Dæmonic Love

Man was made of social earth,
Child and brother from his birth;
Tethered by a liquid cord
Of blood through veins of kindred poured,
Next his heart the fireside band
Of mother, father, sister, stand;
Names from awful childhood heard,
Throbs of a wild religion stirred,
Their good was heaven, their harm was vice,
Till Beauty came to snap all ties,
The maid, abolishing the past,
With lotus-wine obliterates
Dear memory's stone-incarved traits,
And by herself supplants alone
Friends year by year more inly known.
When her calm eyes opened bright,
All were foreign in their light.
It was ever the self-same tale,
The old experience will not fail,—
Only two in the garden walked,

[...] Read more

poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

From the Earth, a Cry

CAN the earth have a voice? Can the clods have speech,
To murmur and rail at the demigods?
Trample them! Grind their vulgar faces in the clay!

The earth was made for lords and the makers of law;
For the conquerors and the social priest;
For traders who feed on and foster the complex life;
For the shrewd and the selfish who plan and keep;
For the heirs who squander the hoard that bears
The face of the king, and the blood of the serf,
And the curse of the darkened souls!

O Christ! and O Christ! In thy name the law!
In thy mouth the mandate! In thy loving hand the whip!
They have taken thee down from thy cross and sent thee to scourge the people;
They have shod thy feet with spikes and jointed thy dead knees with iron,
And pushed thee, hiding behind, to trample the poor dumb faces!

The spheres make music in space. They swing
Like fiery cherubim on their paths, circling their suns,

[...] Read more

poem by John Boyle O'Reilly
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Settle Down

Album: Eternal (2001)
[Chorus]
Do you think you're ready
To settle down, settle down babe
Do you think you're ready
To settle down with me babe
Do you think you're ready
To settle down, settle down with me babe
Settle down with me, babe
Settle down
Would you like a house on the hill
Overlooking the ocean side
Tell me, would you like that baby
Or how about a high-rise apartment
In Manhattan on the east side
If that's what you need
I'm here to please
Won't you settle down with me, baby
[Chorus]
We could take a jet plane all the way to Spain

[...] Read more

song performed by Isley Brothers
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Drawing a Purple Blank Verse after Gelett BURGESS Purple Cow

DRAWING A PURPLE BLANK VERSE
Kindly refer to notes

I've never cowed to purple prose
know now I'll never write it,
for anyhow true writer knows
hand stretched finds critics bite it.

I've never wowed, and goodness knows
hacks lack the knack of versing,
won't bow, kowtow to backhand blows,
preferring role reverse_sing.

Ah, yes, I wrote on purple prose,
yet can't regret I penned it,
one far prefers rhyme's timeless flows,
no blush need rush defend it.

10 February 2009

[...] Read more

poem by Jonathan Robin
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Abram Morrison

'Midst the men and things which will
Haunt an old man's memory still,
Drollest, quaintest of them all,
With a boy's laugh I recall
Good old Abram Morrison.

When the Grist and Rolling Mill
Ground and rumbled by Po Hill,
And the old red school-house stood
Midway in the Powow's flood,
Here dwelt Abram Morrison.

From the Beach to far beyond
Bear-Hill, Lion's Mouth and Pond,
Marvellous to our tough old stock,
Chips o' the Anglo-Saxon block,
Seemed the Celtic Morrison.

Mudknock, Balmawhistle, all
Only knew the Yankee drawl,

[...] Read more

poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

On A View Of Pasadena From The Hills

From the high terrace porch I watch the dawn.
No light appears, though dark has mostly gone,
Sunk from the cold and monstrous stone. The hills
Lie naked but not light. The darkness spills
Down the remoter gulleys; pooled, will stay
Too low to melt, not yet alive with day.
Below the windows, the lawn, matted deep
Under its close-cropped tips with dewy sleep,
Gives off a faint hush, all its plushy swarm
Alive with coolness reaching to be warm.
Gray windows at my back, the massy frame
Dull with the blackness that has not a name;
But down below, the garden is still young,
Of five years’ growth, perhaps, and terrace-hung,
Drop by slow drop of seeping concrete walls.
Such are the bastions of our pastorals!

Here are no palms! They once lined country ways,
Where old white houses glared down dusty days,

[...] Read more

poem by Yvor Winters
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Address ToThe Devil

O thou! whatever title suit thee,-
Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie!
Wha in yon cavern, grim an' sootie,
Clos'd under hatches,
Spairges about the brunstane cootie
To scaud poor wretches!
Hear me, Auld Hangie, for a wee,
An' let poor damned bodies be;
I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gie,
E'en to a deil,
To skelp an' scaud poor dogs like me,
An' hear us squeel!
Great is thy pow'r, an' great thy fame;
Far ken'd an' noted is thy name;
An' tho' yon lowin heugh's thy hame,
Thou travels far;
An' faith! thou's neither lag nor lame,
Nor blate nor scaur.
Whyles, ranging like a roarin lion,
For prey a' holes an' corners tryin;

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Burns
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Bundaleer Throne

We live out at Bundaleer in
A cabin, in the bush,
Where the air is so much cleaner,
And there's little need to rush,
We have pigs and sheep and chickens,
And we pick our vegies fresh,
So it caused a stir of interest
When we heard of Uncle's death!

