All Poems
/ page 58 of 3210 /
Worn Out
© Siddall Elizabeth
Thy strong arms are around me, love My head is on thy breast;Low words of comfort come from thee Yet my soul has no rest.
The Lust of the Eyes
© Siddall Elizabeth
I care not for my Lady's soul Though I worship before her smile;I care not where be my Lady's goal When her beauty shall lose its wile.
Dead Love
© Siddall Elizabeth
Oh never weep for love that's dead Since love is seldom trueBut changes his fashion from blue to red, From brightest red to blue,And love was born to an early death And is so seldom true.
The Glories of our Blood and State
© James Shirley
The glories of our blood and state Are shadows, not substantial things;There is no armour against fate; Death lays his icy hand on kings
Wedding
© Shields Carol
The bride stands in whitefullness on the church stepswhile cameras catch a mixedshow of joy and bafflement,sunshine and blinked-back surpriseat the suddenly unfurledafternoon of sentiment
The New Mothers
© Shields Carol
Nearly seven,walls loosen, it's already dark,dinner trays rattle by,nurses slack off, catcha smoke, let go.Roses bloom in every room.
The Methodist Jesus
© Shields Carol
Little Lord Jesus was a sissy butWe liked him anywayHe was like George WashingtonAnd never told lies -- onlyMuch more important we knew that.
Letter from a Friend
© Shields Carol
What do you mean you don'tunderstand me these days?Can't you see I'msewn up with sadness?Stitched through and through with grief that won'tbe comforted or identified.
Getting Born
© Shields Carol
Odd that no one knows how it feels to be born, whether it's one smooth whistling ride down green, ether-muffled air or whether the first breath burns in the lungs with the redness of flames.
Fall
© Shields Carol
This is the time of year when golden-agersare taken on buses to view the autumn foliageas though the sight and scent of yellowed treeswill stuff them with beautiful thoughtsand keep them from knowing --
as if there were still a trace of undamagedhunger -- for simple beauty, for colours,the sun falling frail on the fretwork of every leaf, the trumpeting surpriseof the earth turning, returning
Entry
© Shields Carol
Grandpa who died young kepta diary of sorts which was reallyjust a record of the weatheror how often he was obligedto have his roof repairedor when his taxes went upor the latest news of City Hallbut once, a Sunday, in the year 1925he entered a single word: woe
It shimmers uniquely on the ruled pageso small it makes us wonder and squintbut large enough in its inky powerto unsettle his young-manly scriptand throw black doubt on otherprevious entries: weather tip-topor gingko on Crescent Ave
A Pastoral Ballad, Absence
© William Shenstone
Ye shepherds so cheerful and gay, Whose flocks never carelessly roam;Should Corydon's happen to stray, Oh! call the poor wanderers home
Dream Song 93: General Fatigue stalked in, and a Major-General
© John Berryman
General Fatigue stalked in, & a Major-General,
Captain Fatigue, and at the base of all
pale Corporal Fatigue,
and curious microbes came, came viruses:
and the Court conferred on Henry, and conferred on Henry
the rare Order of Weak.
Lines: "When the Lamp Is Shattered"
© Percy Bysshe Shelley
When the lamp is shatteredThe light in the dust lies dead-- When the cloud is scatteredThe rainbow's glory is shed
Troilus and Cressida (excerpts): The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre
© William Shakespeare
The Heavens themselves, the planets, and this centreObserve degree, priority, and place,Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,Office, and custom, in all line of order
Shakespeare's Sonnets: 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
© William Shakespeare
'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemedWhen not to be receives reproach of being,And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemedNot by our feeling but by others' seeing
Dream Song 5: Henry sats in de bar and was odd
© John Berryman
Henry sats in de bar & was odd,
off in the glass from the glass,
at odds wif de world & its god,
his wife is a complete nothing,
St Stephen
getting even.
Dream Song 4: Filling her compact and delicious body
© John Berryman
Filling her compact & delicious body
with chicken páprika, she glanced at me
twice.
Fainting with interest, I hungered back
and only the fact of her husband & four other people
kept me from springing on her
Dream Song 39: Goodbye, sir, and fare well. You're in the clear
© John Berryman
Goodbye, sir, & fare well. You're in the clear.
'Nobody' (Mark says you said) 'is ever found out.'
I figure you were right,
having as Henry got away with murder
for long. Some jarred clock tell me it's late,
not for you who went straight
