Long Jailer Poems

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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Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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Oft in My Thought
by Charles D'Orleans
translation by Michael R. Burch

So often in my busy mind I sought,
Around the advent of the fledgling year,
For something pretty that I really ought
To give my lady dear;
But that sweet...

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'A magical lock?' Groaned Graygall in a voice of defeat.
    'We are doomed before even we are set to advance.
To defeat Trolls would be an almost impossible feat
    but...

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Now in my decline from a time back then
  I remember the days in a life when I was ten,
when we lived in a shadow much greater
  at the foot of the mount...

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I sit here steeping in the History 
of Our Land, a class, my eyelids dense.
Our Flag hangs in the corner of the class
Red and White folds in deluge, licking the
framed portrait of our Thomas Jefferson,
our...

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If I could drink my life away,
I would...
If I could smoke my life away,
I should...
I shouldn’t think this way
No, not today...

There’s no point in living this lie, this lie
Or lying in front of your face...

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Oh, this impish ill!
this mystic flock of ever-roaming pain;
You now possess fully
my body and my life.
I am at your full attention and mercy;
Do you not rejoice?
Are you not overwhelmingly triumphant?
This very body that shamed kings...

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A jailer has never two similar days
never knowing what will be next
I should know for that's what I do
way back in the days of no text

There were these two prisoners
two Christians Paul and Silas by...

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Snakes alive a boa constrictor
By Stanley Russell Harris
The new mad author
& A Poetry Soup Honourably Mentioned Poet

I spend my days in a coil curled.
Like a rope you could say.
Never get my full-length stretched so.
As there...

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From ‘The Woe of Roanoke ‘
It wasn’t just the gale that chilled his skin
As he mulled on the cannibal captured within.
In trembling state he clenched close his cane
To rap tap the gate of the jail...

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For the last time they all wanted to meet
him to share their thoughts, feelings; he heard them
patiently and bid good-bye to each.
Asked them to leave, as he desired to stay lone;
They left except two associates...

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Dark potions, liquid substance of evil, they rot in my veins, 
Oh and the heartache that it brings to my brain.
These potions of darkness, 
Plays with the mind game after game,
It is known by many...

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What am I, a product of a mad man's obsession to play God?
A cross breed’s creature between medicine and science?
For the whole of my parts taken from convicts, and social rejects,
Sown together by skillful hands...

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I invited my oldest daughter to dinner for her half birthday.
It was highly embarrassing when she wrestled me to
The ground for the check, and I landed in some guy’s lap.
Sorry, I said. “This is my...

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The bottle freedom cracks suddenly
I don't want a quarrel
Cos' I don't want  a duel

I don't want a quarrel
Cos' I don't want to pinch his toes

I don't want a quarrel
Cos' I might crack shell our...

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We peep through grated beams in the dark confines, 
Kept in chains by the  tyranny  of audacious  jailers,
unending cynosure of profligates and imposters:  
ruining the destinies of  million  wearied...

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The aged gypsy woman speaks,
A curses ancient spell, a dark ruins incantation,
From ages long ago,
Beneath the full moons illumination, a single red
Drop of human blood is spilt,
Upon the blossoming wolf bang, turning
It velvet shin to...

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 "...and 
the modist 
carving 
into the 
closet 
door 
read: 

"I do not place my life, nor my trust, 
my belief nor my faith within 
the 
resume 
of man, 
nor within 
his cause. 

For he...

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Wherever, or whenever, or albeit whatever surrendered for any and all of us to apply ourselves towards, this ever-continuing effort of surrender:

Regardless of any and all the perceived conditions or expectations or limitations that I...

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The Prisoner Awaits Release



 He saw the dim rays cascading down
 the small room and his legs in chains
 One small window, sunshine's gown
 sprinkles splattering in when it rains

 Prisoner for these many decades...

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Once was wretched
Was charged with stealing a pie
And the penalty under the law says that Richard must die
But the maid who made the allegation had told a lie
She couldn’t recognize the thief when he ran...

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When Azrael* comes knocking, it won’t be with bony fists,
I believe, he’ll be a Doctor, with a cure,
Or a Maiden with her posies, a Knight jousting in the lists,
Or a gently whistling, mournful Troubadour.

When my...

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I’ve sailed across the oceans blue
In search of promised treasure
I need to bid my pirate’s life adieu
For some riches you cannot measure

When I was invited to be part of the team
I was told it was...

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 From me To me….  Rubaiyat

Live and die, live and die;
Let this day pass you by.
Close your eyes, fear no death,
Let your spirit take you high.
			
You have the lips I love to kiss;
I am...

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