Long Suntanned Poems

Villanelles

The villanelle is a poetic form based on repetition, with a double refrain. 



Villanelle: The Divide
by Michael R. Burch

The sea was not salt the first tide...
was man born to sorrow that first day, 
with the...

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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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Ordinary Love
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Indescribable—our love—and still we say
with eyes averted, turning out the light,
"I love you," in the ordinary way
 
and tug the coverlet where once we lay,
all suntanned limbs entangled, shivering,...

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The Cyber Nymph
Loch David Crane
August 18, 1997

Lie back--expose your belly ring		
up unto the sky. . .
I just hope when I get down close
it won't put out my eye!

That summer I was 48 
and she pert...

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hanging in the air
humidity’s heaviness . . .
the river’s slow crawl


On the Mississippi lies the beautiful little city where I once lived. How many times I trudged up inclined streets; or leaning forward, red-faced and...

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~*~*~*~*~


A little girl with dark brown braids.
White blouse, gold-colored wool skirt 
and patent leather Mary Janes.
An only child with a wired haired fox 
terrier that lived with Grandpa,
Mother and Father.

Her Mother, sweet, who saw to...

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I SHUDDER TO  THINK 

I  shudder to think about the way 
Some  vegetables are  abused every day -
With physical  and psychological  slights
In gross violation of their vegetable rights.

Handicapped vegetables...

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It's dead December, we're getting nowhere, ready
for vaccine like a starving tribe shoved from behind
under the bridge, kicking some dust along the way.
A hand holds my arm, hoarse voices coaxes

     Life's...

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Beachfront condos shrouded in the early mist 
of morning. Seagulls hanging on the breeze, 
their screeching waking sleepyheads 
before their coffee, it's July the 4th, 
the holiday is here! 

Sailboats daubed in milky opalescence 
growing...

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Beachfront condos shrouded in the early mist 
of morning. Seagulls hanging on the breeze,
their loud screeching waking sleepyheads 
before their coffee, it's July the 4th, 
the holiday is here!

Sailboats daubed in milky opalescence
growing clear, as...

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Beachfront condos shrouded in the early mist 
of morning. Seagulls hanging on the breeze,
their screeching waking sleepyheads 
before their coffee, it's July the 4th, 
the holiday is here!

Sailboats daubed in milky opalescence
growing clear, as sunlight...

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Vagabond Reveries

I awoke one apple-ripe autumn afternoon, 
While shifting my necessity to care, dreaming,
To gaze upon the twisting trail in reveries of untethered reality 
A quest for halcyon enigmas that chased me into cloudy castles.

And...

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His heart was cold, cold as stone as
he sat staring straight ahead. He
had white lines from squinting painted
on the sides of his suntanned temples.
Even the wide brimmed hat he wore
couldn’t protect his face from the...

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"When a man who is drinking neat gin starts talking about his mother he is past all argument."

C.S. Forester's "The African Queen”

MOTHER
(A MUTTERING)

My sweetheart gin is cast.
I stare at her reflective glass.
Like a crystal ball...

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I see the wrinkles in your suntanned brow,
You carried burdens then; you see them now.
You’ve heard the cries your people who in pain,
Have shed their tears two hundred years like rain. 

Your sad brown eyes,...

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Sugar Mama

I need a sugar mama
someone to take care of me 
let me drink in the bar 
drive her Porsche car
watch her big screen TV
when my pockets don't jingle
She'll always spot me a couple of...

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This breezy island is often visited
by falcons with powerful wings,
as they display the swiftness 
of their elaborate flights; on the gleaming sand,
I'm laid back and pensive, while my curious dog
scampers to and fro, trying to...

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He stood at the Crossway begging for alms.
His demeanor looked like he was singing the psalms.

With folded hands, gazing at the sky he mutters.
The spewed words that tormented his grey matter.

Half naked, he sometimes sways,...

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At last, a darkness filled the skies
Small tufts of dust, like clouds would rise 
as the earth was kissed by welcomed rain

The rain at last, had tiptoed in
with scents forgotten, back again
We almost missed the...

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AA     TO     DF,    THE COMPLETE    LIST  
   

AA  automobile association – UK’s best
AB  Alberta  -...

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The sea, precociously sails, toward shore.
A curious imp of a child is he.

     The waves, like whirligigs, with laughter roar.
   There’s no other place i’d rather to be —

where...

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a patch of, alluring sea
the wonder of this buoyancy

the gentle waves, the searing sun
with all of nature, I am one

my aches and pains just drift away
on healing breeze that's come to play

nomadic sands in search...

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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS (from a dutiful husband for his loyal wife)

I’ll promise in the year ahead
To never, ever fart in bed,
Nor say how she should get thinner
At our anniversary dinner

To she who’ll wash my underpants
I’ll...

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When therefore great Father Saint and our driver, us your reasons knowers will 
be saved? The world is changing I feel it in the water, I taste it  in the air on the 
moisture...

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Middle Class Retirees.  (Algarve)

When she gets up her husband has gone to the golf course, she drinks 
a cup of weak tea and has a toast without butter. Then the grooming 
begins it takes...

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