Tag: Poetry
-
Christmas Eve
Christmas has a darknessBrighter than the blazing noon,Christmas has a chillnessWarmer than the heat of June,Christmas has a beautyLovelier than the world can show:For Christmas bringeth Jesus,Brought for us so low. Earth, strike up your music,Birds that sing and bells that ring;Heaven has answering musicFor all angels soon to sing:Earth, put on your whitestBridal robe…
-
I started Early – Took my Dog
I started Early – Took my Dog –And visited the Sea –The Mermaids in the BasementCame out to look at me – And Frigates – in the Upper FloorExtended Hempen Hands –Presuming Me to be a Mouse –Aground – opon the Sands – But no Man moved Me – till the TideWent past my simple Shoe –And past my Apron – and…
-
The Meaning of Existence
Everything except language knows the meaning of existence. Trees, planets, rivers, time know nothing else. They express it moment by moment as the universe. Even this fool of a body lives it in part, and would have full dignity within it but for the ignorant freedom of my talking mind. Les Murray
-
Predawn in Health
The stars are filtering through a tree outside in the moon’s silent era. Reality is moving layer over layer like crystal spheres now called laws. The future is right behind your head; just over all horizons is the past. The soul sits looking at its offer. Les Murray
-
Glee—the Great Storm Is Over
GLEE! the great storm is over! Four have recovered the land; Forty gone down together Into the boiling sand. Ring, for the scant salvation! Toll, for the bonnie souls,— Neighbor and friend and bridegroom, Spinning upon the shoals! How they will tell the shipwreck When winter shakes the door, Till the children ask, “But the…
-
A Pause for Thought
A Pause for Thought I looked for that which is not, nor can be, And hope deferred made my heart sick in truth: But years must pass before a hope of youth Is resigned utterly. I watched and waited with a steadfast will: And though the object seemed to flee away That I so longed…
-
Untitled Autumn Poem
I built my hut in a zone of human habitation,Yet near me there sounds no noise of horse or coach.Would you know how that is possible?A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it.I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge,Then gaze long at the distant summer hills.The mountain air is fresh at the dusk…
-
Before Sleep
Before Sleep The toil of the day is ebbing,The quiet comes again,In slumber deep relaxingThe limbs of tired men. And minds with anguish shaken,And spirits racked with grief,The cup of all forgettingHave drunk and found relief. The still Lethean watersNow steal through every vein,And men no more rememberThe meaning of their pain. Let, the weary…
-
To the Harbormaster
To the Harbormaster I wanted to be sure to reach you; though my ship was on the way it got caught in some moorings. I am always tying up and then deciding to depart. In storms and at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide around my fathomless arms, I am unable to understand…
-
Lines Written on Visiting a Scene in Argyleshire
Lines Written on Visiting a Scene in Argyleshire At the silence of twilight’s contemplative hour, I have mused in a sorrowful mood, On the wind-shaken weeds that embosom the bower, Where the home of my forefathers stood. All ruined and wild is their roofless abode, And lonely the dark raven’s sheltering tree: And travelled by…
Dan Yingst 