All Poems

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The Dirge Of The Winds

© Wilcox Ella Wheeler

The four winds of earth, the North, South, East, and West,

Shrieked and groaned, sobbed and wailed, like the soul of unrest.

The Long Hill

© Sara Teasdale

I must have passed the crest a while ago
And now I am going down.
Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know—
But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.

For I Will Consider Your Dog Molly

For it was the first day of Rosh Ha'shanah, New Year's Day, day of remembrance, of ancient sacrifices and averted calamities.

For I started the day by eating an apple dipped in honey, as ritual required.

Her Eyes Twin Pools

© James Weldon Johnson

Her eyes, twin pools of mystic light,
The blend of star-sheen and black night;
O'er which, to sound their glamouring haze,
A man might bend, and vainly gaze.

The Story of Phœbus and Daphne, Applied

© Edmund Waller

Thyrsis, a youth of the inspired train,

Fair Sacharissa lov’d, but lov’d in vain;

Warning to the Mighty

© Adelaide Crapsey

Ere the horne'd owl hoot

Once and twice and thrice there shall

Whistle-Fantasy

© Margaret Widdemer

OUT in the dark the train passes

And the whistle calls to the child,

the library of t-shirts

© Joanne Burns

in order to upgrade the community’s appreciation of poetry during the international year of cultural enrichment stage 2, members of the state’s library progress committee decided to establish a small library of t-shirts on which would be printed quality verse in vivid, bold colours and lettering. the poems would be selected on the basis of one of three qualities: is the poem poignant, perspicacious, or pithy.

given the respectably researched fact that the wearing of words on t-shirts expresses a deep psychic desire for an intimate union of word and flesh, (and bear in mind the way “logo” nudges towards “logos”) it is not surprising that this library of t-shirts has been a great success. no one seems to mind borrowing pre-worn clothing. of course the library’s washing and ironing staff maintain the t-shirts in excellent condition. even after ten borrowings the shirts look brand new. and considering the phenomenal success of andrew lloyd webber’s “cats” it is no shock revelation that t.s. eliot’s “hollow men” has proved to be the library’s most popular t-shirt so far. in fact there are now eight copies of this shirt on loan, most in metallic or fluoro colours.

Freddy

© Stevie Smith

Nobody knows what I feel about Freddy

I cannot make anyone understand

The Beautiful Toilet (Pound's Translation of the original Chinese poem by Mei Sheng)

© Ezra Pound

Blue, blue is the grass about the river
And the willows have overfilled the close garden.
And within, the mistress, in the midmost of her youth.
White, white of face, hesitates, passing the door.
Slender, she puts forth a slender hand;

Fragment 4: As some vast Tropic tree, itself a wood

© Samuel Taylor Coleridge

As some vast Tropic tree, itself a wood,

The Bridal And The Burial

© James Montgomery

I saw thee young and beautiful,

I saw thee rich and gay,

St. Agnes' Eve

© Alfred Tennyson

Deep on the convent-roof the snows

Are sparkling to the moon:

When De Folks Is Gone

What dat scratchin' at de kitchin do'?
Done heah'n dat foh an hour er mo'!
Tell you Mr. Niggah, das sho's yo' bo'n,
Hit's mighty lonesome waitin' when de folks is gone!

A Sequence of Sonnets on the Death of Robert Browning

The works of words whose life seems lightning wrought,
And moulded of unconquerable thought,
And quickened with imperishable flame,
Stand fast and shine and smile, assured that nought
May fade of all their myriad-moulded fame,
Nor England's memory clasp not Browning's name.

Cardinal Ideograms

© May Swenson

Three-cornered hut
on one stilt. Sometimes built
so the roof gapes.

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,