Long Tests Poems

Agony be to society's demise
Labels are for fools, not for the wise
Play the familiar tune of in-unison serenity 
Fatality won't come any time soon, thankfully...

Homeless people were on the news not to long ago...I weep...

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Enola Gay

There on the ‘North Field’ tarmac of Tinian Island, Marianas;
Taxis the sleek designed ‘Boeing B-29 Superfortress’ to ready for take-off. 1
Glistening, polished aluminum under the blaring floodlights filmed for posterity,
Maneuvers' the ‘Enola Gay’, chosen...

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Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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Spring
by Charles d'Orleans (c.1394-1465)
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab at whatever passes,
so we can...

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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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Oasis
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for Beth
 
I want tears to form again
in the shriveled glands of these eyes
dried all these long years
by too much heated knowing.
 
I want tears to course down
these parched cheeks,...

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Oft in My Thought
by Charles D'Orleans
translation by Michael R. Burch

So often in my busy mind I sought,
Around the advent of the fledgling year,
For something pretty that I really ought
To give my lady dear;
But that sweet...

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Yvonne was very, very, very happy.
She loved her mother.
She loved her brother Phillip.
And she loved swans.
Oh, did she ever love swans!

She loved the way they looked
With their smooth, fluffy feathers,
And colorful beaks of orange, yellow...

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A plethora of complex verbiage clogs and clutters solemn university tombs,
gem encrusted sequestered  vaults  impervious at least almost, 
when immediate accessibility enjoins the ultimate in verifiable clarification on matters,
that ally one disregards at...

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Moby Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne....

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April 9th, 2024 would be ninety fifth birthday poem for dearly departed papa

The following words crafted soon after the soul of me daddy set adrift into the empyrean realm joining the rank and file of...

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Perhaps infertile
incomplete
unwashed memories
of elder v younger,
Goliath v David,
crusades v communion
critical, yet part of chronic, events
speak extended family disengagement truth
to powerful dirty laundry engagement failures.

That disclaimer said,
I have two incomplete conversations
in mind and heart
and what I...

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Old misunderstandings of how Earth
and Her species
evolve,
regeneratively and degeneratively change,
sometimes in revolutionary expansive/implosive quick and great transitions,
but more traditionally in slow-grow emergent spacetime development,
are often summarized in secular capitalism's
Might Makes Fertile Right.

While this does capture...

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Grey Bane and the Dark Lord


Perched on a stalagmite jutting up from the floor
Hugo was staring at length across the cave
My eyes accustomed to the glow followed his gaze
Frozen in ice was my Love whom...

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I have so many places/acts dear to my heart
I’m just dying to share some with you
Not to boast, I but honor them, all played a part,
I'm sure helped to bring me in your view!

Tell me...

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This is an unfinished Heroic Crown of Sonnets dedicated to a friend's grandchild who was born with serious lower body issues 3 years ago...but he is so perfect and beautiful in every other way that...

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After my young wife died tragically, I decided to move away
Memories we made in our house were painful; I couldn’t stay
I’d often remember that phone call from her doctor who’d said
"John, you need to get...

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My thing is,
Yang dear,
EarthMother
is much RNA-green older
than mammalian red-DNA Yang.

Yes,
seniority breeds long-term nutritious merit,
I remember this history lesson
from your creation by fairy tale,
how WinWin Paradise YinYin
wonder invited Yang's Patriarchal CoPresence.

Well said,
dearest,
which is exactly why EarthMother
needed...

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Not to let the air out of anyone's tire but it's really not fair to compare religious 
writings to modern science. Scientific theories for one thing are models of 
reality (for example)   ...

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Don’t bee late for Flight-school


Ok…Are you sure you have got everything that you need?
There is nothing you have forgotten?
Nothing you want to get before you leave?
Are you sure you don’t need to use the lavatory...

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April 9th, 2023 birthday poem for dearly departed papa

Borne aloft into the netherland
the body bearing thee soul   
of Boyce Brandon Harris
birth name given to my late father
buoyed aloft united with spirit
of mine late...

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A Simple Pen

                                Ever...

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April 9th, 2025 birthday poem for dearly departed papa

Elysian fields long since embraced dada's soul
which rocketed into aerospace
(courtesy General Electric satellite)
just a tad shy of 
fifty four plus months ago,
nevertheless melancholia
still plucks mine heart strings.

Mine...

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The ambulance ride only lasted
For 10 minutes.
Delilah was in Labor now
Experiencing strange labor
Sensations. They were orgasms
Dolly didn't want to admit that.
Most of both families swept into
The hospital 2 Hours later, A few
 relatitives at A...

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