Long Rider Poems

Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it's useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I'm guiltless, yet my sentence has...

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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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I’m A “Street Fighter” 
You see the “Wings” CHUN 
LI
“BRUCE WAYNE”
 “LEROY”
“LU”
KAME
“THE LAST DRAGON BREATHS”
You don’t want “NUN”-CHUCK
NORE IS ANY ENTITY
Check my IP MAN
my Impulse 
 “Ki”
I’m the “1ONE” Fearless 
Jackie’s First Strike “Unleashed”
In a...

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[If you’re a glutton for punishment, you
Can find ‘Mad Molly Shaw’ using the poems
Tag at top of screen]
              ****

Mad Molly Shaw wasn’t...

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Increase In Head Size

impossible mission to encapsulate notion 
flitting hither and yon, to and fro
within cranium attached to mine body,
whereby irrefutable proof prevails
predicated when yours truly
scrutinizes other people visibly aware,
I a modest married male 
blessed,...

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"A dressed day has disrobed into the depth of a drawer's nightstand." 

(Oh, how positively awesome that what can be sorted out in such an explanatory pattern that a difference would maketh a day.)

The muskiness...

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Of Ghosts and fiends in Twilight, Cont.


A thought flashed in my mind from the old tales told
The lore of the beast and I had felt his foul breath
I had seconds to act or be devoured...

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Kentucky's late summer sunshine
sunk deep into their skin
as the boy rode on the back
of his Grandfather's coppered horse,
the tobacco harvest would begin soon,
aromas of sweet leaf darkness
were wafting in the field heat,
to the big barn...

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Blind Man’s Five-Legged Dog Rap 

Yo, gather 'round the table, let me spin you a tale, 'Bout a blind man named Benny, he was never frail. Owned a dog with five legs, yeah, you heard...

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World Bleeders (#777 words)


If you claim to be sane
in this crazy whirled we live
I pity the world in your domain
in that you forget to forgive
I think your normal is abnormal
You must be one of the...

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I had gotten to that stage,
Where true love was but a mirage.
When one is hurt too many times
By these daughters of Eve,
The heart must surely cease to give
Until such a time as right
To smile again...

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DESCRIBE HEAVEN FOR THE BEAUTY

For the beauty of heaven Golden gates, made of gold;
Environment perfect temperature not hot nor cold;
Holy dwelling of the Most High Lord ;
For the beauty of heaven;
Can't even begin to comprehend...

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Renee Vivien Translations


Song
by Renée Vivien
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When the moon weeps,
illuminating flowers on the graves of the faithful,
my memories creep
back to you, wrapped in flightless wings.

It's getting late; soon we will sleep
(your eyes...

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My mother always took the bus.  I never understood why.  We had a car, but she insisted on taking the bus uptown.  I think she did it because father would not let...

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An Introduction to Max
 
Hi, I am a mastiff cross and my name is Max. To be precise it’s Magical Maxi the Wonder Dog but you can call me Max. That’s not to say I...

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Sometimes I think I should just run and hide
And become somebody else
Leave all of my troubles and worries behind
But you can’t run and hide from yourself

Sometimes I think I hear voices in my head
And see...

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SOJOURN THROUGH TAROTSPACE

Let me tell you a story,
Of a deck of cards, in all its glory.
Well, some will say, what’s the big deal?
To them my humble reply, come, conquer, and heal.

The story is my take,
On...

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Sunday morning early, five a.m to be
precise, my mind awakes, then gently succours
the body to arise from one’s mundane sleep. I
then transfer to Britain via 1ZB, listening
to the English football commentary, it’s worth
the lack of...

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Who suggests a trip back...rides to this bit of nostalgia in the middle years of the Great Depression aboard a Chicago elevated train, "the El." We hurdle head-long above asphalt blanketed streets that are determined...

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This year's Halloween edition....





"Pale Horse and the Yellow Submarines"



There approaches 
One

Light bringer
rides a dead pony

albino 
red eyed, no gun

or so 
the story goes

pale 
as death

hear its 
Netherworld neigh

beetles 
dig deep 

pigeons coo 
novocained

ignorant 
messages fixed

dull...

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I had never before glimpsed the sea, and I had often felt the lack,
As rainbows sense the lack of luster, so they keep on coming back.

I dwelled in a pastoral area, quite far from any...

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Oh look here— behold a dandelion woman
the original wild flower!
I go where I want to go
I grow where I want to grow —
don't matter if   y o u   say no

dandelion wine...

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When guys get so old
pubic hairs
are as long as penises

It's not time to grow
a longer and fatter, more drivable,
penal delivery system
promising retributive rape
of an entire planet.

It is time to trim back
over-Yanged investment hedges
blocking more pedestrian-friendly
RightBrain...

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The radio plays their song
And two hearts beat as one
To the rhythm of a tune they call their own.
The gold and platinum vinyl spins
Creating the sound where love begins.
If only for the moment, they have...

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I already hear the Twittering Trumpers
and Trumpettes
in their unholy locker rooms
reducing the marching evolution of nurturing feminist matriarchs
to another whine,
too gooey,
shrill and screechy,
nagging nanny stroll away from True Patriarchal White Male empowerment.

Never minding Mother's ecological...

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