Long Mantled Poems

An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

Read More

Poems about Poets VII

Gallant Knight
by Michael R. Burch

for Alfred Dorn and Anita Dorn

Till you rest with your beautiful Anita,
rouse yourself, Poet; rouse and write.
The world is not ready for your departure,
Gallant Knight.

Teach us to sing...

Read More

That afternoon at Highgate
When my life had paused awhile, 
Old graves and headstones greeted 
With their sad and forlorn smile.

Smirched epitaphs stared at me
My call they wanted to know, 
Though vowed in pensive silence
With the...

Read More

See the crimson sunset seething against the white
Cloud scant of history, a blazing fire 
In the salt sea of my veins, dark shade in the night,
Voiceless and invisible, my desire
To be began in her mantled...

Read More

My Childhood Home


My lovely childhood home, I miss it so...
built Eighteen Eighty-Six, so long ago.

Three floors, all rooms with mantled fireplaces; 
carved woodwork, archways, spindled winding stair;
cathedral ceilings, sparkling chandelier
in dining room enjoyed on holidays.
Third...

Read More

Where, like frolicking children, the rivers run
Where planets spin in loop lassooed by the sun
Where the berries grow in bramble brush
Where atoms born and atoms die in finite hush
I searched for you before today, wait...

Read More

we did not Dye in vain!
 
from “songs of the sea snails”
 
though i’m just a slimy crawler,
my lineage is proud:
my forebears gave their lives
(oh, let the trumps blare loud!)
so purple-mantled Royals
might stand out in...

Read More

As the winter drifts with the northern wind
Some high latitude areas of north hemisphere
Will be in the clasp of sporadic snowstorms
Others will be mantled with dense opaque frost
Longing to feel the reviving warmth of the...

Read More

It might as  well be another late afternoon
when new moon rises, bathed in honeydew 
and gleaming with soft weariness: above,
mantled clouds bleach the lanes with first tinges
of blue-gray light, while figure sway pouring tea...

Read More

Cherokee chamber,
where a pow wow stampeedes preconceptions of inheritence,
from Her beaded neck charms of chance & chains of change
glisten from opulent offerings of roots, corn & lavender ablaze
on an alter of unworked stone mantled with...

Read More

I was drawn to her in temporal depth of night,
glancing her way in beams of harvested light
But in mourning her, I wept behind shrouds,
concealed by a hovering bank of sullen clouds

She'd danced for me in...

Read More

The afternoon clouds came floating by, rolled over the hills, and fleeting streaks of orange hues flashed the sky. Incense-colored wisps of wind mantled the earth. Like a dream, the flowers withered and faded. 

A...

Read More

She lay there quiet as the moon, in a sky blue cap filled with golden hair of bright 
and as the stars erased the ebon of the sky, I heard a little whimper plight 
and...

Read More

Celestial jewel, resplendent in space—
unique to creation, now fallen from Grace.
Once mantled in radiance, sum essence of beauty,
good earth, you embraced both destiny and duty.

By nature you nuture, sustaining all life,
abundant and selfless—yet burdened with...

Read More

Entered the dense wilderness; 
Huge trees mantled together, 
Seem to reach the sunless skies, 
And their tender leaves turn 
Vibrant with soft tips smelling sweet.
No golden rays dare to peep
Through their leafy pinnacle, 
Where only...

Read More

MIRACLE OF CHILDHOOD REGAINED



Snow  - my dream  miracle, 
To me has always called, never  cold. 
Serenely reposing, softly refreshing
Like  flowing water over a low  weir. 
Submerging  sharp corners; ...

Read More

Midnight chimed day assassination, 
  sudden as a brain haemorrhage, 
  star-stabbed by psychotic pins; 
  issues aborted of carbonised wombs 
  blacked streets, tar-slithered. 
Recovering drunk, cold sobered, 
 ...

Read More

Midnight chimed day assassination, 
  sudden as a brain haemorrhage, 
  star-stabbed by psychotic pins; 
  issues aborted of carbonised wombs 
  blacked streets, tar-slithered. 
Recovering drunk, cold sobered, 
 ...

Read More

their nails were rimmed with blue and grey 
a clinical circle was bordering stain
noisily blossoming; smeared by the pain
the indigo purpled and mantled her flay 
a bruising delusional; deafened contusional 
denting and doubling and bubbling...

Read More

Crafty, conniving, sly and stately,
I am associated with dead and lost souls,
An ominous bird of yore spawning myths and legends,
A messenger of deities in the mortal world, 
I am a wily mediator between life and...

Read More

No breath of air to ease my heart,
No reason found to be a part,
The time has come to close my eyes
As my soul goes where the raven flies.

Outstretched I feel my fingernails
Join with dark wings...

Read More

Our fishing guide thought I wanted to catch fish –
that I had come to the River’s Edge to catch
a mottled Brown for a mantled photograph.

I should have told him that I cared not for a...

Read More

The blue turned grey turned to blankets of white,
Midwinter’s shroud that mantled field and town,
A breath of north resounds across the night,
To leave a frosty sparkle on winter’s gown.
Beneath the moon the fairies come to...

Read More

She left in the Winter 
With the fading colors of fall.
As blossom mantled hillsides 
Smothering life beneath snow’s blanket
We laid her to rest.
Sweet songs of sorrow echoed the air.
No comfort brought comfort.
No smile brought joy.
While...

Read More

Have you ever seen a talking Lunar Moon
Wrapped in a sarcenet heart-gold cocoon
Floating in the night sky like a balloon
Breathing the fire like the dance of typhoon?

She is...
An Angel mizzled from Heaven with snow flurry...

Read More