Long Rhymed Poems

Poem revised Memorial Day May 30th, 2022 at 1500 hours

Flagrante delict adulterous sordid behavior 
automatically linkedin with Lothario;
an unscrupulous seducer of women, 
based upon a character 
in The Impertinent Curious Man, 
a story within a...

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The Original Sin: Rhyming Haiku!
 
Haiku
should never rhyme:
it’s a crime!
-Michael R. Burch
 
The herons stand,
sentry-like, at attention ...
rigid observers of some unknown command.
-Michael R. Burch
 
Late
fall;
all
the golden leaves turn black underfoot:
soot
-Michael R. Burch
 
Dry leaf...

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“The Remaining”

PROLOGUE:  “Terra Firma and The Bitumen”


"The slow descent into Hell
Had led Her mind to escape to Heaven
Her firmament was Her Mind
Her body just a Shell"


Heaven for Her existed in The Dream
She called Her...

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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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I know you invited the Brothers to side-line along,
but only if we are here to listen;
Don't speak.

Yet I may have credential for qualifying voice.
For I, like some of you,
know what it means to develop cooperative,
too...

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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...

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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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Prose Poems

Something
by Michael R. Burch

Something inescapable is lost?lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight, vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars immeasurable and void. Something uncapturable is...

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I wanted to write
 The best slavery poem   ever written—
Perhaps win a Pulitzer or Faulkner. 

I had every intention of conforming 
To the standards 
Of modern verse and composition, 
Lyrics fluidly written, 
Perfect...

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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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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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At first, it wasn't my father's Oldsmobile.
Then, there came a longing for a new identity
with an invasion of one morphing after another.
Next thing I knew, there was 'no' Oldsmobile.
It seems that so many things started...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

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The past can’t tell the future; I'd almost forgotten this,
The past six years had brought me higher yields than average,
Though expectations soared, now nada, nothing, zilch.
Our wheat fields decimated from the lack of rain.
And those...

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Translation of Kendji Girac and Claudio Capeo's Que Dieu me pardonne by T Wignesan 

Lyrics by Kendji Girac and Renaud REBILLAUD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2jp31jFMc

(The two young French songsters' duet, now, yo-yo-ing in the upper echelons of c-Star...

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This is a lethal ink injection.
I know I’m blessed to have rejection 
Haters in my life 
only lead to introspection 
Understand 
I’m still the man
Who are you to question 
I agree to disagree
With all your...

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"You are a part of me
I do not yet know"
claims interdependent Valarie Kaur

And I wonder,
Is she speaking to me?
Or rhetorically asking any stranger
except me,
already known
because I feel her same unitarian way
already grown

Ego/Eco-centering balanced
symmetrically integral
as a...

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RHYME SCHEME abcb

Thick mist / sharp rocks cut
Dense rain / strong wind whips
Vast drought / weak build folds
Trade boon / graft wrecks ships

RHYME SCHEME aaba

Thick mist / sharp rock strips
Dense rain / strong wind whips
Vast...

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When the American flag waved bravely, for women it did not FURL.
However, many bold and determined women have changed the WORLD.

I am a proud bother of 8 sisters;
Two of whom are older and 6 are...

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FOX NEWS article rhymed 

When Donald Trump lost the presidency, Fox News lost too
“We’re bleeding eyeballs,” a Fox producer remarked “And we’re scared of blue”
But unlike Trump, Fox was never in denial about its loss...

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"Each popular belief sans proof endures."    
-- Jezeús
 
*   *   *
      
Despite the countless beings dying here as well as there,   
this earth is...

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The buttery changed the subject
To lighten the atmosphere
He decided to make the object
My preoccupation with fear

The butterfly said, “Why are you afraid to give something a try?”
“You shouldn’t worry, you’re not gonna die”
“Are you afraid...

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8 LINE CHALLENGE For ERIC BODDIE


8 LINE CHALLENGE for Eric Boddie

Line challenge for Eric Bodie
 PLEASE KEEP IT GOING
by:  All of Us

Eight lines at a time
I don't care if you do or do not...

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The Gift of ‘Not’ Knowing

I have toyed with the thought of free-will as a curse
(Hell reserved for bad choices, but Grace earned a joke?)
Is there madness or peace for those gifted by God
(or by dust...

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