Long Woolen Poems

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus—hard toil—
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes—dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but feels its meaning—
the...

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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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These are poems about Dylan Thomas, as well as poems "for" and "after" Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas was one of my favorite poets from my early teens and has remained so over the years. I...

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Myth, after Dylan Thomas
by Michael R. Burch

Here the recalcitrant wind
sighs with grievance and remorse
over fields of wayward gorse
and thistle-throttled lanes.

And she is the myth of the scythed wheat
hewn and sighing, complete,
waiting, lain in a low...

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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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Translation of « On est les oubliés » (They/We are the neglected and forgotten lot)
by the songster-poet Gauvin SERS
(For the last two years, this young unassuming Frenchman, full of verve and disarming airs has been...

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A prawn masquerading as a peanut can be quite disturbing. So many times a peel is a garment used to shroud. A tentacle hidden. Here and there. Then to reappear with an often violent burst...

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Remorseless sweaty palms

despite being prescribed glycopyrrolate.

Though the angst riddled psyche of mine crafted youth, long since receded, ebbed in the past, infringement, impingement, and indecent wracking wrath of mental illness, that even as a middle...

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*Note 
I had to bring this one back, though I've been posting mostly new writes here that PS hasn't seen before. This poem has been edited many times over the years. I consider it to...

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Beneath the mantel's alabaster gleam
Where verdigris flames pirouette, in cerulean ballet's beam...
We gather close—a familial love—
In hallowed halls where chimes of crystal laughter, stream.
Amid the yuletide glow, memories take flight, a morning dove...

Cinnamon-kissed balsam and...

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Shane walked to the back of the bar and found the door opened to an alley littered with the garbage of the bar and the restaurant beside it, the one whose neon sign has two...

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Seasons

        Scorching                   Dark clouds      ...

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My hair has always 
had a mind of its own
Stays doing whatever
it wants whenever 
it pleases
Just never bothers to do 
any of it, at my convenience
Will take its sweet time 
to grow 
When I'm most...

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Drifting on the clouds I lie
With my head pointing
To yonder skies
In a sea of dreams 
 Where mind and spirit 
Igniting natures prize
To feel like you are heaven bound 
But feet standing firmly
 On hallowed...

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Shane walks in, hurries to the back of the bar. He finds the door opened to an alley littered with the garbage of the restaurant beside it, the one whose neon sign has two lights...

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finding shapes in clouds
or four-leaf clovers in fields . . .
the child’s eye searches

What does it mean to view life through a child’s eyes? For me it means searching for things of wonder to revel...

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Is ARANJUEZ a pining after the composer's mother ?

(Joaquin Rodrigo - 1901-1999 - who composed the " Aranjuez " concerto on piano in 1938/9 and which later was destined for the guitar and orchestra, turned...

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Shy Julie - A Punters Nightmare Part 1

They fancied themselves "Gurus of racing", this Ron and his best mate John
So they sat down one day in an easy relaxed way
And mused on the pros and...

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Dour gray granite monolith,
the tower rises, stark, against the velutinous grenadine
of the dusk filled evening sky.
As the god of night draws his opaque cloak
across the world in his eternal battle
against the god of light.
Ever vigilant,...

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Written: May 09, 2024

                               ...

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I had seen the train leave the station.

I had said goodbye, for the last time.

A cold day in autumn, I decided to do some cleaning.

Putting summer away, preparing for winter.

I found a grey woolen hat,...

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dark matter(s)
by Michael R. Burch

the matter is dark, despairful, alarming:
ur Creator is hardly prince charming!

yes, ur “Great I Am”
created blake’s lamb

but He also created the tyger
and what about trump and rod steiger? 


The Echoless Green
by...

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At First Dawn, 
The curtains part.
The sun gently peaks over a distant horizon as its rays lightly stretch over the sky.
What was once the darkest blue speckled with small jewels is now an abstract mural...

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She was born as Holly Clarkson
in the year 1993,
and for most of her early days
she lived life uneventfully.

She grew up outside of London,
went to uni and married well,
had her first kid at twenty-six,
you would not...

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