somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence: in
your most frail gesture are things which enclose
me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too
near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring
opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world
equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose
texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands
- e e cummings
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"Love's Philosophy"
The Fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law devine
In one another's being mingle -
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother:
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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When We Two Parted
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.
The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow--
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.
They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shrudder comes o'er me--
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee so well--
Long, long I shall rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.
In secret we met--
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?--
With silence and tears.
- George Gordon, Lord Byron
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`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
- Lewis Carroll
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Mornings at Blackwater
For years, every morning, I drank
from Blackwater Pond.
It was flavored with oak leaves and also, no
doubt, the feet of ducks.
And always it assuaged me
from the dry bowl of the very far past.
What I want to say is
that the past is the past,
and the present is what your life is,
and you are capable
of choosing what that will be,
darling citizen.
So come to the pond,
or the river of your imagination,
or the harbor of your longing,
and put your lips to the world.
And live
your life.
- Mary Oliver
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Lovesight
When do I see thee most, beloved one?
When in the light the spirits of mine eyes
Before thy face, their altar, solemnize
The worship of that Love through thee made
known?
Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,)
Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies,
Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,
And my soul only sees thy soul its own?
O love, my love! If I no more should see
Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,
Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,---
How then should sound upon Life's darkening
slope.
The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death's imperishable wing?
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
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Roman Poem Number Nine
Return is not a way of going forward
after all
or back. In any case it seems
a matter of opinion how
you face although
the changing bed the different voice
around the different room
may testify to movement
entry exit it
is motion takes you in
and memory that lets you out again.
Or
as this love will let me say
the body travels faster than the keeping
heart will turn away.
- June Jordan
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Do you know the warm progress
under the stars?
Do you know we exist?
Have you forgotten the keys
to the Kingdom?
Have you been borne yet
& are you alive?
Let's reinvent the gods, all the myths
of the ages
Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests
[Have you forgotten the lessons
of the ancient war]
We need great golden copulations
The fathers are cackling in trees of the forest
Our mother is dead in the sea
Do you know we are being led to
slaughters by placid admirals
& that fat slow generals are getting
obscene on young blood
- Jim Morrison
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Unfolding
Born of the
Dust of humility,
Spread on the
Wings of pride,
Carried by
Winds of hope,
I grow with the
Ebbing life tide.
- Mattie Stepanek (1990-2004)
(Mattie died of Dysautonomic Mitochondrial
Myopathy three weeks' shy of his 14th birtday.)
______________________________________
U say that u'll love me forever but what about
today
As the dusks become dawns and the years pass
on will u love me the same way
if so let us rejoice and bathe in constant pleasure
if not spare my heart today and I shall recover
before forever
And if my doubts and ?'s upset u, forgive my
fragile heart
I just wanted 2 know if you'd love me forever
before today would start!
- Tupac Shakur
______________________________________
(Excerpt)
How will you handle the final shove?
The final love?
The big joke fist?
The big rock down your throat?
The bitter taste
Overwhelming
Do you feel it rising?
Oh baby, I can feel it
Give it to me
I don't care who's looking
I don't care what happens
Sex is like a suicide pact
The last lie will be the best
That's the way to do it
Save the best for last
And then you fall
Diseased and breathless, cold and friendless
Sullen and endless, distorted and selfless
Broken beyond repair
A bad machine with bad habits
Make your eyes look backwards
Through your mind
- Henry Rollins
_______________________________________
Sere
When love is lost and hearts
Are sore with pain
Old memories revive to sere
the teaming brain.
A void is left where once
there was a fire
But hope there is that void will fill
and burning pain expire.
Spring is done and fall is near
at hand
A winter's death my burning
heart demands
But once again rejuvenate
in Spring
The seething veins with
that familiar sting
Of love. Awakening again
a scarred but mended thing
To strive against the
turmoil of that still
patient stream.
- John P. Heery
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