Tag: Poetry
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To the Poor
by Anna Lætitia Barbauld Child of distress, who meet’st the bitter scorn, Of fellow-men to happier prospects born, Doomed Art and Nature’s various stores to see, Flow in full cups of joy—and not for thee; Who see’st the rich, to heaven and fate resigned, Bear thy afflictions with a patient mind; Whose bursting heart disdains […]
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Wooden God’s by Iryna Shuvalova
What did you know my little wooden godsmy cunning golden foxes when my flightleft behindthe gray-black-redNovember field beyond Boryspilthe mirror patches of autumn water what did you seefrom your dusty placeon my bookshelf when Ibrought youpinecones leaves pebblesto thank you for I thoughta new joba successful relocationthe visa finally issuedbut apparently it was for an […]
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Among Women by Marie Ponsot
What women wander? Not many. All. A few. Most would, now & then, & no wonder. Some, and I’m one, Wander sitting still. My small grandmother Bought from every peddler Less for the ribbons and lace Than for their scent Of sleep where you will, Walk out when you want, choose Your bread and your […]
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The Applicant by Sylvia Plath
First, are you our sort of a person? Do you wear A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch, A brace or a hook, Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch, Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then How can we give you a thing? Stop crying. Open your hand. Empty? Empty. Here is a […]
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The Builders
By John Masefield Before the unseen cock had called the time, Those workers left their beds and stumbled out Into the street, where dust lay white as lime Under the last star that keeps bats about. Then blinking still from bed, they trod the street, The doors closed up and down ; […]
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Choices
By Tess Gallagher I go to the mountain side of the house to cut saplings, and clear a view to snow on the mountain. But when I look up, saw in hand, I see a nest clutched in the uppermost branches. I don’t cut that one. I don’t cut the others either. Suddenly, in every […]
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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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The Snow is Deep on The Ground
By Kenneth Patchen The snow is deep on the ground. Always the light fallsSoftly down on the hair of my belovèd. This is a good world.The war has failed.God shall not forget us.Who made the snow waits where love is. Only a few go mad.The sky moves in its whitenessLike the withered hand of an old […]
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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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The School Where I Studied
By Yehuda Amichia I passed by the school where I studied as a boyand said in my heart: here I learned certain thingsand didn’t learn others. All my life I have loved in vainthe things I didn’t learn. I am filled with knowledge,I know all about the flowering of the tree of knowledge,the shape of […]
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Abiku by Wole Soyinka
In vain your bangles cast Charmed circles at my feet; I am Abiku, calling for the first And the repeated time. Must I weep for goats and cowries For palm oil and the sprinkled ash? Yams do not sprout in amulets To earth Abiku’s limbs. So when the snail is burnt in his […]
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New Magic
By Kenneth Slessor 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 starsAs carp might see them behind their bubbled skiesIn pale green fishponds—they’re as green your eyes, As lakes themselves, changed to green stone at dusk. At last I know—it’s paned in […]
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Ode to the Nightingale
By John Keats My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness,— That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees In some melodious plot Of […]
POETISHES 