Long Weaned Poems

Medieval Poems IV



IN LIBRARIOS
by Thomas Campion
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.



Brut (circa 1100 AD, written by Layamon, an excerpt)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R....

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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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Archaic Torso of Apollo
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a lamp lit from within,...

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The Panther
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

His weary vision's so overwhelmed by iron bars,
his exhausted eyes see only blank Oblivion.
His world is not our world. It has no stars.
No light. Ten thousand...

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Unidentified extraterrestrial(s) willingly abducted me

As a divergence 
from the apocalyptical, dialectical, 
geomorphological, judgmatical, 
metaphorical, philosophical...,
I share an out of this 
(webbed wide) world,
light hearted anecdote 
ye may find far fetched.

Believe me you,
an unspecified number of...

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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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(based on Aldous Huxley's book "Brave New World")

Human hatchery

Clink clink clink clink...
Test tubes prattling past
along the chrome plated production line.
Glistening under fake fluorescence
humming in harmony
with the magnetic motors
of conveyors, centrifuges and camshafts.
Biological blobs of gamete...

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Dot dot dot, and in other news devil's advocate claims Teflon Trump

courtesy the comfort of his mancave, 
I (a mutated batman wannabe) 
doth prattle and stump
and display wide whirled webbed 
and variegated tail feathers 
(also...

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This is my translation of the first of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. Rilke began the first Duino Elegy in 1912, as a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, at Duino Castle, near Trieste on...

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How one twenty first century married mortal male (me - Matthew Scott Harris)...
found himself bewitched about Circe,
particularly after reading book title by the same name.

An enchantress and a minor goddess
in ancient Greek mythology and religion
depicted...

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Unidentified flying object abducted yours truly,... 

a willing experimental subject 
to escape untenable married life.

Upon falling into a deep slumber, 
the following subconscious 
somnambulant scenario arose 
allowing, enabling, and providing 
temporary alleviation from 
outa harried...

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Digital Creationism
(Man 0, God 1)         

Part 1: Binary God
For men it seems God is a binary function
And like ones and zeros 'HE IS ON or 'he's off.'
Is...

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Devil's advocate claims Teflon Trump...

The demagogue reincarnate 
feels gifted to reign supreme
captivates, glorifies, lauds, 
renounces, yawps extreme
views bellows dogmatic fulminations
in an attempt to redeem
stolen 2020 capital one bid.

Which hunter (biden his time) 
will reap grim...

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Tribute to The Street Kids of Mumbai Documentary  


I  used to pick pockets
And steal tomato at the market place
I beg on the streets of Mumbai, India’s largest city
I stop drivers and ask for...

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"Who can bear to lose a tie
With a dog that is man’s best ally? .......by poet


"Here lies my dog, motionless in his kennel
unable to wag his tail as he always did.
yesterday when I saw him,...

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Dump Trump - The demagogue Hitler reincarnate!

Countdown to Armageddon 
precariously, lugubriously, hellaciously, 
and deleteriously hinges
potential apocalypse now outcome, 
mere smattering weeks away
if the brazen, fierce-some 
amazing dragon doth don
trumps presidential throne -
ships with whistling ...

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Back in 1957 
kissing Carol Ann 
behind the barn 
in the middle of 
a windswept field 
of Goldenrod 
with a sudden deer 
watching was 
something special, 
let me tell you. 
Back then, bobby sox 
and...

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to parlay view to unleash nuclear weapons on cue
destroying vast swaths of flora and fauna,
   most inn no cent life forms pay hefty due
to assuage aggressively cruel, enjoyably 

   growling goal,...

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Daidalos played with poison
and the gormandizing mind of a king
corrupting DNA with his brilliance.
Poseidon’s patronage,
issues from unknown depths of depravity.

Pasiphae bore this monstrosity
and carried the shame
as women do.

AyeeeI The minds of men bent inwards
without love,...

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Just as Hannah dedicated her son, Samuel to the LORD, the LORD God also
selected Isaiah to himself.  Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying,  "Whom 
should I send? And who will...

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If our LORD, God were to ask anyone else these two questions today?
"Whom shall I send? "Who will go for us?" Like the prophet Isaiah, 
"Here I am. Send me!"How would anyone of you chose...

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Countdown to Armageddon precariously hinges 
   potential apocalypse outcome, mere smattering days away
if the brazen, fierce-some dragon doth don 
   trumps presidential throne - 
   ships with whistling ...

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Towards the Horizon

Sitting in a corner, absorbing the incandescent hue,
A malt for company, awaiting a magical cue,
I often wonder, all these years, where were you?
I reflect upon the days which could have been,
I reminiscent our...

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Heaven Leigh Kent,
With whom a lot of my time has been spent,
Non of which I even slightly resent,
I assure you, she certainly thinks I am a gent!

When she was two,
The things we use to do,
Was...

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