Long Raked Poems

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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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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Spring
by Charles d'Orleans (c.1394-1465)
loose translation 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 at whatever passes,
so we can...

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Oasis
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for Beth
 
I want tears to form again
in the shriveled glands of these eyes
dried all these long years
by too much heated knowing.
 
I want tears to course down
these parched cheeks,...

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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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POEMS ABOUT EROS AND CUPID

These are translations of ancient Greek poems about Eros. Eros was the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. While today we tend to think of Cupid as an angelic cherub...

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Introduction: once again I incorporate 
my trademark penchant 
to fabricate fictitiously
portions of the following poetic endeavor
can you care to 
discern fact from fiction?

Attempts at lifelong friendships and holy matrimony...

Shot thru with figuratively cankerous nub,
cuz yours...

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WINTER, 1948 [40 Saxton Street]

for W.W

The winter nights that pass now
are so unlike the winter nights
that passed before, that I often
struggle back in those suspended moments
when sleep grapples for a hold,
to once again hear the...

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It is with tears in my eyes that I write these verses of hope, it is with tears in my eyes I climb the mountain of joy  and stands on top of it and...

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“Blue Angels, Black Sheep, Monitors and The House of Random Penguins” 

The womb
is scooped like 
an over ripe melon
Time is the incorrigible felon,
the forgotten lost garden explored 
overturned and raked, 
neatly messed, 
in more ways...

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When I think about October,                              ...

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Brainstorming until figuratively blue in the gills...,
and finally gung-ho with a poem title
important to yours truly
not disappointing his Facebook fan base,
which electronic affirmation,
and confirmation, breeds gratification
analogous to being
the proud papa begetting offspring
progeny growing up at...

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Argh daylight savings time ends – 2:00 AM November 6th 2022

Hour hands of o'clock get set back 
sixty minutes gaining extra hour of Autumn
round about this same day of November 
every year, what a bum
er,...

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Into the Sturm und Drang fueled maelstrom

Otherwise titled – my poetic impressions of Helene

All la names bespeaking deity froom
Noah Mo' Room India Arc
of Covenant to crypt tick Blood
(sweat and tears) 
of San Gennaro devout wowed,
and/or...

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Vietnam in '68
By Franklin Price
08/10/2020

January '68, I arrived at Cam Rahn Bay
Found out this place, in Vietnam, was the best place I could play
Ground bound, in the Air Force, and living on the beach,
On a...

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(Unsigned, Sealed, and Delivered)

Part 1:
Oh I worked several years at Atari (1)
Always thinking, "It's too good to last,"
Bushnell's (2) leaving - hand writing on rampart -
Though momentum would carry us past.

Nolan's (2) vision was not...

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1. Winter

A peaceful realm, time itself almost frozen
	We play mind games indoors,
		Our joy more in fellowship than fresh air,
	Rubbing one moment against another,
		The friction creating warmth in our hearts.
Yesterday's fireplace ashes, wires to roast marshmallows,
	Always...

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[This is an email I sent to our nephews Mother's Day; it ends with a hard question all of us might want to consider asking ourselves in this epidemic.]

'W. and I went to put flowers...

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This poem is written with a fair of Jamaican Patois but I hope you all get the drift.


Cow Cock Soup


Boy things a get bad, really sad.
Went to bed last night
Mi wife feeling fruity
Mi eyes get...

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...They said the diggings had all been tapped out,
ain’t no way a man could strike it rich now,
but there was work for men, hearty and hale,
had I ever thought of wearing a star?
It’s not the...

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Part Three

  ...swishing away with your sunshrivelled burgundy knotty arms with broad disdainful harvesting sweeps the cobras come out to water in the sweltering heat by the thatched fly-buzzed hole

your low under-the-breath warning tones...

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[A classic example of a tale that wouldn’t 
Behave itself]

Pilchard the penguin shed icicle tears
He cries at the movies as Christmas time nears
While watching ‘The Snowman’ he claps and he cheers
But cries when the friendly...

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My life and my love are the open sea. I do not fear her and she has come to respect this old sailor man. 

Alas, it may be that my life of bliss is only...

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Sand in sheets
scuffing skin and reminding 
last nights attire reaks like bonfire
 a hundred days like this 
   a sea of endless laughs rolling 
     like filmreels infinitely looped...

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Exercising belief about unknowns.
Makes sense to take your best guess.
Using history, numbers, extrapolation.
Getting the trajectory right for re-entry.
Few dissenters left for climate change, evolution.
Nuclear power brings a process to earth
that occurs only in space. Dangerous
but...

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