Long Raveled Poems

Veronica Franco translations

Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was a Venetian courtesan who wrote literary-quality poetry and prose.

Capitolo 19: A Courtesan's Love Lyric (I) 
by Veronica Franco
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

"I resolved to make a virtue of...

Read More

The problem is her lips.
They don't form smiles any more than waves decide of their own accord 
to lift themselves up off of the ocean's surface.
And if lips are meant to be drowsy shutters
then hers...

Read More

A mind inquisitive will find
while looking out upon the world
that myriads of whys unwind
from raveled webs in queries whirled
by skies above and realms below.
There’s always more than we can know.

If contemplating mysteries
of life’s existence here...

Read More

The seeds of self-destructive strife
Were sown soon after drums and fifes
Extolled success from breaking free
From Britain's aristocracy.

The Constitution's writ accedes
Peculiar Institution's needs:
Proportional House seats would be
Increased counting slave property.

Cross purposes within the cloth
Of nationhood revealed...

Read More

I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference. -- Robert Frost


               ...

Read More

A VISION
--------
The raw reflection, she is
The silent mirror of my soul
Who in her stillness channels deep 
The sour secrets that stain
The dying hopes that drain
The heart of their keeper

Her dreamer's dream, like dice
Enfold in the...

Read More

There lived a girl from Azarath,
A world where dark is light,
And all its people fell to Trigon's wrath,
Except the girl named Raven the White.

Her obsidian hair spills like ink in the wind,
From beneath her azure...

Read More

Enlightenment eludes the mind.
Some search within but never find
reality’s enlightened face
adrift in voids of inner space
that leave the touch of truth behind.

Self-titled sages are inclined
while blind themselves to lead the blind
a merry chase that claims...

Read More

. for public domain

Humbling Grumble
(in the presence of "What have you been muttering?"

Like Laura Wingfield and her glass figurines,
indulging her comfort in daily routines,
so near to the living, so far from being alive,
resists drawing breath,...

Read More

The way less traveled I would like to choose
The beaten path offers no challenges indeed
Steer my way with brain in head, feet in shoes

There are no self- help manuals, no formulas
The right for one may...

Read More

In a spring kissed field with clipped wings, feet are tied
Never to display beauty and appeal where all men ride
 
As golden wheat field conceals my broken appendage and sheds

Forgotten as the seasons pass then...

Read More

I dreamt a dream that you weren't there
I figured in some little ways
a rattle of emotions giving us a stare,

A sting of faded love comes back to life
Everything else is drenched
in the world of disguise,

Our...

Read More

From the confines of this, as safe a harbor my needs afford, 
     I began my journey.  
     
     My mind leapt...

Read More

Sunlight morphs into the elixir moonlight
dusk wearing a sequined black silken shawl.
And the daylight truckled the way to twilight,
for embracing the shadows, captivating all.
Nightingale heralding serenades to usher night.

A soothing symphony of cynosure sway,
Empyreal cerulean sun,...

Read More

Hail, oh hypoactive attention deficit,
With a brain that's raveled in tumbleweed,
Inundate thy mind with alchemical medicine,
To satisfy thy folly's focus dressed in tweed. 

Suck the soma from these amphetamines,
Which waken your wary thoughts,
Add a mix...

Read More

THE EDGES WERE RAVELED
I COULD MAKE OUT THE
 AUTHERS SIGNATURE
I MEASURED THE SIZE
AND FOUNDED WHAT
I HAD CAME TO SEE
THE ORGINAL " DUEX dE gRITT"
BY dIZZIE cAULIER GRUMP
I cOULDN'T BELEIVE WHAT WE WERE SEEING
A VISION FROM...

Read More

With timid steps and a trembling heart
I walked through verdant barren paths.
Toward a rusty gate it took my feet
Into a garden of roses among the weeds.
Carmine flowers, dripping in blood
Wrung my heart in pain of...

Read More

I Love.
I love with vehemence divine.
A wisdom less entwined around experience but
Raveled deep within the soul.

I love along the roadway, no signs to
Bind the day.
No sweat and toil,
Just my heart feeling its way through
the darkness.

It’s...

Read More

Happy Birthday “Prof” Franklin
Ninety-Fifth
Written; by Miracle Man
11-27-2019

Happy Birthday “Prof”, and at number ninety-five,
I believe your agile enough, to put down some jive.

Your life is a testimony, to how we should be living,
You’ve harvested less from...

Read More

Come see the dying of the day;
It truly is a sight to see –
The way the last of rays caress
The sighing visage of surrounding trees;

The way the shadows fill the ground
With silent streams of cooling...

Read More

The Showing—2015 
(Apropos an Exhibition of the Times)

The hand of time paints
Upon the canvas of fleeing life;
Each stroke, a unique highway traveled.
Choices of both happiness and strife,
Chasing unanswered complaints:
Leaving weary twisted minds raveled. 
Faith hangs...

Read More

This vicious cycle invades masses,
Deception overwhelms their human eyes,
Little ones grow up before you know it,
A mothers lies,
Become her cries.

This disease of the mind keeps her raveled inside,
This pretense, in bulk, spins her like a...

Read More

In the dark of darkest night, the demons always start their preying;
   preying, hidden from the light, on minds of souls whose lives are fraying.
Fraying into tattered shreds from games deceitful friends are...

Read More

poetically sees
rubescent threads of life
enmesh me in its tortuous hold
as it stings me
with the venom
of a thousand bees

i taste its poison
through memories
raveled tight
in life's intricate grasp
as each victim
became prey
within the 
clasp of death's
atramentous fold

i dangle...

Read More

The rugs in the living room
Are thin in places, and
The dog has scratched
The painted floors.
The end tables are crowded
With family pictures
Instead of knickknacks
Some of the bath towels 
Have slightly raveled edges, 
And a washcloth is...

Read More