’ den 
And as all God fearing men, 
I had assets needed freeing.

Sometimes...

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Number forty six - White House occupant re:
guarding President elect Joe Biden

Within mein hermitage
now dwells one euphoric troglodyte who wept
upon hearing unbelievable news,
(albeit at snail's pace schlepped
finally proclamation emancipation
gave reasonable rhyme yours truly to ejaculate
(not...

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Approaching winter...

OK, maybe encroaching mid-winter
of life's seasonal span
with resonantly compelling grace,
perhaps even transparent vulnerability,
feels controversial, 
too laissez-faire

Too much courage
in declaring preliminary success
with too little curiosity
about what happens next
on planet Earth

Continuing to revolve all four seasons
dynamics
holistic...

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Vishwamitra was enraged 
how he been duped 
by Deity King Indra
felt ashamed of 
lost all the virtue
gained through years
after penance and asceticism
distanced from mother so child 
got back to penance. 
Menaka birthing queen melody
left newborn...

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He/him (ratty, scrawny, 
and tetchy ugly villain)   
scurried into dark recesses of hermitage
averse to cavort, frolic, inure himself
into the duplicitous schemes
capitalized, glorified, popularized

courtesy vanity of Homo sapiens
lest imp of the pervert 
already sacrificed...

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A light beacon in the iciest of regions,
Solar winds full of both brilliance and bluster
Glory of trenchant travelers from afar;
Skyward sorcery that time does not mar.
Shining with such a wonderful lustre,
Lantern of lucidity wherefore philosophers...

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Unadulterated emotional anguish linkedin...

Regarding inconsolable screaming infant
christened Matthew Scott Harris woke
eureka insight about said newborn self,
experiences ultra sensitivity courtesy
loud noises and/or sleep disruption.

I purportedly cried mine
trademark noisy hullabaloo
no matter pallor turned
fifty plus shades of blue
nonstop...

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Fate Of Mankind...

(this prognosticator ordains,
which if came to pass no brains)
necessary to impress any 
goo goo dolls, nor swains!)

Cited in crosshairs of  thermonuclear warfare
quite an about face from bursts of creativity,
yet omnipresent palpable threat...

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Incomplete metamorphosis of this stilled adolescent...
petrified, sheltered, and mortally wounded prepubescent

I consider myself
analogously buttressed, cocooned,
garrisoned, hardened, insulated,
where cell baited jumping frog
o' Montgomery County ne'er
went leaving larvae stage,

now no divine providential
power can assuage,
yours truly metaphorically locked
within...

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??? ???? ?????? ??????

The Wandering Yogi 

From city to city, from every  town to town
Catching every smile to smile, every frown to frown.
His allegiance goes to the exalted one, not any nobility nor the...

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It's another Saturday night
ending this week
as started
alone again.

I came here
almost two years ago
to my retirement hermitage
but oddly,
and often uncomfortably,
shared with my hurt kids,
mental and physical illness
adopted and then adapted;
an asylum for the perpetually incontinent.

Cars pass...

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