Dictionary Poems

I been scared and battered.My hopes the wind done scattered.Snow has friz me,Sun has baked me, Looks like between ’em they doneTried to make me Stop laughin’, stop lovin’, stop livin’–But I don’t care!I’m still here! – Still Here by Langston Hughes

I left thee last, a child at heart, A woman scarce in years:I come to thee, a solemn corpse Which neither feels nor fears.I have no breath to use in sighs;They laid the dead-weights on mine eyes To seal them safe from tears. Look on me with thine own calm look: I meet it calm … Continued

A toad can die of light!Death is the common right Of toads and men, —Of earl and midgeThe privilege. Why swagger then?The gnat’s supremacyIs large as thine. – A toad can die of light by Emily Dickinson

And when my Joy was born, I held it in my arms and stood on thehouse-top shouting, Come ye, my neighbours, come and see, for Joythis day is born unto me. Come and behold this gladsome thing thatlaugheth in the sun. But none of my neighbours came to look upon my Joy, and great wasmy … Continued

I wage not any feud with DeathFor changes wrought on form and face;No lower life that earth’s embraceMay breed with him, can fright my faith. Eternal process moving on,From state to state the spirit walks;And these are but the shatter’d stalks,Or ruin’d chrysalis of one. Nor blame I Death, because he bareThe use of virtue … Continued

THE moments passed as at a play;I had the wisdom love brings forth;I had my share of mother-wit,And yet for all that I could say,And though I had her praise for it,A cloud blown from the cut-throat NorthSuddenly hid Love’s moon away.Believing every word I said,I praised her body and her mindTill pride had made … Continued

By that long scan of waves, myself call’d back, resumed upon myself,In every crest some undulating light or shade–some retrospect,Joys, travels, studies, silent panoramas–scenes ephemeral,The long past war, the battles, hospital sights, the wounded and the dead,Myself through every by-gone phase–my idle youth–old age at hand,My three-score years of life summ’d up, and more, and … Continued

Now fades the last long streak of snow, Now burgeons every maze of quick About the flowering squares, and thick By ashen roots the violets blow. Now rings the woodland loud and long, The distance takes a lovelier hue, And drowned in yonder living blue The lark becomes a sightless song. Now dance the lights … Continued

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas Layin’ in the sun, Talkin’ ’bout the things They woulda coulda shoulda done… But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas All ran away and hid From one little Did. – Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda by Shel Silverstein

‘PUT off that mask of burning goldWith emerald eyes.’‘O no, my dear, you make so boldTo find if hearts be wild and wise,And yet not cold.’‘I would but find what’s there to find,Love or deceit.’‘It was the mask engaged your mind,And after set your heart to beat,Not what’s behind.’‘But lest you are my enemy,I must … Continued