Two Poems
Michael R. Burch

How Long the Night

anonymous Middle English poem, circa early 13th century AD

loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

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It is pleasant, indeed, while the summer lasts

with the mild pheasants’ song ...

but now I feel the northern wind’s blast—

its severe weather strong.

Alas! Alas! This night seems so long!

And I, because of my momentous wrong,

now grieve, mourn and fast.

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Mike’s notes: “’How Long the Night’ is the most beautiful of the Middle English rhyming poems, in my opinion, and I was honored to be able to translate it and hopefully help bring it to a wider audience.“

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It’s Halloween!

 

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;
if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads
uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch’s eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;
if birds give up their verse
to comfort chicks they nurse,
while children dream weird dreams
of ugly, wiggly things,
beware the serpent’s curse!

If spirits scream
in haunted dreams
while ancient sibyls rise
to plague nightmarish skies
one night without disguise,
while children toss about
uneasy, full of doubt,
beware the Devil’s lies …

it’s Halloween!

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Mike’s notes: ​​“’It’s Halloween’ was sheer fun to write and I hope readers enjoy it as much as I did writing it. I wrote ’It’s Halloween’ around age 19 or 20, if memory serves.“

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Michael R. Burch is one of the world’s most-published poets, with over 11,500 publications, including poems that have gone viral. This does not include self-published writings; if self-published writings were included, Mike’s total publications would be well over 20,000. Mike has also had 74 poems set to music by composers, from swamp blues to classical. He is also a longtime editor, publisher, and translator of Jewish Holocaust poetry and poems about the Trail of Tears, Hiroshima, Ukraine, the Nakba, and school shootings. Mike’s full biography may be read here.

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