Well, son, I’ll tell you:Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.It’s had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on,And reachin’ landin’s,And turnin’ corners,And sometimes goin’ in the darkWhere there ain’t been no light.So, boy, don’t you turn back.Don’t you set … Continued
Poem of the day – Compassion by Robert Service
A beggar in the street I saw,Who held a hand like withered claw, As cold as clay;But as I had no silver groatTo give, I buttoned up my coat And turned away. And then I watched a working wifeWho bore the bitter load of life With lagging limb;A penny from her purse she took,And with … Continued
Poem of the day – O Me O Life by Walt Whitman
O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,Of the poor results of … Continued
Poem of the day – JACK by Carl Sandburg
JACK was a swarthy, swaggering son-of-a-gun.He worked thirty years on the railroad, ten hours a day, and his hands were tougher than sole leather.He married a tough woman and they had eight children and the woman died and the children grew up and went away and wrote the old man every two years.He died in … Continued
Poem of the day – Miracles by Walt Whitman
Why, who makes much of a miracle?As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,Or stand under trees in the woods,Or talk by … Continued
Poem of the day – Bird Watcher by Robert Service
In Wall Street once a potent power, And now a multi-millionaireAlone within a shady bower In clothes his valet would not wear,He watches bird wings bright the air. The man who mighty mergers planned, And oil and coal kinglike controlled,With field-glasses in failing hand Spies downy nestlings five days old,With joy he could not buy … Continued
Poem of the day – Come In by Robert Frost
As I came to the edge of the woods,Thrush music — hark!Now if it was dusk outside,Inside it was dark. Too dark in the woods for a birdBy sleight of wingTo better its perch for the night,Though it still could sing. The last of the light of the sunThat had died in the westStill lived … Continued
Poem of the day – If anybody’s friend be dead by Emily Dickinson
If anybody’s friend be dead,It ‘s sharpest of the themeThe thinking how they walked alive,At such and such a time. Their costume, of a Sunday,Some manner of the hair, —A prank nobody knew but them,Lost, in the sepulchre. How warm they were on such a day:You almost feel the date,So short way off it seems; … Continued
Poem of the day – DEED – A deed knocks first at thought by Emily Dickinson
A deed knocks first at thought,And then it knocks at will.That is the manufacturing spot,And will at home and well. It then goes out an act,Or is entombed so stillThat only to the ear of GodIts doom is audible. – DEED – A deed knocks first at thought by Emily Dickinson
Poem of the day – Mirror by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see I swallow immediatelyJust as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.I am not cruel, only truthful ‚The eye of a little god, four-cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think … Continued