Long Westminster Poems

Merciles Beaute ("Merciless Beauty")
by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot sustain,
they wound me so, through my heart keen.

Unless your words heal me hastily,
my heart's wound will remain...

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A combination of Prose and Free Verse:

The most thrilling and inspirational piece of music ever to reach my 
ears is, without doubt, Handel's Messiah. I've never known anyone 
who could experience a performance and remain...

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I stood at the back of the line and watched nature unfold in front of my weeping eyes. I stood at the back of the line watching them moving in droves from every corner of...

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Alfie was the first son of a billionaire
Who bought a golden cradle for his son and heir
There was no expense that daddy wouldn’t spare
And perforated ping pong balls didn’t feature there

On Alfie’s one year birthday...

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 "she carved her own road . . . "

                         ...

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On reflection, I find myself within these walls for having played the game of mans false testimony, I chose to take the blame. I asked a great teacher, one of so many, to share with...

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London

The tour of London begins
 In the streets of my mind,
  Through past and present
   Intrinsically entwined,
    Through people and places
     It's heart we will...

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Watching her board bathed in fog at the station
Spectacles slide down the bridge of his nose
Usually a blur, not in this situation
Smudges can’t hide every beauty she shows

Lugging a satchel in high heels and cotton
In...

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Like an arboretum, my smile and laughter fills empty space,
tall stand the trees all huddled together like girlfriends on a chilly night ready to share their secrets.
We lay bare our souls, sat on the bench,...

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The man who never listened to the troubles of his wife

fell down the escalator at King's Cross station.

No-one met his eyes,

as he lay sickly on the concrete,

though someone did push his shiny briefcase towards him

as...

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In Dickensian time 
Upon sunset hour
Overshadowing Thames
Is London Tower
Blackened cobble streets
Shimmer in the rain
Big Ben at Westminster
Chimes an eight bells refrain

At Euston Station
A passenger alights
On Platform 3
And enters the caff
for a nice cup of tea

At...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES - LIV : Swatting flies in Buckingham Palace from the White House

When Bianca Nobilissima, the statuesque Sea Anne-Anne anchor in her Star-Trek heat-wave get-up exposing her sculptured architectural buoy spaces from head to...

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When first I saw London, it was in a book in the library,
But then I came to England, experiencing its history.

The Bridges over the river Thames, like sentinels over the city stand...
While the long Buildings...

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When first I saw London, it was in a book in the library
Then I came to England, and experienced its history.

The Bridges over the River Thames, like Sentinals over the city stand
While the long Buildings...

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I
                             am
     ...

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Have Gum; Will Not Travel

Forget it! I am not going five thousand miles just
To be bored and homesick. No. 
And what am I supposed to do there, besides go broke?
What am I supposed to be...

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My Christmas Box by Rob Barratt

We’ll have an X-Men, X-files, X-Box, no socks, X-Factor, Max Factor, Max Bygraves, no war 
graves of a Christmas

I want empathy, an MP3, a hemp-free, hump-free, grump-free,  Humperdink, have-a...

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I am disappointed in the referendum, 
The English are still friends; 
Wallace fought for human rights, 
And to live within our ends. 

All people are of equal worth, 
But nationality means self-government, 
Of poverty, healthcare,...

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I had to sit through it all
the conversation that was inevitable
What they did
Where they went
What they saw...
My brother and his wife
On the their expensive trip to see Roger Federer in the flesh
My husband and daughter...

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Dying starving kids in the streets of Calcutta. 
Lepers, faceless and worthless pieces of flesh, 
kicked and tossed in the nearest cesspool. 
Low caste Hindus hated and harried from the Ganges. 

Women raped in the...

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You might not remember; it was so long ago.
Our memories devise tricks to flush away pain.
But I walk here in the alleys of remorse
During the darkening final days of the year.

I seek to atone for...

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They’re not coming here to nurse us
Because of the approaching Brexit day
But it doesn’t really matter because 
There’s no money for treatment anyway.
After buying planes for the carrier
And replacing the Trident deterrent,
That’s a great big...

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He came with murderous intent
To the Manchester Arena he went
His heart full of vitriol and hate
With a bomb to seal their fate

I wonder if he thought at all
About the kids that there would fall
I don't...

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Overweight Terrier:
   Porky
   Yorkie
Un-cool Terrier:
   Dorky
   Yorkie

Spaniel dog breeder:
   Cocker
   Stocker
Parrot who mimics a Spaniel's bark:
   Cocker
   Mocker
Book on...

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He did his hash slinger training
Then with a couple of his mates
Set up this high class restaurant 
Where they didn’t bother with plates,
Just bits of brickkies rubble,
Guttering and such,
Jam jars and slabs of wood
Stuff not...

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