Long Tangle 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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your silken skin gleams opaline
bathed in Luna's soft wash of cornflower - like a
porcelain Madonna by Michelangelo
conjured to life by the magic
of moonlight

your eyes open just long enough to
affix mine, and affirm I'm in a...

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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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Start and end each day,
and life,
with a taoist egg.

I doubt my eggs are religious.

No, but they are natural,
organic incubators, 
co-arising nondual yolk form
with transparent regenerative function,
cosmological purpose, maybe,
if you're a chicken,
or a turkey, 
or a...

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Toddlers' Exploration: 

Cardboard drum, a thunderous beast,
Playful roars in tiny fists and feasts.
Fleeting wings glide, dreams just out of reach,
Soaring through tales of barnyard Waddles and Squeaks,
Moo! Quack! Giggles tumble and bump.
Flaps flapping, bright colors...

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Translation of Les Moulins de mon Cœur-THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND by T. Wignesan

(For the orignal text in French by Eddy MARNAY : see here below. The English version by Marilyn and Alan BERGMAN differs...

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Here's the scoop, friends...
   This is, as indicated, the 1st HALF of this fairly lengthy poem. The 2nd half had to be posted separately due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations. No other way...

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Font Din Black

so u real??? 
Warning! The following choppy, batty, 
dopey: elegy = flaky, goofy, history: iffy, 
jumpy, kooky: loopy, matty, nappy, nippy, 
sketchy material prone to find the reader 
dazed and bewildered, yet comfortably...

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SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 1 : Number Four


Many chains, many locks and bars
clattered at four in the morning 
black bitter coffee drugged
a single bucket of cold water 
         ...

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THE RISING HILLS, THE SLOPES, TO QUENCH MY THIRST.
In the last century, the hopes were little,
Grasses they collected, yellow bananas, they peeled,
To move up the slopes, preparation was fore filled,
Oh the grower of banana trees,
To...

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"Seeds"



Blue reaches reflections
touching ripples 
tears in time ephemeral
caresses fragrant Green my canopy

opens the light
inside me 

cracked eggshell 
golden-yoked sunshine
pale turquoise kintsugi
splintered paths inside my mind

in the smallness
of me 
something 
quietly blooms 

ragged yet refined
a gecko...

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I’ve been cutting Peter’s hair for a year. When covid lockdown occurred, I learned to cut my brother’s hair - and yes, he still has two ears. When I first met Peter, he had a...

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Anomalous poetic contrivance evokes...
googling inept kickstarted lame outré jaunty hokum

(alternately titled:
Random screenshot within me noggin
instantaneously transforming, 
née devolving into gobbledygook.)

I got born with poker faced physiognomy,
no matter yours truly doth not play cards
though self same...

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The Infinite Grace Of Light And Love
 
Although gone from this sad earthly plane, love may yet embrace,
for within Light's truest of gifts, Love brings its infinite grace...

Weeping tears falling into her coffee she mourned...

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                               parallel lives

  ...

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Eroticism -
             a supple spine in a wanting curve
       and a foolish fever simmers a scarlet heartbeat...

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home again, jiggety-jog
oh, how kindly my castle welcomes me!
the pungent loves of earlier meals and my dear one's perfume
Je Reviens and Acqua Di Gioia

like manna for the sensual senses
a weary man dripping from a weary...

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~The Untold Fatal Attraction Poem~

Mid-morning she sees the sun ahead
Her death flowed in a messaged bottle
Gazing into her brown eyes upon all open sores,
Her conscience dark and gray a never-ending war!
A giant cyclone of a...

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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 boat,
          smooth sea,
                     tight sail,
...

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Admittedly a little bit of me can see I have an ability
missing ambition to mission living submissively in submission,

If I believe built into me 
a skill too free 
up my sleeve capability
I'll gift to me...

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Make me love you
Turn me into a slave of love
Make me a servant of your heart
Tangle me with your endless affection
Devour me unconditionally 
Let me be swallowed in anticipation of love
Make love to me and...

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A hymen or a hyena on a hyperlink is akin to a rotating rogue on a rhododendron. Balancing is deemed important by heavy duty wheels upon petals. Such a fascination for the hibernating hybrid horses....

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within each breath taken, upon luscious lips- (sweet is your name)
sending a sensation- one i never wish to forget, simply touching my fingertips,
            ...

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Subsiding from the morning’s light,
I can’t see the hopes of Tomorrow
I am dealing with stress on a high level, but I’ll stay with you tonight
And wrap you up with adorned glory and put out the...

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