Dictionary Poems

A bonny bird I found todayMired in a melt of tar;Its silky breast was silver-grey,Its wings were cinnabar.So still it lay right in the wayOf every passing car. Yet as I gently sought to pryIt loose, it glared at me;You would have thought its foe was I,It pecked so viciously;So fiercely fought, as soft I … Continued

I sometimes hold it half a sin ; ; ;To put in words the grief I feel; ; ; ;For words, like Nature, half revealAnd half conceal the Soul within.But, for the unquiet heart and brain, ; ; ;A use in ;measured language lies; ; ; ;The sad mechanic exercise,Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.In words, … Continued

Exultation is the goingOf an inland soul to sea, —Past the houses, past the headlands,Into deep eternity! Bred as we, among the mountains,Can the sailor understandThe divine intoxicationOf the first league out from land? – SETTING SAIL – Exultation is the going by Emily Dickinson

A drop fell on the apple tree,Another on the roof;A half a dozen kissed the eaves,And made the gables laugh. A few went out to help the brook,That went to help the sea.Myself conjectured, Were they pearls,What necklaces could be! The dust replaced in hoisted roads,The birds jocoser sung;The sunshine threw his hat away,The orchards … Continued

ONE that is ever kind said yesterday:‘Your well-beloved’s hair has threads of grey,And little shadows come about her eyes;Time can but make it easier to be wiseThough now it seems impossible, and soAll that you need is patience.’Heart cries, ‘No,I have not a crumb of comfort, not a grain.Time can but make her beauty over … Continued

A promise to California,Or inland to the great pastoral Plains, and on to Puget sound and Oregon;Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel toward you, to remain, to teach robust American love,For I know very well that I and robust love belong among you, inland, and along the Western sea;For these States tend inland … Continued

Hope is a subtle glutton; He feeds upon the fair;And yet, inspected closely, What abstinence is there! His is the halcyon table That never seats but one,And whatsoever is consumed The same amounts remain. – HOPE – Hope is a subtle glutton by Emily Dickinson

Lo, the unbounded sea,On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even her moonsails.The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so stately– below emulous waves press forward,They surround the ship with shining curving motions and foam. – The Ship Starting by Walt Whitman

Franklin fathered bastards fourteen, (So I read in the New Yorker);If it’s true, in terms of courtin’ Benny must have been a corker.To be prudent I’ve aspired, And my passions I have mastered;So that I have never sired A single bastard. One of course can never know; But I think that if I hadIt would … Continued

Some, too fragile for winter winds,The thoughtful grave encloses, —Tenderly tucking them in from frostBefore their feet are cold. Never the treasures in her nestThe cautious grave exposes,Building where schoolboy dare not lookAnd sportsman is not bold. This covert have all the childrenEarly aged, and often cold, —Sparrows unnoticed by the Father;Lambs for whom time … Continued