Good poems
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The Break Away
© Anne Sexton
I pray it will know truth,
if truth catches in its cup
and yet I pray, as a child would,
that the surgery take.
To A Proud Beauty
© Adam Lindsay Gordon
"A Valentine"
Though I have loved you well, I ween,
And you, too, fancied me,
Your heart hath too divided been
For Righteousness' Sake
© John Greenleaf Whittier
THE age is dull and mean. Men creep,
Not walk; with blood too pale and tame
Doubtful Dreams
© Adam Lindsay Gordon
Aye, snows are rife in December,
And sheaves are in August yet,
Cripples And Other Stories
© Anne Sexton
My doctor, the comedian
I called you every time
and made you laugh yourself
when I wrote this silly rhyme...
THe Mother-Lodge
© Rudyard Kipling
Outside -- "Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!"
Inside -- "Brother", an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,
An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there!
The Bells
© Anne Sexton
Today the circus poster
is scabbing off the concrete wall
and the children have forgotten
if they knew at all.
The Double Image
© Anne Sexton
They sent me letters with news
of you and I made moccasins that I would never use.
When I grew well enough to tolerate
myself, I lived with my mother, the witches said.
But I didn't leave. I had my portrait
done instead.
Amarantha. A Pastorall
© Richard Lovelace
Up with the jolly bird of light
Who sounds his third retreat to night;
Faire Amarantha from her bed
Ashamed starts, and rises red
The Inventory Of Goodbye
© Anne Sexton
I have a pack of letters,
I have a pack of memories.
I could cut out the eyes of both.
I could wear them like a patchwork apron.
The Ambition Bird
© Anne Sexton
So it has come to this
insomnia at 3:15 A.M.,
the clock tolling its engine
Again and Again and Again
© Anne Sexton
You said the anger would come back
just as the love did.I have a black look I do not
like. It is a mask I try on.
I migrate toward it and its frog
Goodbye My Lover
© Margaret Widdemer
All the flags stream abroad, and the crowds wave and cry
And I watch for your face in the long lines marching by;
For my lips bade you go, but my heart would bid you stay
Oh, lad, and will the war be long, and you so far away?
And your step as you marched, would it lag or fall more true
If you know that my heart's gone to war to follow you?
Lessons In Hunger
© Anne Sexton
"Do you like me?"
I asked the blue blazer.
No answer.
Silence bounced out of his books.
The Temptation
© Edith Nesbit
YOU bring your love too late, dear, I have no love to buy it,
I spent my love on worthless toys, at fairs you do not know;
I am a bankrupt trader--dear eyes, do not deny it,
I could have bought your love, dear, but that was long ago.
August 17th
© Anne Sexton
Good for visiting hospitals or charitable work. Take some time to attend to your health.Surely I will be disquieted
by the hospital, that body zone--
bodies wrapped in elastic bands,
bodies cased in wood or used like telephones,
The Evil Seekers
© Anne Sexton
We are born with luck
which is to say with gold in our mouth.
As new and smooth as a grape,
as pure as a pond in Alaska,
The Cut Finger
© Ellis Parker Butler
An shure, me lad, t is bleedin;
But come, me hearty laddy buck, be brave an do not cry;
A lad thats learnin readin shu'd be far beyant the heedin
Av a tiny bit o finger cut that hurrts a bit foreby.
Dreaming The Breasts
© Anne Sexton
I have put a padlock
on you, Mother, dear dead human,
so that your great bells,
those dear white ponies,
can go galloping, galloping,
wherever you are.
Flee On Your Donkey
© Anne Sexton
Today an intern knocks my knees,
testing for reflexes.
Once I would have winked and begged for dope.
Today I am terribly patient.
Today crows play black-jack
on the stethoscope.
