Long Rondel 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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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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Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain...

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Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



Rondel: Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot...

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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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Three Roundels by Geoffrey Chaucer

I. Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my...

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Escape
roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
translation by Michael R. Burch

Since I’m escaped from Love and yet still fat,
I never plan to be in his prison lean;
Since I am free, I count it not a bean.

He may question...

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Some will say
The Rondel Grand Modified

Let's accept fact, none is perfect
Yes, errors occur though 'twas checked;
It is OK, don't be upset.
Oh! yes, there is a fear of threat;
Some will say odds, decry.

There will be some...

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Ground trembled
Houses fell, city mangled
Loss and Chaos bull having free run

Many deaths, overnight many born as new orphan  
On Ritchers scale, quake measured by Homo Sapien  

Human destroying Nature on big scale 
Natures...

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My heart is on fire with blazing passion for you
'cause you torched my heart with flames of your love.
The spark in your eyes with flickering light full of love
winking me, fueling my burning desires for...

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Rondel Pain

Poetry can inflict pain like a sharp rondel dagger, 
Encircling each word with bigoted judgments on hand. 
Down a spiral staircase a poet’s thoughts may stagger. 
Semi-circular fashioned, ideas traverse memories’ span.  ...

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For Jared Pickett's Trois Par Huit.....Tanka.....Rondel Contest:

It is fall
and now I’ve tasted gall -
prefaced by a final kiss from you.

The moon, huge ball above that shines a golden hue,
seems a sign auspicious - but oh,...

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a rondel

We rode by and caught The Thinker  in France, 
one small window of time, recklessly close.
The Vatican has many small windows
when in Rome, we’d stood by, long in advance. 

Rows of windows, we'd...

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Tears subside,
hushed breaths draw ebbing tide,
soft virgin sands, un-walked and damp, shine.

A delicate filigree of silvery brine
brings an interlude where grief and beauty entwine,
gently swaying between now and then.

Thoughts of ‘remember when’
stir again.

Scattered far and...

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go to dine
start with a little wine
present her your own natural self

Compliments are a sure way to keep off the shelf
never speak of money or your personal wealth
stay focused and see ways to relate

order food...

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<                                  ...

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Thumbs wiggling on east wing, backstage
lines skipped like a broken record
with trails of script on hand, sweat poured,
pale rose-in-waiting was I on moist page

Theater brimmed as crowds filled seats, agaped 
bright spotlights roamed, my eyes...

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Trois Par Huit..Tanka..Rondel

You and me
Fell so passionately
And although we had no direct plan.

I just desired you to be my biggest fan.
Love can be beautiful between woman and man.
So as I close my eyes, I can...

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My Father's Blessing (A Rondel)

His wrinkled hand would touch my head
And lift his eyes to the mountains:
He’d ask the Lord that I be blessed,
Have His peace and enough graces.

Excited, off I went with speed -
Lived...

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The Priest with Spirited Eyes


Heart sees tender giving in those spirited eyes,-
  Shared love given to those with great need!
   Comforting hearts that hurt but don't bleed,
 With love spent in helping...

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Wasted days
Wandering through life’s maze
Trying to sort the truth from the lies

I call out, but it seems nobody hears my cries
With each futile attempt, something inside me dies
Skies overhead are filled with thunder

What was my...

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Trois Par Huit--Tanka--Rondel

**A Love In Transition**


My mission,
this love in transition.
Started, a platonic love as friends.

It was not my intent, no more can I pretend.
These impending changes, remissed as I contend.
The muse of my latest poetry,

potent,...

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