Long Inlaid Poems

Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain...

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Stately stood Princess Amber in all her finery,
Emerald tunic over a crimson gown,
With gems inlaid in her rustling gown,
Her arms bangled in intricate gold slowly rose,
Her slender fingers rested on her heaving bosom,
Listening to unstopping...

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Inferiority complex as a kid, adolescent and emerging adult

Yours truly (an amazingly,
gracefully, and markedly modest
passively aging baby boomer -
formerly introverted long haired
pencil necked geek),
prattling wordsmith doth behold
nostalgic memories regarding father
(Boyce Brandon Harris)
long ago lapsed decades

during...

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VIII

In the minds fixed eye I see five newly discovered graves,              
Headless lions sat atop an impregnable "Triumphal Gate";   ...

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Vexation at self - regarding avoidable altercation...

Today May 12th, 2021
at Royersford (Pennsylvania) LIDL,
when spouse stepped into checkout line
(minus her horse drawn grocery cart -
pushed courtesy yours truly).

While passively standing stock still
I (think Stonewall Jackson)
let scenario...

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For the third time Pandora stands before the box
Inlaid with jewels ivory and gold
In her hand is the key – she closely examines
Intrigued by its intricate patterns - so ancient- so old

Her Creator’s mandate she...

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A field day shoe fit for Mother Goose
  
Fruitless effort squeezing figurative juice
Pandora called triggering 
helter skelter to get loose
necessitating Bullwinkle J. Moose
to usher at yours truly 
(an aspiring wordsmith) vamoose!

Hey diddle diddle the...

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IS THIS...?             Poem 8/17/

Written for Jim Eslinger , 37-year anniversary

What are these specks we must trudge over, 
Transplanting ourselves from one wilderness to
Another?...

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When Nature's Beauty and Sky's Heart Became One
 
Emerald glen, I first saw angel’s wings come down
one of Nature's bright treasures outside our small town;
as brilliant glows entered sad heart and seeing eyes,
I heard voices...

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Mother Goose would find her tail feathers ruffled 

Hey diddle diddle 
the cat and the fiddle
when off to see 
a crooked man and woman,
whilst cowards jumped 
over moo ving little
pair of mismatched muggles,
who both walked...

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The bloody stroke of midnight                              ...

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Emerald glen, I first saw angel’s wings come down
one of Nature's bright treasures outside our small town;
as brilliant glows entered sad heart and seeing eyes,
I heard voices from Heaven, soothing joyful cries,
turning I saw an...

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Crackling tension filled the community hall in Abergavenny 

‘We are in this together dear folks for a pound or a penny’

Speaking of which the loos were situated right behind the bar

To ensure that urinal relief...

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Twas The Night Before Inspection...,

Not a human creature stirred, nor seen 
through out Highland Manor, 
     property carpeted in lush green
(a deathlike stillness descended un keen
hilly quiet, October 10th, 
 ...

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Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle
   when off to see a crooked man and woman
whilst cowards jumped over moo ving little
   pair of mismatched muggles, 
   who...

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Unbeknownst to me, WoodenMan enjoyed quite a cotillion of female admirers. With 
his rosewood
dimples barely lifted in permanent bemusement, women found him adorable, though 
decidedly eunuch.

 It all began the night I visited the local...

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Yukon just coon sitter me a copacetic, energetic, ironic language lover (English is ma lingua franca late mother tongue), who waxes poetic, but tall so one babbling, creaking, and dabbling dis arming marine naval (gazing)...

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Dawn broke
The eastern pink sky
Drew across the stars
As they faded and lost to the night

 

I called the eagle
To guide me
Piercing whistle
That I learnt as a boy
Running wild and free

 

I walked in the company...

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Twas fortnight before inspection 2021...,

Not a human creature stirred, nor seen 
throughout Highland Manor, 
property carpeted in lush green
gently hilly terrain,
(a deathlike stillness descended un keen
quiet and quite cool April 26th, 
deux thousand twenty one).

Vicious...

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Poetry knows no age, as thee Marcia
Abramsohn (the former ex lady friend
of my late father corresponded with me
some years back)
wrote (by hand nonetheless,
a long lost art) inlaid with ambidextrous
zealousness impossible to identify,
which hand crafted artistically...

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within the under belly of
this hob bull ling Leviathan beast
induced roaring hungry soundcloud issued
within abdominal folds
finding they in creased

never diminishing, matter
whether I turn north, south, west or east
this adult desired,
soon after he envisioned
buttered crispy dish...

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Poetry knows no age, as thee Marcia
Abramsohn write (by hand nonetheless,
a long lost art) inlaid with ambidextrous
zealousness impossible to identify,
which hand crafted artistically colorful
epigrammatic ghostly hint emblematic

of former exuberance toward English
Language..., perhaps other once
vibrantly familiar...

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narcissistic negativity in higher learning.
nods of forget-me-nots, knots in shyness
satisfying unconfidence - look at me,
don’t look at me, pass by, stop...please.

brat in me left for a funeral, fuming dissonance;
meanwhile friends thought I was dead, falling
off...

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Translation of Cuppiramania Bharathiyar’s poem: Kannamma, My Love! (Kannamma En Kaathali) by T. Wignesan

Yet another poem by the most famous modern Tamil poet, written a century ago – despite the commonplace imagery – follows in...

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Dark am I like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon; 
yet, I am lovely- coming up from the desert in a column of smoke perfumed with 
myrrh and incense made from...

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