Dictionary Poems

A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, I will havea camel for lunch today. And all morning he went about lookingfor camels. But at noon he saw his shadow again–and he said, Amouse will do. – The Fox by Khalil Gibran

THERE is another LonelinessThat many die without,Not want or friend occasions it,Or circumstances or lot. But nature sometimes, sometimes thought,And whoso it befallIs richer than could be divulgedBy mortal numeral. – THERE is another Loneliness by Emily Dickinson

Somehow the skies don’t seem so blue As they used to be;Blossoms have a fainter hue, Grass less green I see.There’s no twinkle in a star, Dawns don’t seem so gold . . .Yet, of course, I know they are: Guess I’m growing old. Somehow sunshine seems less bright, Birds less gladly sing;Moons don’t thrill … Continued

Sad Hesper o’er the buried sun ; ; ; ;And ready, thou, to die with him, ; ; ; ;Thou watchest all things ever dimAnd dimmer, and a glory done:The team is loosen’d from the wain, ; ; ; ;The boat is drawn upon the shore; ; ; ; ;Thou listenest to the closing door,And … Continued

Safe in their alabaster chambers,Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,Rafter of satin, and roof of stone. Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence, —Ah, what sagacity perished here! Grand go the years in the … Continued

Departed to the judgment,A mighty afternoon;Great clouds like ushers leaning,Creation looking on. The flesh surrendered, cancelled,The bodiless begun;Two worlds, like audiences, disperseAnd leave the soul alone. – ASTRA CASTRA – Departed to the judgment by Emily Dickinson

Pensive on her dead gazing I heard the Mother of All,Desperate on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battlefields gazing,(As the last gun ceased, but the scent of the powder-smoke linger’d,)As she call’d to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk’d,Absorb them well O my earth, she cried, I charge you lose … Continued

Somehow I cannot let it go yet, funeral though it is,Let it remain back there on its nail suspended,With pink, blue, yellow, all blanch’d, and the white now gray and ashy,One wither’d rose put years ago for thee, dear friend;But I do not forget thee. Hast thou then faded?Is the odor exhaled? Are the colors, … Continued

In midnight sleep of many a face of anguish,Of the look at first of the mortally wounded, (of that indescribable look,)Of the dead on their backs with arms extended wide, I dream, I dream, I dream. Of scenes of Nature, fields and mountains,Of skies so beauteous after a storm, and at night the moon so … Continued

When I was daft (as urchins are),And full if fairy lore,I aimed an arrow at a starAnd hit – the barnyard door. I’ve shot at heaps of stars since then,but always it’s the same –A barnyard door has mocked me whenUranus was my aim. So, I’ll shoot starward as of yore,Though wide my arrows fall;I’d … Continued