Now the 'Uncle' was my mother's
So he wasn't close to us,
And in fact we'd never met him,
Just heard tales of 'Uncle Gus',
He'd been in the 4th Light Horse
At Beersheba, so they said,
In that last great charge of cavalry
That stained the desert red.

'He became a touch eccentric
After that, ' my mother sighed,

[...] Read more

poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Lament Of The Last Train Whistle

The lament of the last train whistle
has disappeared into the distance
mournfully looking for its lost child.
October night in the woods
around an old fire pit of prophetic skulls
blowing ghosts of smoke in my face
that bring me to tears, a neolithic calendar
of all the old and new moons that have passed.
So many, so much, that used to matter
doesn't anymore. Dream figures
that shed their skins like the longer wavelengths
of watersnakes in an infra-red mindscape
of serpent fire dying like the sun
that can tell the hour by the taste of its ashes.
I throw more well-dried thresholds on the fire
like branches that used to be green with the tears
of sweeter departures and arrivals over the years.

All the light's jumped from orbitals
of the tree rings that sag like bags

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Something For The Touts, The Nuns, The Grocery Clerks, And You . . .

we have everything and we have nothing
and some men do it in churches
and some men do it by tearing butterflies
in half
and some men do it in Palm Springs
laying it into butterblondes
with Cadillac souls
Cadillacs and butterflies
nothing and everything,
the face melting down to the last puff
in a cellar in Corpus Christi.
there's something for the touts, the nuns,
the grocery clerks and you . . .
something at 8 a.m., something in the library
something in the river,
everything and nothing.
in the slaughterhouse it comes running along
the ceiling on a hook, and you swing it --
one
two

[...] Read more

poem by Charles Bukowski
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Burglar Of Babylon

On the fair green hills of Rio
There grows a fearful stain:
The poor who come to Rio
And can't go home again.

On the hills a million people,
A million sparrows, nest,
Like a confused migration
That's had to light and rest,

Building its nests, or houses,
Out of nothing at all, or air.
You'd think a breath would end them,
They perch so lightly there.

But they cling and spread like lichen,
And people come and come.
There's one hill called the Chicken,
And one called Catacomb;

[...] Read more

poem by Elizabeth Bishop
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Ghetto Queen (feat. Crucial Conflict)

(feat. Crucial Conflict)
Crucial Conflict come out and play, hey come on
Crucial Conflict, Kelly and Rockland, collabo'
Funny faces is all I see
At my place, you on top of me
Playin' strip poker, sippin' Cristi'
I grip your shoulders, you sqeeze the sheets
I'm admirin' your heart shaped booty
Nothin' in your oven, baby feed me now
Who's is this, who's is this, who's is this
Who's is this, who's is this, who's is this
My ghetto queen
[1] - You're my ghetto queen
Right around the way from me
Watering those ghetto trees
We be high just like them weeds
Might be ghetto but you queen to me
That's how it's suppose to be
Do whatcha gotta do for me
Forever fulfill your fantasy

[...] Read more

song performed by R. Kelly
Added by Lucian Velea
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Hitched

An'—wilt—yeh—take—this—woman—fer—to—be
Yer—wed ded—wife?— . . . O, strike me! Will I wot?
Take 'er? Doreen? 'E stan's there arstin' me!
As if 'e thort per'aps I'd rather not!
Take 'er? 'E seemed to think 'er kind was got
Like cigarette-cards, fer the arstin'. Still,
I does me stunt in this 'ere hitchin' rot,
An' speaks me piece: 'Righto!' I sez, 'I will.'

'I will,' I sez. An' tho' a joyful shout
Come from me bustin' 'eart—I know it did
Me voice got sorter mangled comin' out,
An' makes me whisper like a frightened kid.
'I will,' I squeaks. An' I'd 'a' give a quid
To 'ad it on the quite, wivout this fuss,
An' orl the starin' crowd that Mar 'ad bid
To see this solim hitchin' up of us.

'Fer—rich-er—er—fer—poorer.' So 'e bleats.
'In—sick-ness—an'—in—'ealth,' . . . An' there I stands,

[...] Read more

poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Sentimental Bloke

An'-wilt-yeh-take-this-woman-fer-to-be
Yer-wedded-wife? -... O, strike me! Will I wot?
Take 'er? Doreen? 'E stan's there arstin' me!
As if 'e thort per'aps I'd rather not!
Take 'er? 'E seemed to think 'er kind was got
Like cigarette-cards, fer the arstin'. Still,
I does me stunt in this 'ere hitchin' rot,
An' speaks me piece: 'Righto! ' I sez, 'I will.'

