All Poems
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A Christmas Carol
© Algernon Charles Swinburne
THREE DAMSELS in the queens chamber,
The queens mouth was most fair;
She spake a word of Gods mother
As the combs went in her hair.
Mary that is of might,
Bring us to thy Sons sight.
eight roundels
© Rg Gregory
(roundel: variation of the rondeau
consisting of three stanzas of three
lines each, linked together with but
two rhymes and a refrain at the end
of the first and third group)
Lake Leman
© Harold Monro
It is the sacred hour: above the far
Low emerald hills that northward fold,
An Elegy on Parting
© James Thomson
It was a sad, ay 'twas a sad farewell,
I still afresh the pangs of parting feel;
Against my breast my heart impatient beat,
And in deep sighs bemoan'd its cruel fate;
humming-bird pie
© Rg Gregory
the paiute indians had the bird sussed
a humming bird (loaded with seeds) set out
to see beyond the sun - it aimed to be frugal
rationing itself to only one seed a day - even so
it ran out long before it meant to
it gave up (getting nowhere and seeing nothing) -
Why The Daisies Are Not All White
© Wilcox Ella Wheeler
Uncle Rob says:
Once the daisies all were white,
Till a baby fellow
Ate his supper down one night,
And stained his face all yellow.
shaw and jung
© Rg Gregory
shaw had the gift of the crab
how he took the straight idea
and scuttled with it sideways
marking sand and word with sea's
Paradise Lost : Book II.
© John Milton
High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
personal request
© Rg Gregory
for what my heart held clear
and didnt have the wit to showfor what my path proposed
and got lost in its diversionsfor what my beginnings dreamed
and my ends cannot lay hold offor what promises i made
legs rivers and age
© Rg Gregory
with landbound legs a wish
for the easy flow of a river - not
the clambering up crags to seek
more favour from the sun
The Twins
© James Whitcomb Riley
One 's the pictur' of his Pa,
And the _other_ of her Ma--
Jes the bossest pair o' babies 'at a mortal ever saw!
And we love 'em as the bees
Loves the blossoms of the trees,
A-ridin' and a-rompin' in the breeze!
Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Prelude
© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Then down the road, with mud besprent,
And drenched with rain from head to hoof,
The rain-drops dripping from his mane
And tail as from a pent-house roof,
A jaded horse, his head down bent,
Passed slowly, limping as he went.
happiness
© Rg Gregory
happiness is the stuff of birthdays
and the coming of sweet things
when they are not expected
Witch Burning
© Sylvia Plath
In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll's body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.
stylised tulips
© Rg Gregory
stylised tulips this is what the card says
and they have that nineteen-twenties feel
of those bright young things a decade before us
who had a way of walking with their legs
By An Autumn Stream
© Archibald Lampman
Now overhead,
Where the rivulet loiters and stops,
The bittersweet hangs from the tops
Of the alders and cherries
Its bunches of beautiful berries,
Orange and red.
temporising with the eternal
© Rg Gregory
i dont know what youre up to
yet but for me
you wouldnt exist
(not on this page anyway -
A March Minstrel
© Alfred Austin
Hail! once again, that sweet strong note!
Loud on my loftiest larch,
Thou quaverest with thy mottled throat,
Brave minstrel of bleak March!
penelope
© Rg Gregory
name meaning thread weaver or duck
(these may be guesses from obscurity)
ten-year faithful wife whilst her husband
was gallivanting round the islands
advice to a young sylv-i-an dragon on going to school
© Rg Gregory
when you step out of the wood and go first time to school
you have to be so specially careful if you're really a dragon
to put the most innocent expression on your face you can find
and not flip your flappers (unless the others don't mind)
you must be very strict with yourself - be sure not to act the fool
you'd be far happier i think to get your mother to tie a tag on
