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Best Poems Written by John Birkbeck

Below are the all-time best John Birkbeck poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | John Birkbeck Poem

End of Summer

Love leaks away 
into a bitter rivulet 
of burnt passion, 
and you're gone. 

Red mist lifts 
from the barren, 
spent landscape 
and I'm still here. 

You left me in 
the debris of 
my ruined city, 
and flew away. 

You'll rend yet another 
unknown horizon, 
to yet another shipwreck, 
as yet unknown. 

My sour bulk stirs 
in the tepid morning 
and I make ready 
for further day. 

Had only you left, laughing, 
my dull sorrow would burn 
into refreshing rage, 
righteous and pure.

Details | John Birkbeck Poem

It's the Holy Grail

. . . or maybe 
the esotericism of 
whatever 
passes for 
academic 
discourse 
in these later 
days of no 
Latin no Greek   
no rollick in 
the original 
tongues of bards 
who in facing 
the Moors had 
strummed of 
delayed lust 
for ladies 
a-waiting 
in their foggy 
homelands 
pining away 
from unassailable 
baconies far up 
on cold stone 
battlements 
yet holding 
the dream 
aloft .

Details | John Birkbeck Poem

Concerto

Reversing the order 
of philosophy 
one could say in truth 
"With wisdom comes age" 
but not the sanctioning 
until time 
picking up speed 
puts disguises 
on faces of pilgrims 
along for the ride. 

This kind of education 
is like being a tourist 
except more is left 
behind than what 
is brought back. 

Sometimes what 
you see in front 
of you might be 
what once was a dream 
that came true 
ready or not.

Music is travel 
through time, too-- 
for how could 
old Mozart still be 
frolicking here?