Good poems
/ page 452 of 545 /
Share of obligation
© Ivan Donn Carswell
If the debate rages in the pages of the news today
then Im confused, Ive searched and found no evidence.
Perhaps the anger of some residents about a Catholic school
thats due to close because its roll has fallen lower
Sends the wrong message
© Ivan Donn Carswell
Whats in a song John (or is it Knuckles), whats
in a song about an unemployed, suicidal bum, caught
in the act of sheep theft which defines the Australian
psyche? Ill bet you dont know but whatever it is
Piscine kind of kinship
© Ivan Donn Carswell
To glibly say that Joe was sort of odd
quite missed the point. Peculiar in many
ways and kind of weird, I would have
been afraid of him were I a child (if I ever
Out of ideas
© Ivan Donn Carswell
If I dont write something good tonight I will sleep
without the comforting Canopus of deep believers,
if I sleep at all, and this light which ignites
my enormous poetic conceit and guides my muse
Of Such Simplicity
© Ivan Donn Carswell
You and me,
the proof is there to see,
our lives are held within the spell of great simplicity,
were free of all the shadows dwelling in the hall,
Nights sentinel
© Ivan Donn Carswell
Even tonight will pass into memorys oblivion,
doomed, despite an ardent reunion
of once estranged yet precisely matched parts,
to a guiltless verdict a foregone conclusion.
Jessie of Gibraltar
© Ivan Donn Carswell
Our lives were founded on this rock, this Jessie of Gibraltar
Whose unfailing love endured beyond her ample nursing,
And we grew out of a rich and favoured childhood aware
Her powers were real (we tested them enough to know their soundness) into
It seldom snowed - Part II
© Ivan Donn Carswell
It seldom snowed in Camp they said, on the mountains, yes,
and in the Styx, aka zone six. Thats where we were afoot
in alpine grass, garbed to test our winter skills,
tramp the craggy hills and camp a night or two,
In soothing, sweetened words
© Ivan Donn Carswell
No, she said, I never knew it was your first. It doesnt
matter anyway. I always had an inkling that wed find
a way. And then we did. Im glad about it just for that.
Whether it was good or bad, or would have happened
Ellen McJones Aberdeen
© William Schwenck Gilbert
MACPHAIRSON CLONGLOCKETTY ANGUS McCLAN
Was the son of an elderly labouring man;
You've guessed him a Scotchman, shrewd reader, at sight,
And p'r'aps altogether, shrewd reader, you're right.
Bannerman of the Dandenong
© Alice Werner
I rode through the Bush in the burning noon,
Over the hills to my bride, -
The track was rough and the way was long,
And Bannerman of the Dandenong,
He rode along by my side.
If democratically elected
© Ivan Donn Carswell
What is it with Hezbollah
representing barely 15%
of the Lebanese Parliament
living outside the government
The Sentry
© Wilfred Owen
We'd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew,
And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell
Piano by Patrick Phillips: American Life in Poetry #173 Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006
© Ted Kooser
Poets are especially good at investing objects with meaning, or in drawing meaning from the things of this world. Here Patrick Phillips of Brooklyn, New York, does a masterful job of comparing a wrecked piano to his feelings.
Piano
Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.
The Nativity
© William Cowper
Upon my meanness, poverty, and guilt,
The trophy of thy glory shall be built;
My selfdisdain shall be the unshaken base,
And my deformity its fairest grace;
For destitute of good, and rich in ill,
Must be my state and my description still.
Having each of you as friends
© Ivan Donn Carswell
For more than 40 years weve been good friends,
since 1963 in fact, from college where we met
(and managed there to build a strong quartet
of campus friendship which kept those years intact,
Haircut today
© Ivan Donn Carswell
I am having a haircut today, it is not
a complex event requiring excellent
foresight, careful planning or indecent
logistical arrangement; not to my way
Prince Yousuf And The Alcayde
© Christopher Pearse Cranch
A Moorish Ballad
IN Grenada reigned Mohammed,
Sixth who bore the name was he;
But the rightful king, Prince Yousuf,
Stoves and sunshine
© Eugene Field
Prate, ye who will, of so-called charms you find across the sea-
The land of stoves and sunshine is good enough for me!
I've done the grand for fourteen months in every foreign clime,
And I've learned a heap of learning, but I've shivered all the time;
And the biggest bit of wisdom I've acquired-as I can see-
Is that which teaches that this land's the land of lands for me.
Good neighbours
© Ivan Donn Carswell
To my shame Ive been mending fences again
a quaint habit I inherited from my father;
he would rather fix a fence than parley
repair, and that it is where our views diverged.
