Enter without knocking, hard-working ant.
I'm just sitting here mulling over
What to do this dark, overcast day?
It was a night of the radio turned down low,

Clouds Gathering

© Charles Simic

It seemed the kind of life we wanted.
Wild strawberries and cream in the morning.
Sunlight in every room.
The two of us walking by the sea naked.

Heights Of Folly

© Charles Simic

O crows circling over my head and cawing!
I admit to being, at times,
Suddenly, and without the slightest warning,
Exceedingly happy.

The School Of Metaphysics

© Charles Simic

Executioner happy to explain
How his wristwatch works
As he shadows me on the street.
I call him that because he is grim and officious
And wears black.

White

© Charles Simic

What is that little black thing I see there
in the white?
Walt Whitman

Talking To Little Birdies

© Charles Simic

Not a peep out of you now
After the bedlam early this morning.
Are you begging pardon of me
Hidden up there among the leaves,
Or are your brains momentarily overtaxed?

O, Have You Blessed, Behind The Stars

© William Ernest Henley

O, have you blessed, behind the stars,
The blue sheen of the skies,
When June the roses round her calls?
Then do you know the light that falls
From her beloved eyes.

Fairy Song

© Louisa May Alcott

The moonlight fades from flower and rose
And the stars dim one by one;
The tale is told, the song is sung,
And the Fairy feast is done.

The Alfresco Moment

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

Ah, once below you through the glittering plain
Stretched avenues of Sphinxes to the Nile;
And, flanked with towers, each consecrated fane
Enshrined its god. The broken gods lie prone
In roofless halls, their hallowed terrors gone,
Helpless beneath Heaven's penetrating smile.

Madge Linsey, Or The Three Souls

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."

Come Quietly, Britain!

COME quietly, Britain, all together, come!

It is time!

My Little Soul I Never Saw

My little soul I never saw,
Nor can I count its days;
I do not know its wondrous law
And yet I know its ways.

Kathleen Ni-Houlihan

As I came down from the hill of Aileach,

When spring sang in the air,

Midsummer Midnight Skies

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?