Category: English poems
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On the Subject of Doctors
I like to see doctors cough. What kind of human being would grab all your money just when you’re down? I’m not saying they enjoy this: “Sorry, Mr. Rodriguez, that’s it, no hope! You might as well hand over your wallet.” Hell no, they’d rather be playing golf and swapping jokes about our feet. Some […]
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New Magic
At last I know—it’s on old ivory jars, Glassed with old miniatures and garnered once with musk. I’ve seen those eyes like smouldering April stars as carp might see them behind their bubbled skies in pale green fishponds—they’re as green as your eyes, As lakes themselves, changed to green stone at dusk. At last I […]
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Street View
I Google where I come from in Ireland,drag the yellow man into street viewand click the spin arrow over and overso I can see it all. When I pull him offthe control panel, above his + and – ,he flies, a patch of green hoveringbelow him, his own flying island, his littleearth shadow, smudged at the […]
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When I consider Everything that Grows
When I consider everything that growsHolds in perfection but a little moment,That this huge stage presenteth nought but showsWhereon the stars in secret influence comment;When I perceive that men as plants increase,Cheered and check’d even by the selfsame sky,Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,And wear their brave state out of memory;Then the conceit […]
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Let those who are in Favour with their Stars
by William Shakespeare Let those who are in favour with their starsOf public honour and proud titles boast,Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,Unlook’d for joy in that I honour most.Great princes’ favourites their fair leaves spreadBut as the marigold at the sun’s eye,And in themselves their pride lies buried,For at a frown they […]
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Song of the Witches “Double, double toil and trouble”
by William Shakespeare Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,. Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like […]
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How like a Winter hath my absent be
How like a Winter hath my absent be by William Shakespeare.
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Just a Passer by
By Osward M. Mtshali I saw them clobber him with kieries I heard him scream with pain like a victim of slaughter; I smelt fresh blood gush from his nostrils, and flow in the street. I walked into the church and knelt in the pew ―Lord I love you. I also love my neighbour. Amen. […]
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Farewell Love and All Thy Laws Forever
By Sir Thomas Wyatt Farewell love and all thy laws forever;Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more.Senec and Plato call me from thy loreTo perfect wealth, my wit for to endeavour.In blind error when I did persever,Thy sharp repulse, that pricketh aye so sore,Hath taught me to set in trifles no storeAnd scape forth, […]
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If You Can,t Trust the Monitors by Dorothea Lasky
If you can’t trust the monitorsThen why do they have the monitorsIf you can’t trust the carsThen why have the carsIf you can’t trust that I think you’re hotThen why do you look so goodTurning me on that way that you doIf you can’t trust the peopleThen why have the peopleIf you can’t trust the […]
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Homeless not Hopeless by Sola Awonibi
We are the natives of the streetholed-up under bridgeswe are necessary we are part of our existencemajor fragments of the globeas the day chameleons to nightyou slump in the warmth of your bedsand the heat of loved oneswe also embrace the cozycardboard beds laid on stinksas the night injects us with cool breezeand endurance.We sleep […]
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Each and All by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, Of thee from the hill-top looking down; The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon […]
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The Snow Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven, And veils the farm-house at the garden’s end. The sled and traveller stopped, the courier’s feet Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed In a […]
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Ode on a Distance Prospect of Eton College by Thomas Gray
Ye distant spires, ye antique tow’rs, That crown the wat’ry glade, Where grateful Science still adores Her Henry’s holy Shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Of Windsor’s heights th’ expanse below Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowr’s among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way. Ah, happy hills, ah, pleasing shade, Ah, fields belov’d in […]
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The Haunted By John Masefield
Here, in this darkened room of this old house, I sit beside the fire. I hear again, Within, the scutter where the mice carouse, Without, the gutter dropping with the rain. Opposite, are black shelves of wormy books, To left, glazed cases, dusty with the same, Behind, a wall, with rusty guns on hooks, To […]
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