Long Shingle Poems

Medieval Poems IV



IN LIBRARIOS
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.



Brut (circa 1100 AD, written by Layamon, an excerpt)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R....

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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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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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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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wobbling
   earth
      Phoebus
          slipover
               &
...

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Dragon put out his shingle to be a psycho-analyst. 
        He claims he can cure the blues, in one single visit!
Also says he can stop those bent on...

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Destiny doth accompany, deliver, inveigle America...

Smartly, squarely, summarily into
pall bearing sized hands Helena Handbasket
adorned with Aconite (Monkshood) atop casket
signaling demise, née sealing freedom
(of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness) fate
with eternal bondage super glued gasket.

I...

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It was Christmas Eve, not a soul made a sound,
And not so much as a mouse could be found,
The children had hung their stockings on the hearth,
As a quiet, peacefulness gently fell upon the Earth,
My...

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Myrtle Parker

Myrtle Parker lived on the Riviera,
That’s the English one not the French.
Her favourite tipple is Red Currant Cider,
Only beverage her thirst would quench.

Never did she marry no husband,
Preference for life single and free,
Though kept...

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(In a 19th-century legal judgment studied by all who 
learn the English common law, Sturges v. Bridgeman,
the court found in favour of a "nice" doctor over a
"common" manufacturer, for reasons of pure snobbery.)

The Candyman Can’t

Some...

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____________________________________________________
            /                      ...

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The stretch of water mating with the clear blue sky
 at the horizon as the sun bids good bye
  shades of crimson hue merging with the blue
   a scenery my little eyes...

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She sunk toes into the soft unsettled sand of the blue waves ashore
Moment by moment was all she could grapple
She took one step forward, as the sand bit each nerve with coolness of the ocean
Moment...

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the celebrated sailing frog
     from Montgomery County
     went a court'n, or so the tale iz toad
to a grand ole mansion built around 1910,
    ...

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The landscape is stunning. 
It has a beauty that hits you, 
A sharp, slicing beauty, 
Ringing like a sword slid from it's sheath. 
Beauty that only its beholder can feel, 
A sting like a knife...

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A day by the sea,
You reveal life and death
Happening all at once,
Out of, what seems like, human control,
His control, her control…

Dead birds washed up on the shingle shore.
A baby seal pup amongst the line up...

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1996 when any music styles created became instant hits
To much R&B, rock, rap and any other genre that fits
I remember waking up early, to see my mom say hay hun
Well, she thought that but truth...

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The Mechanic
                             Frank Halliwell

Sam was a gynecologist,
But...

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Streaks of pink 'cross morning skies.
Land shaded lemon; last star dies…
Lightening blue spreads far and wide,
a half red sun. New dawn’s arrived.	

This living desert yawns and wakes.
A foreign sparrow flits and takes
what morsel that darkness...

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It was Christmas Eve, not a soul made a sound,
And not so much as a mouse could be found,
The children had hung their stockings on the hearth,
As a quiet, peacefulness gently fell upon the Earth,
My...

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Dixie Cup Memorial
                  by Odin Roark

How small it is
this bottom of the Dixie cup
looking skyward
holding high the torch
the...

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the play Shout Shingle
is based on a poem by
a well known
celebrity Poet.
it's based in the late twenty first century.
it is the story of a man
who met a woman
who was engaged to his
Orchestra brothers ex wife.

"...

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golden bright light spears into the night
	shattering the darkness and breaking into blue
pinpoint bright colors fading away
	heralding the dawning of the new day

children’s bright laughter sounds on the lane
	girls and boys chasing and running away
too...

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We've dined in exclusive eateries as 'round this globe we did roam,
In London, Casablanca, Athens and the lovely city of Rome.
Devouring chateaubriand, nasi goreng, caviar and even eel,
But there's nothing more delectable than a good...

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as a sequence

Bella
He
opened
the window-
in streamed his first
love
with
flowers,
dressed
in white-
she haunted his
art.
The
eyes show
subjection,
melancholy
and 
a
resigned
acceptance-
yet beauty shines
through.


Ekphrasis lanterne after
Head of a Negro by Watteau
THE WIFE
Of
Mahler,
Gropius
Franz Werfel-
filled life with her
song-
she
gave Klimt
her first kiss-
but like a Strauss
waltz
her
affairs
of the heart--
never lasted
long.
LANTERNE...

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