Long Steed 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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A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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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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Bright lights, big city...
bright lights, big city dreams...
please just take me away tonight
Let me rest on your elegance tonight
I have no energy left to spend in reality
so please knock me unconscious
just to be in the...

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Brave Shadow Mane


Falling free at a tremendous velocity
Cursing my decision for acting in haste
Through clouds and frozen rain I could not see the ground
Losing consciousness, in my mouth blood I could taste

Now this was indeed...

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[Continued from ‘Terror Bugs: Part 2 - A Freezer Mice Adventure’]
__________

London’s streets resembled an al fresco mausoleum 
They tracked a trail of body parts which led to a museum
A thousand Terror Bugs were massed, in...

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An Excelente Balade of Charitie (“An Excellent Ballad of Charity”)
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

As wroten bie the goode Prieste
Thomas Rowley 1464

In Virgynë the swelt'ring sun grew keen,
Then hot upon the meadows...

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There is a new mythology emerging, 
Howling from the hind end of the pack, 
Scorching the composted leavings 
Of established orthodoxy as a pillar of flame 
Showing the way for true rock & rollers. 
It’s...

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(4.)
As Midnight Hours Call In More Darkened Hosts

Slow flows a river of doubt and regret
foaming its swirling eddies and sad pits
cavernous echoes one can not forget
nor withstand jagged cuts and hardest hits!

As sun retreats and...

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[Just a little note to help maintain the peace on Soup.          
To cause no animosity among our friendly group
I myself am partial to some tasty asian...

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Gloriously luxuriating in eternal sleep

Forlorn; bereft of golden
(slippered) opportunities I weep;
Three score and four years
replete with mailer daemons,
hence mindset adrip
with self denouncing expletive filled bleep
unwritten expressed recriminations
wielded upon figurative head of wimpy blip;
decades elapsed at...

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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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Whar art thou dame of my dream?

Eagerness readily overtakes me prior 
to succumbing to nightly slumber. 

Tis boot a blink when eyelids become relaxed 
adrift abed invariably occurs counting backwards  
from one hundred –...

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There stood a castle on the summit of a hill
Now fallen to decay, hidden among bushes wild
It perched like an eagle’s nest on the steep hill
It was owned by a Lord, gentle and mild

Blessed with...

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Prince Kindhearted asked his father the King of Poland, that he would like to see the world.
Sadden, for he was his only child, he did let him go with his most trusted servant.
Not faraway from...

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Crazy Horse Monument

Up there! On the Black Hills Mountain, 1
A work in progress sculptured in granite,
Of a stern faced warrior, strong and determined, 2
Unadorned in a war bonnet, with his hair flowing in the wind,
And...

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THE DEATH OF A YOUNG KING . . .

Eight of the strongest and, bravest the of warriors; were collected in all
Each chosen for their strength; each of the same height, and, their gaul

Their task was...

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I am ill eke quipped to dusk hoover dawn ting task of badinage

Indentured gumption forsaken 
courtesy each pulled wisdom-tooth
this hug gust aspiring writer..., albeit youth
fool looking imp posse Hubble wordsmith,
(i.e. the babbling dad) coon sitters...

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This piece was inspired, many years ago, by the magnificent poem - "The Highwayman" -



‘Neath an ivory moon in a cobalt sky, on a clear and silky night, 
On ebon steed, with pistol drawn, I...

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Broken dreams don't die. 
They bleed. 
They cry out for somebody to believe, believe me everybody cries sometimes. 
Even me 

Have you ever wondered what happened to those dreams we ignore 
Do they turn into...

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“I am not the body, nor is the body my possession— 
I am Awareness itself.”

One who realizes this for certain
has no memory of things done or left undone.
There is only the Absolute.”


We now enter still...

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How Wiccans acquired a bad rep is not clear.
Misogynist bullies afraid of these women’s light,
A young teen with an ugly heart of jealous fear,
Might point a finger under cover of night.
But in Salem Massachusetts, hysteria...

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The Mask of Fate
(This poem deals with the Corona Virus. 
It is very intense.)

My kid's school called.  
The college. 
They said that there had been...
a national concern; regarding the Sun. 
No... 
That was not...

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I've always admired 
horses
and I guess I most surely 
always will
No legend without em' 
complete
The unsung heroes of 
any heroic battle

Pony, colt, filly or mare
ride it bareback if you 
dare

Ride them to a trot, ride...

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I walked a wooded path at night;
Down in the vale: a hint of light.
It shone as through an open door:
A faint, soft glow, and little more,
And sounds of bells, to my delight.

I crept up close...

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