Good poems
/ page 403 of 545 /
The Alfresco Moment
© Russell Edson
A butler asks, will Madam be having her morning coffee
alfresco?
If you would be so good as to lift me out of my bed to
the veranda I would be more than willing to imbibe coffee
The Theory
© Russell Edson
The big one went to sleep as to die and dreamed he
became a tiny one. So tiny as to have lost all substance. To have
become as theoretical as a point.
To My Wife
© William Ernest Henley
Take, dear, my little sheaf of songs,
For, old or new,
All that is good in them belongs
Only to you;
Madge Linsey, Or The Three Souls
© Dora Sigerson Shorter
Then by Madge Linsey's side knelt he a little while,
"So of our wilful sins pay we the toll.
Even as she were I, had I but followed her.
But the Lord succoured me saving my soul."
Midsummer Midnight Skies
© William Ernest Henley
The spell-bound ships stand as at gaze
To let the marvel by. The grey road glooms . . .
Glimmers . . . goes out . . . and there, O, there where it fades,
What grace, what glamour, what wild will,
Transfigure the shadows? Whose,
Heart of my heart, Soul of my soul, but yours?
Mr. Brain
© Russell Edson
Mr Brain was a hermit dwarf who liked to eat shellfish off
the moon. He liked to go into a tree then because there is a
little height to see a little further, which may reveal now the
stone, a pebble--it is a twig, it is nothing under the moon that
you can make sure of.
So Mr Brain opened his mouth to let a moonbeam into his head.
Ape And Coffee
© Russell Edson
Some coffee had gotten on a man's ape. The man said,
animal did you get on my coffee? No no, whistled the ape, the coffee got on me. You're sure you didn't spill on my coffee? said the man.Do I look like a liquid? peeped the ape.Well you sure don't look human, said the man. But that doesn't make me a fluid, twittered the ape.Well I don' know what the hell you are, so just stop it,
cried the man.I was just sitting here reading the newspaper when you
splashed coffee all over me, piped the ape. I don't care if you are a liquid, you just better stop
In Memoriam Nicol Drysdale Stenhouse
© Henry Kendall
SHALL he, on whom the fair lord, Delphicus,
Turned gracious eyes and countenance of shine,
Be left to lie without a wreath from us,
To sleep without a flower upon his shrine?
The Changeling
© Russell Edson
A man had a son who was an anvil. And then sometimes
he was an automobile tire.
I do wish you would sit still, said the father.
Sometimes his son was a rock.
Accidents
© Russell Edson
The barber has accidentally taken off an ear. It lies like
something newborn on the floor in a nest of hair.
Oops, says the barber, but it musn't've been a very good
ear, it came off with very little complaint.
Paying The Captain
© Russell Edson
But it seems there will be no journey since we have
gotten the captain used to a good thing. And so we
must spend the rest of our days throwing the captain
overboard.
The Pattern
© Russell Edson
Probably it got mislaid in the baby place, and when they
found it and saw that it was a little too ripe, they said,
well, it is good enough for this woman who is almost
deserving of nothing.
The Columbiad: Book X
© Joel Barlow
From that mark'd stage of man we now behold,
More rapid strides his coming paths unfold;
His continents are traced, his islands found,
His well-taught sails on all his billows bound,
His varying wants their new discoveries ply,
And seek in earth's whole range their sure supply.
Ten Fingered Mice
© Edgar Albert Guest
When a cake is nicely frosted and it's put away for tea,
And it looks as trim and proper as a chocolate cake should be,
Identification In Belfast
© Robert Lowell
(I.R.A. Bombing)The British Army now carries two rifles,
one with rubber rabbit-pellets for children,
the other's of course for the Provisionals....
'When they first showed me the boy, I thought oh good,
A Pity, We Were Such A Good Invention
© Yehuda Amichai
They amputated
Your thighs off my hips.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all surgeons. All of them.
Telling You All
© Rainer Maria Rilke
Telling you all would take too long.
Besides, we read in the Bible
how the good is harmful
and how misfortune is good.
