Long Westminster abbey 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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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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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 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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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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The Little White Church

The little white church, engulfed by the immensity
Of Douglas fir, Hemlock, and Western Red Cedar
On Nootka Island in Nootka Sound,
Confirms the remoteness of the Yuquot Village:
On the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The...

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Westminster Abbey,
With all its doors,
Welcomes all,
As church bells implore:
 
Come now England,
And praise thy Lord,
Drop thy shield,
And sheath thy sword,
So that two hands can pray,
Against discord.
 
Inside, the pastor guides his flock,
He alone dares cast...

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Long, long ago and longer
When I was but a child
I read of Doctor Livingstone
Who ventured in the wild.
Dr. David had no fear
He went where few had gone.
This missionary and explorer 
To Africa was drawn.
The unsophisticated...

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Ah, let come this stiffling breeze now to ye all!
Such sweet sap envelops my every pore,
Shall I await for the ever fresh rainfall?
For I fear the amber of daylight no more.

Dormant they recline on fields...

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Aprils mist…
Easy flowing of mornings gift
Bearing the tidings of baker and fisherman
The phantom fog rolling onward 
With melancholy gray tendrils reaching
Into the ancient alleyways of Tower Hamlet
Over the roof of great Westminster Abbey
Seizing the city...

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