Tag: English poems
-
Stupid Meditation on Peace by Robert Pinsky
Insomniac monkey-mind ponders the Dove,Symbol not only of Peace but sexualLove, the couple nestled and brooding. After coupling, the human animal needsThe woman safe for nine months and more.But the man after his turbulent minute or two Is expendable. Usefully rash, recklessFor defense, in his void of redundancyWilling to death and destruction. Monkey-mind envies the […]
-
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 […]
-
Adultery at Forty by Donald Hall
At shower’s head, high over the porcelain moonscape, a waterdrop gathers itself darkly, with hesitation, hangs, swells, shakes, looms, as if uncertain in which direction to hurl itself, and plunges to come apart at its only destination.
-
Once The World Was Perfect by Joy Harjo
Once the World Was Perfect Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.Then we took it for granted.Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.And once Doubt ruptured the web,All manner of demon thoughtsJumped through—We destroyed the world we had been givenFor inspiration, […]
-
Nurse’s Song
When the voices of children are heard on the greenAnd laughing is heard on the hill,My heart is at rest within my breastAnd everything else is still. “Then come home, my children, the sun is gone downAnd the dews of night arise;Come, come, leave off play, and let us awayTill the morning appears in the […]
-
Ode to Beauty by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who gave thee, O Beauty, The keys of this breast,Too credulous lover Of blest and unblest? Say, when in lapsed ages Thee knew I of old; Or what was the service For which I was sold? When first my eyes saw thee, I found me thy thrall, By magical drawings, Sweet tyrant of all! I […]
-
Fate by Ralph Waldo Emerson
That you are fair or wise is vain, Or strong, or rich, or generous; You must have also the untaught strain That sheds beauty on the rose. There is a melody born of melody, Which melts the world into a sea: Toil could never compass it; Art its height could never hit; It came never […]
-
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 […]
-
Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837 by the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down […]
-
Days by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days, Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, And marching single in an endless file, Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. To each they offer gifts after his will, Bread, kingdoms, stars, or sky that holds them all. I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp, Forgot my morning wishes, […]
-
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 […]
-
Experience by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The lords of life, the lords of life,I saw them pass, In their own guise, Like and unlike, Portly and grim,Use and Surprise, Surface and Dream, Succession swift and spectral Wrong, Temperament without a tongue, And the inventor of the game Omnipresent without name;Some to see, some to be guessed, They marched from east to […]
-
Brahma by Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and pass, and turn again. Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame. They reckon ill who leave […]
-
Blind Curse by Simon Ortiz J.
You could drive blindfor those two secondsand they would be forever.I think that as a diesel truckpasses us eight miles east of Mission.Churning through the storm, heedlessof the hill sliding away.There isn’t much use to curse but I do.Words fly away, tumbling invisiblytoward the unseen point wherethe prairie and sky meet.The road is like that […]
-
To SMA Young African Painter: On Seeing his Work by Phillis Wheatley
TO show the lab’ring bosom’s deep intent,And thought in living characters to paint,When first thy pencil did those beauties give,And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,How did those prospects give my soul delight,A new creation rushing on my sight?Still, wond’rous youth! each noble path pursue,On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:Still may the painter’s […]
POETISHES 