Long Skillfully Poems

There's consequences in all we say and do 
Go forward and walk your walk and I'll go ahead and talk my talk 
Quite distraught due to the fact that you're too good to be true
I...

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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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ETERNAL RECURRENCE*


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“I am certain that I have been here as I am now a thousand times before and
 I hope to return a thousand times after.”  GOETHE 
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1.

Once upon a time, 
The Lord...

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1
Though still within our infancy, 
we strive to thrive, but woefully 
we flash and flaunt our 'primacy',
display our trophies pridefully.
 
Our terra firma ecstasy
destroys survival's harmony,
lays waste to life on land and sea.
Mankind, thy name...

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Dear Sue,

I am remembering our strong negative responses
to the young woman who surreptitiously read
her aunt's very private diary,
filled with vulnerable statements
of the most intimate nature
and transparently lusty spirit,

Yet, though secretive,
then took a bold black marker
and...

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Noise ,Noise, Noise
Bickering and ''whoremongering''
Dirty money for campaigning
repudiation and gallivanting
mudslinging and maligning
Brainwashing and false promises

How did you get on this bloodstained road 
Who advice you to  follow Uncle Pan's  path
A path that is...

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THIS IS ANDERSON WALKINGSHOES... 
VERSE 1:
Not a Ballpoint To Sleep
I dare blame them for any detriment,
As I care more to rubbish these bait flip men.
So simple having their downfall predistined,
Can sense struggles thrown from their...

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Here we are fans this fine summer day,
to watch Trash Can Cats, versus Downtown Stray.
The field is grand in this deep wooded glen,
pitchers are warming up in the bull pen.

Pitching for the Cats is Crazy...

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You want emotion...
Tell me, ask me, beg me to show you my soul, my secret place where my muses dwell.
My living hell. The tainted sea of all me, so what...so you can wash in the...

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(A Guide For New Minions)

1. It is much easier to hate those you know nothing about.
2. Always remember that when you kill someone they are no longer feeling pain. Prolong other's misery whenever possible.
3. The...

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I am a singular event 
Occupying a particular span of time. 
I am a concrete mystic 
And an incurable skeptic 
Seeking an approximation 
Of peace and domestic tranquility. 
I am a Slavic soul brother 
Living...

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You were primarily a spiritualist, 
But circumstances made you a noble warrior:
Your father, Guru Teg Bahadur,  
was treacherously beheaded.
You had to contend invaders from the Western frontier
And ward off repeated imperialist incursions from the...

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There was nothing about that painting on the canvas that caught anyone's eye. It appeared to be so old that the once upon a picture had faded long  ago. It has been said that...

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You bite that apple!
Give it a go, put on a show
There is no shame
You said shame is a sham
And clams are happy
Do they hop or skip?
Tripping along the seafloor
Playing hopscotch
Eating numbers like cookies
Chips Ahoy!
Sleeve after...

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Then Sings my Soul
My Savior God to Thee,
How Great Thou Art,
How Great Thou Art!

Psalm 23:3

He restores my soul.
He guides me in the
paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Psalm 33:1

Sing joyfully to the LORD,
you righteous; it is...

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Written 04/02/2025, for the Iron Maiden " Dance of Death" song, contest sponsored by Robert James L. 

            ******************
Scary lie shrouded in opulence ...

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Moment a desire arises 
we become joyous
Mind starts ruminating
We are hooked on to it

What began as a mere thought
Now controls our mind, actions
Mind thinks about non fulfillment of desire 
our happiness is ruined

Many youngsters aim...

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“Spilt Milk”



Warm milk 
before bedtime
spilt before sleep

The salty tear
in a body of work 
along the dark line kissed

steamed open
like an envelope
secrets laid bare

reveling in whispers
moist lipped, barely contained 
lovers and their conspiracies

pulses felt 
quills dipped...

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Under the vault of eternal stars, where strings of light sing the ballads of infinity,
Two kinds of people are born, woven into the fabric of the cosmic destiny,
Most people are those who cannot think, only...

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Canto I: The Words of Laozi  

The Divinely Illustrious Sage  
Prays for every soul to heed:
That neither woe nor weal
Heaven has foreordained,
But wrought by men alone,
The fruits of virtue and vice
Pursue the begetter...

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10/20/19
"Playing For Keeps"

What the bleep is up with all the creeps
And cheats
It's time to release the beast off the leash
And have a feast
Sinking my teeth
Into each, until they cease

Left out to rot, not buried beneath
The...

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Continuation...........

On the second level, merchants homes and shops arrayed,
here were homes, of richer bearing, belonging to the more powerful,
mini palaces, with minarets adorning their heads, of purest gold,
the scents of the orient, here they did...

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And so I ponder my frailities as give giveness to the/they that are in response to my/your parental misgivings, the way windward wade their roughened cinder complexities confided to an annotated disgfiured desire-repost postured, annotized...

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