Long Neruda Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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Poems about Dogs

This Dog
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Each morning this dog,
who has become quite attached to me,
sits silently at my feet
until, gently caressing his head,
I acknowledge his company.

This simple recognition gives my...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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“But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
–“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” by W.B. Yeats 

“I love you...

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You, Mariana—deepest trench of my knowing  
   I call you by name not to possess it
but because it is the only prayer  
   I have ever known how to...

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"Seven Shades and Mr Blue Skies"



You walked into the storm
and waited for some sign
to struggle less 
face upturned
looking for Blue Skies

Seven shades illuminated
the yearning of your heart 

Each colour a meaning 
and emotion 
buried firmly...

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The crying grass 
(for the late Victor Jara,* Pablo Neruda 
and Salvador Allende)
by ‘bro. zayid’

In this stadium
of footlaunched spotted balls
of what should be promising soccer stars…
In this stadium
reeking with the stench of terror
and the numbing...

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FREE VERSE VI

Reason Without Rhyme
by Michael R. Burch

I used to be averse
to free verse,
but now I admit
YOUR rhyming is WORSE!

But alas, in the end,
it’s all the same:
all verse is unpaid
and a crying shame.



What the Poet...

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These are English translations of Spanish poems by Pablo Neruda. 

Religión en el Este (“Religion in the East”)
by Pablo Neruda
translation by Michael R. Burch

for Tom Merrill

I realized in Rangoon:
the gods were our enemies
as much as...

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The Heights of Machu Picchu, Canto VIII
by Pablo Neruda
translation by Michael R. Burch

Ascend with me, my American love!

Let’s kiss these mysterious stones together!

The Urubamba’s torrential silver
lures pollen to fly from its golden chalice
while above this...

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Advice to Young Poets
by Nicanor Parra Sandoval
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Youngsters,
write however you will
in your preferred style.
Too much blood flowed under the bridge
for me to believe
there’s just one acceptable path.
In poetry everything’s permitted.

Originally published...

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The saddest lines begin tonight, with a lone soul 
Bare but for the thin veil of a pale white moonlight,
Beside myself, and taxed upon deep reflection,
For the night is starry, and my empty cup has...

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?
John Keats - I continue to adore Keats's lush, sensuous language and his odes to beauty, nature, and love, which can deeply resonate with some of my own poetry's yearning and delicacy.

Emily Dickinson - Dickinson's...

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UPROOTED


“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.”--------------------Rumi
listen not to the vagrant zephyr
seeking only sustenance of its kind
idol thinkers lolling in innocence
swayed by every whispering sigh
unaware – that secrets lie.

“We put the urn aboard...

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Her Cheekbones, smooth as  pebbles 
Grasped tightly in his sexed up hand, sweating indelicately
Resembling that night the thoughts between the sheets were conceived
Weighing like soaked white carpets
Beneath flea market stands
She Is Beautiful, she is...

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It is not a fact 
That the super moon arrived 
after many years
And will again be seen
After so many years

It came just the other day
With a lot of tales to say

Whenever you come
As the colours...

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Si de pronto no existes, (If of a sudden you were no more,) 
si de pronto no vives,(if of a sudden you live no more,) 
yo seguiré viviendo. (I'll continue to live.) 

No me atrevo,(I...

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Pablo Naranjo Golborne / Pablo Golborne / Pablo Naranjo Nordau Neruda   
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), This poet was alive during the World Wars One and 
Two. In 1943, Neruda returned to Chile, and in...

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DUSTY POET

Dust before donkey doomed 
            a wicked whirlwind 
grains of wisdom wrinkle 
          ...

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Four legs quiver
like clumsy cabrioles
striking smooth gray rivers
of zig-zag sidewalk barrios
in rhythm with happy shivers
syncopated on a muffled drum
as we talk and stroll

On our way
hand-in-hand
we persuade and pretend
this day away
taunting and cajoling to demand
laughing “hide...

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we are sitting on our bench
beside me the book
from which i read for her
Pablo Neruda's "And Now You Are Mine"
her hand rests upon mine
we both cover the book
now closed and still beneath
the park is in...

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Oh wow a mystic meaning manifesting majestic majorities. In a purple eclipse. In a towel hung geometrically on a towel rail. Hum then. Queues upon queues of geometricians on hoops. Linguistic lingering then. Leaping. 1...

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