Long Fetish Poems

Charles d'Orleans: a Medieval Marvel


Spring
by Charles d’Orleans (c. 1394-1465)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab...

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Medieval Poems

How Long the Night
anonymous Middle English lyric, circa early 13th century AD
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts
with the mild pheasants' song ...
but now I feel the northern...

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Spring
by Charles d'Orleans (c.1394-1465)
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Young lovers,
greeting the spring
fling themselves downhill,
making cobblestones ring
with their wild leaps and arcs,
like ecstatic sparks
struck from coal.

What is their brazen goal?

They grab at whatever passes,
so we can...

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Rondels, Roundels and Rondeaux

These are poetic forms similar to villanelles, with refrains (repeated lines) and sometimes double refrains.



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

Your eyes slay me suddenly;
their beauty I cannot...

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Oasis
by Michael R. Burch 
 
for Beth
 
I want tears to form again
in the shriveled glands of these eyes
dried all these long years
by too much heated knowing.
 
I want tears to course down
these parched cheeks,...

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Oft in My Thought
by Charles D'Orleans
translation by Michael R. Burch

So often in my busy mind I sought,
Around the advent of the fledgling year,
For something pretty that I really ought
To give my lady dear;
But that sweet...

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Black Iraqi Woman
Written by Faleeha Hassan
Translated from the Arabic by William Hutchins
Shortly before my father died, he whispered to me longingly: “Daughter, treasure this, because it authenticates your heritage to our kinsfolk!” When I accepted...

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I have a way with words
They may hurt with a sting or they may be badly injuring…this time forth and forevermore…
My mind wanders in a hundred herds 
I’m too late…I’m too lost…I’m running outta time…Kingdom...

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There isn't a place that I hide
I'm trapped inside a maze, let me write
incase I don't make it out alive
Because I feel the storm coming
I'm so forthcoming about my shortcomings
Exercise my feelings, so even if...

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HOPE BY N3
Slashed at the throat a blow aimed not at the esophagus but at the vocal cords
Paralyzed by something worst than fear,
Speech grows limp even as silent screams are constrained by shame’s chord.
Tethered like...

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I'm the topic of discussion, a lot of me is functioned
Off of the asumption that I've probably been punching
Things to harm by beating it, the gossip is percussion
But the anger pulls me in and I've...

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Erotic Poems I

Less Heroic Couplets: Marketing 101
by Michael R. Burch

Building her brand, she disrobes,
naked, except for her earlobes.


Erotic Errata
by Michael R. Burch

I didn’t mean to love you; if I did,
it came unbid-
en, and should’ve remained...

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So many people always scream
that word ‘diversity,’
as if it’s the only idea
that we should ever see.
Yet more and more the shouting
comes off as childish,
more and more I think they
have a harmful fetish.

To start with they...

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Ive developed a bit of a fetish, dear,
The smelling of objects of a queer kind.
"Queer", the collective perspective of a selected few
Let me address the subject once more
Select more carefully the words I spew
Breakdown
Analyze 
peripheralize
Re...

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I feel terribly sorry for Rodger
He developed a kink in his todger
It looked such a sight
when bent to the right
that his poor wife ran off with the lodger! 

When his wife ran away from poor...

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Part 18

it helps to see the spectrum of behaviors
as a spectrum first of all
not disorganized not random
not to the degree the clergy would have it
which makes them ridiculous
as well as dangerous
to anyone standing outside the...

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I feel terribly sorry for Rodger
He developed a kink in his todger
It looked such a sight
when bent to the right
that his poor wife ran off with the lodger! 

When his wife ran away from poor...

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( Song of Solomon 4: 16 )



We Walked In The Garden At Midnight
We Walked Thru The Garden In Moonlight

Among Azealeas & Verbenas & Blue Jonquils
Sweet Honeysuckle, Yellow Primroses & Daffodils
Among White Phlox & Orchids &...

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Picture this the lights are dim candles are lit the moment is set
this is gonna be a night that you & this woman won't forget
Champagne is on ice if this is wrong then I don't...

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In numerous locales countrywide, they hold sway
Pirouetting at intervals like ballerinas from Bolshoi
Beauteous, feline and very feminine
Slender to the point of emaciation, not quite
Cultivating the undernourished look on a frugal diet
Decidedly austere for a longer...

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Rubber lover, Zipperella, 
is not a brother or a fella. 
He has false tits and kitten heels, 
not a chest and ankles made of steel 


His spiky rubber bag is old, 
cleverly patched with a...

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The huge sky overseeing the emerald and bluish earth...
wouldn't be the only sky in our incredibly diverse Universe,
if limited sight weren't the obstacle to the awesome images that surprise couldn't conceal;
but many more galaxies hiding...

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Shall I relay a sidesplitting hoot from my “care-free” on campus fun phase?
It entails a laboratory session involving three mystic world colossal oafs.
 One had an unerring penchant for Laurel and Hardy mishaps, the other...

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All these racists with their lies,
filling the airwaves with propaganda and strife,
Stalins with soundbytes, Magellan their drivebys
 the pasts dead end street -topically jacknifed 
like it was the only course for a heading, point A...

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Finally 

Doctor, it's been 7 months 
The MEDs aren't kicking in

My dreams are getting stronger, 
The blood remains to run code red
It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed 
Dark images keep taking...

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