Long Schemed Poems

Medieval Poems



Deor's Lament (Anglo Saxon poem, circa 10th century AD)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Weland knew the agony of exile.
That indomitable smith was wracked by grief.
He endured countless troubles:
sorrows were his only companions
in his frozen...

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Date:   April  2045
 
An excellent April afternoon blooming.
Damali is now 19 years old this
Day. Damali was thinking of his future 
Stretched out at his study desk.
He had been enrolled for a year...

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In the realm of moons and breathless tides,
where promises dance with a serendipitous sonnet of sunrises,
along with morning kisses, unfolds a love story—
a poetic novel etched in the chronicles
within the hourglass of time,
a journey that...

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From my lowly bachelor’s house
Proudly christened ‘Embassy Fair’
I woke up to the chirping of birds
On the trees above and across the vale
And the riverine bushes in-between
I woke up to the crowing of cocks
And the mooing...

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In realms where thought and tempests meet
where shifting sands outpace the feet
a creature stirs with cunning guise
Circumlocution cloaked in darkened skies
its words like desert viper’s sting
they strike the heart then coil and cling.

Through jungles thick...

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POTD 21 November 2017

So professional in his lies - So ruthless in his ambition
Feeding lies to the simple folk - convincing in his deception
Telling them they live on toxic farm land - succeeds in striking...

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These are the best sports poems by Michael R. Burch, Part V

Just Smile
by Michael R. Burch

We'd like to think some angel smiling down
will watch him as his arm bleeds in the yard, 
ripped off by...

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"The Wife's Lament" or "The Wife's Complaint" is an Old English/Anglo Saxon poem found in the Exeter Book, which has been dated to 960-990 AD, making it the oldest English poetry anthology. "The Wife's Lament"...

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Don't ask me how it happened; I have no clear recollection. I have always had this brazen habit of coming right out and directly asking for whatever I want; I always figured "no!" was the...

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Sabati was eight years old on the day
that his grandfather told him to sit down,
there was a story that he had to share,
that he was finally old enough now.

Sabati looked up to Grandpa Kaahbli,
had heard...

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In the collected fleece 
Soft white dappled against a crisp blue sky
Morning broke to its light of passion
As the phantom shades
Bowed their acquiescence
To the brush works of beauty 

All came to nothing
Rolled beneath the rubber
Black...

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He has a name that is above all names!
He was given it and also earned it, you see!
There has never been another 
ever quite like him,
because of what he did 
for you and for me!

See,...

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There are visions roving inside my head 
of a time and place where perhaps I once lived.
But how do I know of those worldly things
if I no longer exist?  I must question if I...

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Part I: "Shadow of Intent"

Beneath the blaze of summer skies—
    A couple met by fate;
She lived where marble towers rise,
    While he bore fortune's weight.

His lady, clad in blue-white...

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Ethel Hurst

1889 – 1918

I saw the town rise up
Like a single blade of grass after a spring rain.
I played a multitude of hop-scotch games
With my best friend Hannah on Penn Street.
And sipped a hundred ice...

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THEY SAID HE HAD A POOR ATTITUDE
HE WAS A SORE LOSER
A PERSON WHO TRAINED HARD
AND FOLLOWED COACHES INSTRUCTION
BUT WOULD SELDON TAKE DEFEAT IN STRIDE
HE WAS SEEN BY HIS FOOLOW COMRADS AS
A PERSON YOU WANT ON...

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Deep in the dungeon in the back left corner 
Was a mere shell of what was once a man.
He was shackled to the wall of his own design
By the love of his lady so fair,...

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A variation on a theme by Dr. Seuss...

There once was a Grinch who was bad to the bone,
Which was why he always spent Christmas alone,
But one year the Grinch said, "Enough is enough!"
And decided to...

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Ride of the Scarecrow Clan

(To: Mittens) 

She was born in the corn on a cold misty morn,
the most beautiful cat on the farm.
(I must keep her from coming to harm!)
The most beautiful kitty inspired this...

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For forty days and forty nights,
He fasted by religious rites;
No nourishment sustaining him beneath the burning sun.
And so it passed that he should meet,
Amidst the desert's scorching heat,
The mastermind of all deceit, the undeserving one.

The...

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(Esther 5: 2)



The King Held Out To Esther
The Golden Scepter
That Was In His Hand

She Was His Queen
The Woman Who Fulfilled His Dreams
One of The Most Beautiful In All His Lands

But It Was Persian Law For...

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There once were three magical pigs.
They were neighbors that danced the jig.
The wolf in the valley
Sometimes walked down their alley.
He was hungry for one of those pigs!

Pig-one lived in a house made of straw.
He looked...

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In the beginning there was man
Alone and needing to be fulfilled
He wondered if he was alone in the universe 
He was not complacent be so…
he schemed
Planned and design 
built machinations do his bidding…
His spawn.

Then the...

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What kinds of truth is known to me
I do not know
In the deaths news by air media,
In fear of the new disease
Rightly I am disbeliever

Dark knowledge
In the fathomless dark circumstances
I am drowning

Uneducated fully
In that disease...

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Take it to yourself, 
upkeep on everybodies health. 
Deserve the true meaning of wealth,
for when ambition starts linking evolution, 
exploding into glorious fruition. 
Leaving the weak behind to wallow 
in stinking pollution.
   
...

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