Long Rejoiced Poems

Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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Medieval Poem V

A Proverb from Winfred's Time
anonymous Old English poem, circa 757-786
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
The procrastinator puts off purpose,
never initiates anything marvelous,
never succeeds, and dies alone.

2.
The late-deed-doer delays glory-striving,
never indulges daring dreams,
never succeeds,...

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Winter Awakens My Care
anonymous Middle English poem, circa 1300
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how everything...

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On that night the moon seemed hidden from her starry brothers
The kind of night not suited for the fighters nor the lovers
I ventured out only to put out the low burning lamp
When there I saw...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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Sings the story at twilight 
When the moon is just rising, 
Sings a simple troubadour 
The short tale of life. 

How a fine boy, 
Born in a palace, 
A palace like crystal, 
Became a proud...

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The Lord is faithfull.!
Thesselonians ch 3 v 3-5

Jerimiah in the midst of the rebbelious people, had taken
Note of a sobdrly clad 'new group to his awareness' he made
Enquiry at the market stalls, and was told...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem
Old English Poem (i.e., Anglo-Saxon Poem) from the Exeter Book, ca. 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this sun
and...

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The Rhymed Poem aka The Rhyming Poem and The Riming Poem - Part II
anonymous Old English Poem from the Exeter Book, circa 990 AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

He who granted me life created this...

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There sits behind deep forests hidden,
A sight to behold, place of all sins ridden,
Where the great rivers give life and churn,
A thousand diamonds and the trees sing
Along with the wind, ruled by the great King.

Generous...

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PART 1:          THE MEETING

Alone one night neath lantern light, I trudged a weary mile.
Forlorn, I went with shoulders bent (the storms around me howled)
until I met...

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(4.)
As Midnight Hours Call In More Darkened Hosts

Slow flows a river of doubt and regret
foaming its swirling eddies and sad pits
cavernous echoes one can not forget
nor withstand jagged cuts and hardest hits!

As sun retreats and...

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And the music began,
And with power so strong, I nearly fell back from the force
Snarling, smiling, demons held me upright,
As the Precarious Prince began,

“Dare you in silence come to me, Daughter of Eve,
To challenge my...

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Christ!
A warparty of 60 Shoshone warriors has just stampeded into the meadow
faces painted red and white for blood and death, all sorts of strange designs,
bows and arrows ready to fly on us, skull breaking cudgels...

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BEING ABLE TO SEE 
MY OWN ENERGY, 
MY OWN FREQUENCY
FROM INSIDE OUT 
AND OUTSIDE IN
AT THE SAME TIME,
FELT AND SEEMED NORMAL.
I COULD FEEL THE ENERGY.
I WAS THE ENERGY.
I AM THE ENERGY, THE FREQUENCY.
I AM WHOLE,...

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Personal vicissitudes pronounced irrepressible self loathing

Ever since mine late boyhood
when unstoppable coded 
cellular processes did segue
I experienced abhorrence
toward yours truly,
an extremely introverted kid,
whose parents nor siblings
(one younger and older sister) could
not arouse him 

out of...

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"You in the military?"

I was confused at first and didn't know why the man would ask me such a question. But then I remembered my recent haircut.

"No... is it because I shaved my head, that...

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Me Pretty Parrot

 
                               ...

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Later that day, I fell upon my knees and prayed to God fervently,
“Lord God, with us, among us, I am ever grateful, and I am ever joyous,
I thank You for the gift of life,
And the...

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AKULA

Mark and I caught the last plane from Ft. Lauderdale to New Orleans to escape Hurricane Andrew, leaving Akula ,our boat, tied up at Rolly Shipyard to face the wrath alone. The next few hell...

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And then the Head Elephant rose from the dead 
Surprising and shocking everyone
All cheered, “He is alive!” they shouted
“He lives!”

The opposition wrung their hands, 
Beads of sweat poured from their brows.
They had been so sure,...

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The Enlightenment Of A Once Lost Soul,
(A sad tale of life lived,  in three sonnets united)....
 
 
I.
Alas! Can man ever conquer such doom and gloom
walk in the light, a true path forswearing to...

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If I can say it,
but not sing it,
or even hum a resonant melody
that feels like it,
then perhaps my greater gift
is silence,
at least for now,
until toxic seeds
ripen into our healthiest
resilient,
harmonious,
fertile wealth.

So, sing to me,
divinely doctrined Missionaries
and...

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A jailer has never two similar days
never knowing what will be next
I should know for that's what I do
way back in the days of no text

There were these two prisoners
two Christians Paul and Silas by...

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Part 1

One summer in our youth group was a boy
I met.  How I would love to understand
if what he’d felt was equal to the joy
that bloomed in me when he caressed my hand.

His elfin...

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