Darque Doll By, Crystal Lane Swift Cradling her wounds she thought back Pressed to the ground He had stolen her perfection Once bright white porcelain and pure She was now broken and scarred She did the only thing she could think to do Though soaked in her own blood She threaded her needle with […]
Poems in History
a young dog’s howl in the wind by Ian MacMenamin
waves
american trains
running through
Yin & Yang by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson
Yin & Yang by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson We’re a myriad of thoughts In a kaleidoscope of dreams And everything seems real But nothing’s what it seems The evil that we do Is for the good of all we know And when there’s no evil left Then there’s nowhere left to go (Napkin Poetry, Broken Publications, 2010) […]
A Letter along the Way by Xiwen Mai
A Letter along the Way by Xiwen Mai Dearest, tell me where the cicadas have gone. Didn’t summer only exist in the past? For I see myself sitting at the window years ago, in the wild songs of cicadas about how they had waited life long to find the summer unbearable, Nanjing’s summer hot as […]
In Ohio by Grace Curtis
In Ohio by Grace Curtis One either believes in God or one probably really is going to hell and Ohioans know the difference, because like the small seeds in her brown fields, you are below the surface yet visible, corn hands waving as relatives stand near to measure your success, to see where you are […]
Consider This by Henry L. Mortimer Jr.
Consider This by Henry L. Mortimer Jr. Some animal, some low beast has done me a favor: it tipped over the trash can in the alley early this morning, scattering the contents, everything — brown banana peels, wads of Kleenex, open soiled diapers, moldy carrots, chicken bones and greasy aluminum foil, gum, dental floss, a […]
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti
A Pause of Thought by Christina Rossetti 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 […]
The Honey Room by Donal Mahoney
The Honey Room by Donal Mahoney Brother Al, in his hood, is out in his field making love to his bees. From my room I can see him move through his hives the way people should move among people. The bees give him gold and the gold turns orange in the jars that […]
Where-Away by James Whitcomb Riley
Where-Away by James Whitcomb Riley O the Lands of Where-Away! Tell us?tell us?where are they? Through the darkness and the dawn We have journeyed on and on? From the cradle to the cross? From possession unto loss,? Seeking still, from day to day, For the lands of Where-Away. When our baby-feet were first Planted […]
Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot
Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot Webster was much possessed by death And saw the skull beneath the skin; And breastless creatures under ground Leaned backward with a lipless grin. Daffodil bulbs instead of balls Stared from the sockets of the eyes! He knew that thought clings round dead limbs Tightening its lusts and […]
The Fathers by Siegfried Sassoon
The Fathers by Siegfried Sassoon Snug at the club two fathers sat, Gross, goggle-eyed, and full of chat. One of them said: “My eldest lad Writes cheery letters from Bagdad. But Arthur’s getting all the fun At Arras with his nine-inch gun.” “Yes,” wheezed the other, “that’s the luck! My boy’s quite broken-hearted, stuck […]
Memorial Day by Joyce Kilmer
Memorial Day by Joyce Kilmer “Dulce et decorum est” The bugle echoes shrill and sweet, But not of war it sings to-day. The road is rhythmic with the feet Of men-at-arms who come to pray. The roses blossom white and red On tombs where weary soldiers lie; Flags wave above the honored dead And martial […]
Tavern by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Tavern by Edna St. Vincent Millay I’ll keep a little tavern Below the high hill’s crest, Wherein all grey-eyed people May set them down and rest. There shall be plates a-plenty, And mugs to melt the chill Of all the grey-eyed people Who happen up the hill. There sound will sleep the traveller, And […]
Love and a Question by Robert Frost
Love and a Question by Robert Frost A STRANGER came to the door at eve, And he spoke the bridegroom fair. He bore a green-white stick in his hand, And, for all burden, care. He asked with the eyes more than the lips For a shelter for the night, And he turned and looked at […]
His Dream by W. B. Yeats
His Dream by W. B. Yeats I swayed upon the gaudy stern The butt end of a steering oar, And everywhere that I could turn Men ran upon the shore. And though I would have hushed the crowd There was no mother’s son but said, What is the figure in a shroud Upon a gaudy […]