Best Syne Poems

“Auld Lang Syne” - the most-sung New Year's Eve song

Courtesy Robert Burns
circa  (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796)
the National Bard,
Bard of Ayrshire
and the Ploughman Poet.

Two hundred sixty one orbitz elapsed
since brief existence of aforementioned
Scottish poet and lyricist graced Earth,
yet his legacy unwittingly still
enshrined, regaled, warbled...
upon cusp of New Year's Eve,
when revelers sing familiar...

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On a narrow street of Singalong
  spreads and banners hang along
Wreaths of subjects and icon
  flourish within the alleys of lexicon.

As acid waters plunge, 
  dirt and dust lounge.
Tin roofs clang, rants and rats run.

Not all streets boom with a bang
  Only in the street of auld lang syne....

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The horns are squeezed the bells ring out
Auld Lang Syne is sung, no one about
All gone to their homes, arm in arm they walk
A few bevies inside them, so they talk the talk. 

Of how it will be this coming year
Money no object, no fighting or fear
Till they get home, something seems to snap
The dog...

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christmas tree on curb
spruce needles, dry, brown
here, there, ornament
broken, on branch
tinsel strands flitter
in cold New Years wind
soon, city truck
department of sanitation
come and carry, take away...

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Tonight, let’s toast to life’s revelries
When fullness of time drips fine wine,
Play on the year’s red-berried stories
Sipping the kindness of Auld Lang Syne!
As this year is now forever gone,
That through all journeys we entwine
Newer the resolve, to right the wrong
To sing of praises, good Auld Lang Syne!




Rock Me Around the Clock 
or Rock Me to...

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Christmas tree twinkles
ornaments shine
we're missing some
tears glisten
when I remember 


12/31/2021...

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Do you see the two about to kiss                                           or vase in the void...

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I must forget
so as to replace
the face
on the streets,
without contempt.

Start the new
fresh and already accomplished....

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Auld Lange Syne
by Robert Burns
modern English translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And days for which we pine?

For times we shared, my darling,
Days passed, once yours and mine,
We'll raise a cup of kindness yet,
To those fond-remembered times!

Have you ever wondered just exactly what you're singing?...

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You'll live inside my memory book
Sometimes I'll go back and look
Your image there won't fade away
A thousand years sharp as today

At one-o-five (105) if I'm still here
I'll open up that book so dear
And write through hands that then will shake
One last poem for old time's sake...

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Looking out my window at the snow falling softly
I am reminded of the passing of time 
the new year can bring new beginnings 
the new year always made me a bit melancholy 
leaving the ones I loved and lost even further away 
at least that’s how I feel every year when I hear 
auld lang...

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I will change. I will focus new. I will be
The new creation that Christ has made me.
I His infinite wisdom I know that only He
Knows my life’s plan which I’ve yet to see.

I am not capable of change on my own, in myself.
Obviously, I cannot. I have not. I could not. Or else
Clearly, I would...

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Another year has passed by me and so much different then the last  
ever since this Covid March I have been living out my house arrest   
no outward smiles to show my love, no hugs no squeezes for my kids
like a Citizen of good I understood but yes, I almost flipped my...

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I thought about you today as I so often do.
I felt the sad familiar feelings
that will not go away.
You came to mind in a flash of memory
While I was doing something else.

I never seek these thoughts.
They seem a painful waste of time.
How can a memory of broken trust comfort a wounded mind?

Wise counsel claims that...

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Oh what a predicament as we sped through the night,
A whole train stretched behind us without a single light,
And through the thin walls we could plainly hear
The threats being shouted from both front and rear.
The long blonde squaddie, whose name I can’t recall
Nervously panicked because he’d caused it all.

An urgent call of nature on a...

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