Long Pheasants Poems

LOVE POEMS III by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, relationships, devotion and marriage. 


Violets
by Michael R. Burch

Once, only once,
when the wind flicked your skirt
to...

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Instruction
by Michael R. Burch

Toss this poem aside
to the filigreed and the wild tide
of sunset.

Strike my name,
and still it is all the same.
The onset

of night is in the despairing skies;
each hut shuts its bright bewildered eyes.
The...

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My most popular poems on the Internet (II)

A number of my poems and translations have gone viral, according to Google, and some have been copied onto hundreds to thousands of web pages. That’s a lot...

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Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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I Have Labored Sore
anonymous medieval lyric (circa the fifteenth century)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

I have labored sore / and suffered death, 
so now I rest / and catch my breath.
But I shall come /...

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Translations of the Oldest English Rhyming Poems

The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem aka The Riming Poem
Old English/Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(excerpt)
He who granted me life...

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I stood at the top of our dirt driveway looking back at our two-story house. It's kind of a long house where, from our second-floor windows, you can see cars driving on the lane road...

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She was a dairymaid, oh so sweet;
many a year ago.
Her figure was trim, her hair was neat,
with ringlets tied up in a bow.
And many a farmer would leave his plough,
the turkeys and chickens, and even...

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It seems a shame that you're not here
To share my evening stroll with me, 
As I walk down this gravel road
That takes off just outside of town.
Two pheasants flush from bar ditch pools
(The grassy soup...

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Arlis and Grunt  left shortly after breakfast for all humans dog and pups.Otherwise the young man could not have slipped up unaware.In the day to day security
Of uneventfulness and the nipping yipping of the...

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Ruth
Whose mudhouse is in silent dale?
Who liveth in lane so desolate?
Is this the house of saddest Ruth?
From madding world thus isolate
 
Oh I've seen her in cornfield
She picks the sheaves of corn with girls
Which gems...

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"There are too many to count in just one day, so let me poetize it this way"   
A thousand dreams have sailed away a thousand more have sailed me home, and 
Bartering with...

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An English Life

It is midnight the Milk train pulls into darnall station
No ordinary passengers here
Steelworkers with their families
Loaded with fishing tackle, sandwiches and maggots
The Fossdyke in Lincolnshire, their destination
The fare Half a crown for happiness

The...

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In moonlit night , in silver shine
From heavens I in this world peep
In my soul silver intervine
With body on the earth it leap
No chart in hands, no light Divine
That showed me way in shadows deep
For...

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Surrounded by tranquil turquoise waters,
Guarded on sides by oceans three,
In the east by the Pacific,
On the south by the Celebes Sea,
And on the west by the south China Sea, 
There is an archipelago on the...

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Written: April 14, 2024, For Silent One Forgotten Fields Contest

Rumi Verse: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too...

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Staff rod in hand, and on my feet a pair of good hardy leather shoes
Set off onto the bight coastal track to a view of many colourful hues

In four score plus nine of my years;...

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Second Home by Rob Barratt

An escape from the rat race. 
Life lived at a slower pace
An idyllic setting they won’t be letting
The cottage slumbers , 
Like the electricity meter numbers
It’s early March. 
The house is...

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I am wearing heavy feathers
with the gaze of the day lit to my backside.
A rotisserie routine,
hot with punishment and prayer.
Prayer for punishment,
punishment for prayer.

Answers from a sky beaded in blue birds,
upon gods’ supposed pretty blue...

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All night, all night came  shimmering light 

And lit all winding unseen ways
In clusters came there from the skies
The angels , elves and beauteous fays

Oh Cacusus mount , thou clad in myth! 
Thou bath...

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Early in the year a young man walks with a stout Yew stick firmly on his shoulder,
Resting on damp grey stone looking all around watching the dicky birds and smiling,
Rising from the stone he drops...

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Early in the year a young man walks with a stout Yew stick firmly on his shoulder,
Resting on damp grey stone looking all around watching the dicky birds and smiling,
Rising from the stone he drops...

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Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

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Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

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On the day our eyes open to the prism of the sun

On that day, Winter solitude  would be gone

The avalanche of differences melts into nothingness 

Through the same breath,through  the same soul

We would...

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