'I will,' I sez. An' tho' a joyful shout
Come from me bustin' 'eart-I know it did-
Me voice got sorter mangled comin' out,
An' makes me whisper like a frightened kid.
'I will,' I squeaks. An' I'd 'a' give a quid
To 'ad it on the quite, wivout this fuss,
An' orl the starin' crowd that Mar 'ad bid
To see this solim hitchin' up of us.

'Fer-rich-er-er-fer-poorer.' So 'e bleats.
'In-sick-ness-an'-in-'ealth,'... An' there I stands,

[...] Read more

poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Wolf And Shepherds. A Fable

Laws, as we read in ancient sages,
Have been like cobwebs in all ages:
Cobwebs for little flies are spread,
And laws for little folks are made;
But if an insect of renown,
Hornet or beetle, wasp or drone,
Be caught in quest of sport or plunder,
The flimsy fetter flies in sunder.
Your simile perhaps may please one
With whom wit holds the place of reason:
But can you prove that this in fact is
Agreeable to life and practice?
Then hear, what in his simple way
Old Æsop told me t' other day.
In days of yore, but (which is very odd)
Our author mentions not the period,
We mortal men, less given to speeches,
Allow'd the beasts sometimes to teach us.
But now we all are prattlers grown,
And suffer no voice but our own;

[...] Read more

poem by James Beattie
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

I See You In The Eyes Of The Rain

I see you in the eyes of the rain
and in the broken aspirations of the swallow
that hit the windowpane dead on.
Fire that no longer burns.
Water that no longer drowns.
Earth that no longer receives.
A gust of air that no one breathes.

I see you in the tender, green tendrils
of the wild grapevines clinging to life
like the last plank of a shipwrecked lifeboat
washed up on the shore of the moon.
The most bitter farewells are those
compelled by understanding
to cry a little in the open doorway
and leave as if there were nothing more to say.

Words lightyears beyond communication.
Metaphors like burning bridges
that never quite make it to the other side.

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Symbiotic Mind Expansion

Sanctuary shade life pregnant pulsing with magic
green earth shine golden hues divine silver lined sylvan tapestry
every enriched breath shared with the body of earth
earth spin sky shift birds twitter squirrels flirt
discovery ripens creativity fills each seeking heart with living joy

every garden a living shrine dedicated
to the feminine essence of the vegetable mind
fertile cradle unique fruit life illuminated
blue green candle of the universe
shine on mother earth!
shine life's beauty
love's sacred beacon
unending light!

Great Green Goddess
provider of sacred guiding garden gnosis
sound of electric cicada cinergy pulsing like
quantum seeds shaken in a global gourd
Buried beneath concrete dominoes of dominator culture

[...] Read more

poem by Gregory Allen Uhan
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Those Nights I Went Out With A Butcher's Knife

Those nights I went out with a butcher's knife
down the dark alley between our house
and the triplex next door, twelve years old,
my courage running down my leg, to stab
a full grown pervert running down the back stairs
when you flipped the porch lights on to spotlight
the spider stealing your panties off the clothesline,
onto my green gladiolus of a Spanish short sword
that hadn't tasted the blood of its first blossom yet,
I don't want to remember this anymore.
I don't want to be estranged from my own childhood
by garbage cans that look like dangerous men in the moonlight.

When I think of those days, there's a pervasive grey
that saturates everything like a cold fog,
and all my emotions are black oilspills on the concrete.
And all my insights come to me with a shock
like unknown eyes peering through the mail slot
you eventually boarded up like a plague door on the inside.
I watched the stardust of my innocence blow away

[...] Read more

poem by Patrick White
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Address to the Devil

1 O thou! whatever title suit thee,--
2 Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie!
3 Wha in yon cavern, grim an' sootie,
4 Clos'd under hatches,
5 Spairges about the brunstane cootie
6 To scaud poor wretches!

7 Hear me, Auld Hangie, for a wee,
8 An' let poor damned bodies be;
9 I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gie,
10 E'en to a deil,
11 To skelp an' scaud poor dogs like me,
12 An' hear us squeel!

13 Great is thy pow'r, an' great thy fame;
14 Far ken'd an' noted is thy name;
15 An' tho' yon lowin heugh's thy hame,
16 Thou travels far;
17 An' faith! thou's neither lag nor lame,
18 Nor blate nor scaur.

[...] Read more

poem by Robert Burns
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

The Coast Remains

Mythical treasured inheritance...
Nourish vibrant individuals.
Dwell in beauty bred remain
sustain voyagers noble just free
crossing quest far foreign sea.
The Coast Remain abide in me.

Your spectral images flow
like coast hearts of gold
from thee to gratified me.
Reflecting moods of seasons...
boiling to storm torn surf.
Calming as mountain lakes.
Still serene tranquility.

I've walked through
your kaleidoscope of mountainous
images, among adrenaline peaks,
to your subtropical rain forests.
Passing solitary mist moss gilded

[...] Read more

poem by Terence George Craddock
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!