Best Vacillates Poems

Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp tightly
like a cornucopia, every day, between my hands ...



My Dog...

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I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates between ice and fire.

I love you only because you’re the...

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Time and tide again waits for no man
tempest-tossed upon life’s billow
The hull or the dinghy
Serves as a fortress
Though steady on its keel
Knocked his wits and sense
As he vacillates between levity and despair
Caused by his unbridled folly
He rakes the moon from out of the sea
A gust...

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Go ahead and celebrate the harvest season
You drove the machines, you cut the grain
Plan a banquet, you don't need any reason
You plowed and sowed, even when in pain

You drove the machines, you cut the grain
Sun sizzled brightly to heat ocean's weather
You plowed and sowed, even...

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Malodorous tavern’s garret, the codger it accommodates, No more,
Fuzzled in brew, his fuzzy lady, her life she lives to abhor.

Randy colleen gape at her with aghast,
Talk around that she has “the dead hands of the past”.

At the dimly lit square by the infamous tavern to...

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I heard two distinct voices in the night,
Conversing amongst themselves most eagerly
They whispered like children in excitement
Their sardonic mouths sung many savvy tunes
It was Death I could perceive, defending me,
And he, a strange, distant friend
Seemed lost there, 
In suspense and confidence  

“It is endearing,...

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(For Ollyver, the one and only dog I ever had, a miniature Eskimo)

As shadows fall, he lingers through the night
and looks out to the street, his muzzle pressed
against the windowpane; he sees the light
as I drive up. He lifts a snowy chest.
Excitedly he yaps and...

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It really is a sweet device,
for we invoke it often as ally
or enemy--grasping at straws
to place it in its proper pigeon-hole
and thus to clarify intent.

And history is on its side!
The noble statesman, saint
and businessman have so exalted
one epitome of truth as such
to gently lay it...

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Disappointment comes in shades of blue and gray
Delivered with a large dose of dashing hope,
My mind vacillates between sadness and dismay.

‘Tis time to put on a happy face for a better day
Fighting the strong urge to sit around and mope,
Disappointment comes in shades of blue...

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Sonnet LXXXI-LXXXIX

Day, and Night
by Michael R. Burch

The moon exposes pockmarked scars of craters;
her visage, veiled by willows, palely looms.
And we who rise each day to grind a living,
dream each scented night of such perfumes
as drew us to the window, to the moonlight,
when all the earth...

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An unborn baby, 
From the womb,
Scratched the belly,
Over and over of its mom;
She minded not once;
But when was frequent,
Rubbing her belly she fondled;
Oh! You impish,
Don't tickle with your tiny nail;
No-no baby I feel too pain;
Again a scratch,
But this time it had sound;
O mu, ye ma-ma...

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Swoosh, she vacillates in malleable form
as ocean waves or garden hose splashes,
encapsulating life's nautical swarm
and keeping plants fresh with misty dashes.

In a cup, her shape is held gently in place,
until she quenches somebody's thirst.
Intimately, their insides she will trace,
where her cleansing powers become dispersed.

In a...

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Sun never sets,
moon nor rises at night;
It's the wonder planet earth,
In exhilaration vacillates,
roves around the universe;
Hides day heating sun,
Show's way to 
skittish girlish moon;
Slowly-slowly,
She appears in dark;
Stage by stage, 
when she shows up,
In full face from her veil;
In cool embellishing touch,
Earth ecstatically glows;
No day, no...

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Cold air whistles acquainting
me with Arctic Blast, when
roundly forcing acquiescing
into half foursquare corner, activating
most recent spate of

     ideal linkedin warm weather
ah...,my favorite sweet
     spot for read ding
partially secluded from
     gossip mongers addicting

fellow nosy...

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The quick sands of fate cave in
The sucking darkness captures
The weed of agony marsh slithers 
Entangled hope of escape smothered 
Hazard paves the pathway of life
For the destiny to wander unseen.

Uncalculated footsteps waver
The poise vacillates uncontrolled
The trap of time in the mire waits
For the weary...

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