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saidevo
16 May 2008, 10:46 PM
In this thread, let us have a collection of poems from the foreign authors that are short, simple, sweet and make one ponder...

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Up-Hill

Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.

But is there for the night a resting-place? 5
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.

Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before. 10
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.

Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labour you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek? 15
Yea, beds for all who come.

When I am dead

When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:

Be the green grass above me 5
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain; 10
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember, 15
And haply may forget.

Rainbow

Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier far than these.

There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.

The Wind

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'.

Who has seen the wind? 5
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.

Precious Stones

An emerald is as green as grass;
A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
A flint lies in the mud.

A diamond is a brilliant stone, 5
To catch the world's desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.

Strange

A pin has a head, but has no hair;
A clock has a face, but no mouth there;
Needles have eyes, but they cannot see;
A fly has a trunk without lock or key;
A timepiece may lose, but cannot win; 5
A corn-field dimples without a chin;
A hill has no leg, but has a foot;
A wine-glass a stem, but not a root;
A watch has hands, but no thumb or finger;
A boot has a tongue, but is no singer; 10
Rivers run, though they have no feet;
A saw has teeth, but it does not eat;
Ash-trees have keys, yet never a lock;
And baby crows, without being a cock.

Death and Life

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not, 5
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly. 10

If hope grew on a bush

If hope grew on a bush,
And joy grew on a tree,
What a nosegay for the plucking
There would be!

But oh! in windy autumn, 5
When frail flowers wither,
What should we do for hope and joy,
Fading together?

The Truth

What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow:
What are brief? to-day and to-morrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep? the ocean and truth.

Sagefrakrobatik
19 May 2008, 07:23 AM
here are a few excerpts from poet Saul williams in his book She


"She Kept Wild horses
in her stable
and rode bareback
in search of Stability"

I looked on
and watched
like an orphaned child
with dreams of riding
this merry go round
there are trap doors in my pockets
where lie my parents
and my admission tickets

I cannot admit
to my orphaned state
and hope to get a horse
with a saddle
I am orphaned
in her mind
and she will accept no admission
her merriness goes round
an elliptical orbit
moods gallop
toward a mechanical death"






"She asked that i remove my dreams
before entering her home
one cannot enter a courtroom bearing arms"
I had decied
to sharpen the edges
of a certain childhood fantasy
and tuck it away in my sock
.....
no one told me
that dreams glow in the dark"


"calamity makes cousins of us all"


"I left my change
on the counter
remained the same
and left the store

having stuffed some dreams
under my shirt
along with a few visions

I knew
I wouldnt
get caught

never have

(avoid possesion)

I shared my thoughts
with those less fortunate
in exchange for information
on my whereabouts
they pointed me
in three directions
i stood still
and still
i stand"

saidevo
19 May 2008, 09:37 PM
===========================================================================
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
(http://www.bartleby.com/113/1001.html)
===========================================================================
On Life

SUCCESS is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host 5
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear 10
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.

*********

THE HEART asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;

And then, to go to sleep; 5
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.

*********

MUCH madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails. 5
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—-you’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

*********

SOME things that fly there be,—-
Birds, hours, the bumble-bee:
Of these no elegy.

Some things that stay there be,—-
Grief, hills, eternity: 5
Nor this behooveth me.

There are, that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!

*********

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see—
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

*********

For each ecstatic instant
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.

For each beloved hour
Sharp pittances of years,
Bitter contested farthings
And coffers heaped with tears.

*********

In the Garden

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.

*********

saidevo
29 April 2009, 10:56 AM
The best poem of 2006

This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2006, Written by an
African Kid

When I born, I black
When I grow up, I black
When I go in Sun, I black
When I scared, I black
When I sick, I black
And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow
When you born, you pink
When you grow up, you white
When you go in sun, you red
When you cold, you blue
When you scared, you yellow
When you sick, you green
And when you die, you gray

And you calling me COLORED??