Long Loathsome Poems

Medieval Poems



Wulf and Eadwacer
(Old English circa 990 AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

My people pursue him like crippled prey.
They'll rip him apart if he approaches their pack.
We are so different!

Wulf's on one island; I'm on...

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ALBERT EINSTEIN POEMS

These are "poems" I created from Albert Einstein quotes, changing a word here and there for the sake of meter and rhyme...



A question that sometimes drives me hazy: 
am I or are the...

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Sonnets X-XVI


Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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The Picture of Dorian Gray: Paint Me As An Event
The Picture of Dorian Gray, a decent fanciful novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde, published in 1890. The novel, the only one written by Wilde, had...

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Of Ghosts and Fiends in Twilight


The sun sank low on the darkening horizon
Grey mist hung adrift over the land thickening
A cold, brisk autumn wind held and embraced me 
With my horse’s pace and that of...

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Zulaikha:
What a bird you are, o red-billed Bird, 
you don’t eat reddish mangoes!
By eating which ash, will you exist then
in this bower of fate?

Yusuf:
That there is any fruit better than the name of God
and any...

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After serving six long hard years at Methacton State penitentiary...

as mini reunion number 
XLV fast approaches 
Saturday, April 30th, 7:00 pm 
until 10:00 pm
at The Trappe Tavern, 416 West 
Main Street, Trappe, PA 19426
regarding graduating...

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The Bloodstone, The Raven And Master Poe,
Part Three of Three


There came hammer knocking on the back door
As Poe was acting out pitiful moans
Raven thought, could this be from Hell's dark shore
Another beast hearing anguishing groans
Then...

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Ever  so  ornamental                       
       ...

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Within my quasi moat toad lily padded immediate environs

Meaning the corporeal complex edifice
housing these lovely bones, 
where linkedin logorrhea ably
strives to break out 
in meaningless song 
yobble hum hum diddle dee dee
and dance courtesy 
an...

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Picturebook Princess

for Keira

We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter! 

With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her...

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POTD 13 March 2019

Welcome! - We are excited to release our very first Visual Video Poem. 

(I trust you will enjoy the complete production effects and the superb narration by Dorsey Jackson (Deeja) on the...

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Open up your mind and your heart for a change
Please don’t hesitate, 
For, you aren’t pushing the limits
If I were yours, 
I wouldn’t be drawing near to depression
Heads up! Don’t slouch down
Lift your head from...

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Re: viewing the emotionally prosperous papa razz zee life I did not live

The following poetic account 
written more'n a dozen 
dirty dancing decades ago, 
while I (a socially 
withdrawn Homo Sapiens) 
one indigent Yahoo 
groveled...

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This piece was inspired, many years ago, by the magnificent poem - "The Highwayman" -



‘Neath an ivory moon in a cobalt sky, on a clear and silky night, 
On ebon steed, with pistol drawn, I...

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The Hunters sallied forth... their hearts aglow
    with a fearlessness displayed.
A pugnacious merry band of brothers
    who to a boy were not afraid.
To find the foe they hoped to...

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Across figurative and literal blackened white board...

Where death of democracy writ large,
nevertheless psychological strength predominates
unlike earlier chapters of mein kampf.

Mine hardscrabble existential debacle 
spelled losing game
swept me up in malevolent mindset 
far adrift from harbored...

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This the Devil Will See!

1960.  New to our new neighborhood,
I wondered how mom and dad had gotten so rich?
For the first single-family home of my life,
And I realize only now, of theirs, too!

Two floors....

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Free association comprises ratiocination...

Bonafide catatonic doggedness,
nevertheless this stubborn stoic poet writ
afore and another feeble effort courtesy
exhaustive mental effort
he brewed den - brought about divine visit
analogously to solve mystery pinpointing
within suspense unveiling whodunnit.

Whereat your true
plane vanilla...

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Free association comprises ratiocination...

Bonafide catatonic doggedness,
nevertheless this stubborn stoic poet writ
afore and another feeble effort courtesy
exhaustive mental effort
he brewed den - brought about divine visit
analogously to solve mystery pinpointing
within suspense unveiling whodunnit.

Whereat your true
plane vanilla...

Read More

Ruing the emotionally prosperous papa razz zee life I did not live

The following poetic account 
written more'n a dozen dirty dancing decades ago, 
while I (a socially withdrawn Homo Sapiens) 
groveled along (on a secret...

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anticipatory anxiety fosters catastrophization...,

especially bombardment of online scare tactics
courtesy fiendish insidious loathsome sinister oafs
rubbing their hands at aggrieved party;
punch drunk cyber thieves ecstatic
acquiring by hook and/or crook
sought after precious, priceless, and proverbial data
after loosed ransomware...

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Thinking of you
is mesmerizing and
true…just like
morning dew, it’s
fresh and I’m
actually feeling
brand new – that’s
something new
I run around in
circles…I’m spinning
around and round!
Going insane,
running in the rain
and not singing the
blues 
Out of the blue,
I’ve lost my other
shoe…sick...

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We Call Him “Tommy”

We have a lovely Tom cat
He lives most out of doors
I wondered if they kick him out
Because he loudly snores

If I had a lovely “Snowshoe”
I wouldn’t let him out to roam
He would...

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[They lived in terror.  A dark cloud seeping inside souls tearing love
and kindness away]

I am lost for words to describe the agony of my reflection inflicted upon me;  the beast born by a...

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