We Have Not Long to Love by Tennessee Williams

We Have Not Long To Love

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

We have not long to love.

Light does not stay.

The tender things are those

we fold away.

Coarse fabrics are the ones

for common wear.

In silence I have watched you

comb your hair.

Intimate the silence,

dim and warm.

I could but did not, reach

to touch your arm.

I could, but do not, break

that which is still.

(Almost the faintest whisper

would be shrill.)

So moments pass as though

they wished to stay.

We have not long to love.

A night. A day....

This is really good, sets a mood. Wonderful. A link to read more is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/tennessee-williams

At the Sea-Side by Robert Louis Stevenson

At the Sea-Side

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

When I was down beside the sea

A wooden spade they gave to me

   To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.

In every hole the sea came up

   Till it could come no more.

Enchanting and delightful. A link to read more is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/robert-louis-stevenson

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon" by Stephen Crane

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon"

BY STEPHEN CRANE

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;

Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this;   

I accosted the man.

“It is futile,” I said,

“You can never —”

“You lie,” he cried,   

And ran on.

I like to read this and just think about it. A link to read more. http://allpoetry.com/Stephen_Maria_Crane

Limits

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Who knows this or that?

Hark in the wall to the rat:

Since the world was, he has gnawed;

Of his wisdom, of his fraud

What dost thou know?

In the wretched little beast

Is life and heart,

Child and parent,

Not without relation

To fruitful field and sun and moon.

What art thou? His wicked eye

Is cruel to thy cruelty.

I like Emerson. A link to read more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Faith by Frances Anne Kemble

Faith

BY FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE

Better trust all, and be deceived,

   And weep that trust, and that deceiving;

Than doubt one heart, that, if believed,

   Had blessed one’s life with true believing.

Oh, in this mocking world, too fast

   The doubting fiend o’ertakes our youth!

Better be cheated to the last,   

   Than lose the blessèd hope of truth.

I like this poem very much. A link to learn more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Kemble

Bleak Weather by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Bleak Weather

BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Dear love, where the red lillies blossomed and grew,

The white snows are falling;

And all through the wood, where I wandered with you,

The loud winds are calling;

And the robin that piped to us tune upon tune,

Neath the elm—you remember,

Over tree-top and mountain has followed the June,

And left us—December.

Has left, like a friend that is true in the sun,

And false in the shadows.

He has found new delights, in the land where he's gone,

Greener woodlands and meadows.

What care we? let him go! let the snow shroud the lea,

Let it drift on the heather!

We can sing through it all; I have you—you have me,

And we’ll laugh at the weather.

The old year may die, and a new one be born

That is bleaker and colder;

But it cannot dismay us; we dare it—we scorn,

For love makes us bolder.

Ah Robin! sing loud on the far-distant lea,

Thou friend in fair weather;

But here is a song sung, that’s fuller of glee,

By two warm hearts together.

Sweet, lovely poem. A link to read more is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ella-wheeler-wilcox

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

She Walks in Beauty

BY LORD BYRON (GEORGE GORDON)

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

   Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

   Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

   But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

   A heart whose love is innocent!

Sweet and delicate to read. A link to read more about this poet. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lord-byron

To Fool or Knave by Ben Jonson

To Fool or Knave

BY BEN JONSON

Thy praise or dispraise is to me alike:

One doth not stroke me, nor the other strike.

So simple and thought provoking. A link to read more of his poems is here.http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ben-jonson

Whatever Else You Do by Max Ehrmann

Whatever Else You Do
by Max Ehrmann


Whatever else you do or forbear,
impose upon yourself the task of happiness;
and now and then abandon yourself
to the joy of laughter.

And however much you condemn
the evil in the world, remember that the
world is not all evil; that somewhere
children are at play, as you yourself in the
old days; that women still find joy
in the stalwart hearts of men;

And that men, treading with restless feet
their many paths, may yet find refuge
from the storms of the world in the cheerful
house of love.


I love poems that bring me up. A link to learn more about this poet is here. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata

Advice to her son on marriage by Mary Barber

Advice to Her Son on Marriage

BY MARY BARBER

from The Conclusion of a Letter to the Rev. Mr C—

When you gain her Affection, take care to preserve it;

Lest others persuade her, you do not deserve it.

Still study to heighten the Joys of her Life;

Not treat her the worse, for her being your Wife.

If in Judgment she errs, set her right, without Pride:

’Tis the Province of insolent Fools, to deride.

A Husband’s first Praise, is a Friend and Protector:

Then change not these Titles, for Tyrant and Hector.

Let your Person be neat, unaffectedly clean,

Tho’ alone with your wife the whole Day you remain.

Chuse Books, for her study, to fashion her Mind,

To emulate those who excell’d of her Kind.

Be Religion the principal Care of your Life,

As you hope to be blest in your Children and Wife:

So you, in your Marriage, shall gain its true End;

And find, in your Wife, a Companion and Friend.

Good words to keep close to your heart. A link to learn more about 

this poet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Barber

Assumption by Madison Julius Cawein

Assumption 
by Madison Julius Cawein

A mile of moonlight and the whispering wood:
A mile of shadow and the odorous lane:
One large, white star above the solitude,
Like one sweet wish: and, laughter after pain,
Wild-roses wistful in a web of rain.

II

No star, no rose, to lesson him and lead;
No woodsman compass of the skies and rocks,—
Tattooed of stars and lichens,—doth love need
To guide him where, among the hollyhocks,
A blur of moonlight, gleam his sweetheart's locks.

III

We name it beauty—that permitted part,
The love-elected apotheosis
Of Nature, which the god within the heart,
Just touching, makes immortal, but by this—
A star, a rose, the memory of a kiss.




Lovely poem, a joy to read. A link to read more about this poet is
here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Cawein

Follow Thy Fair Sun by Thomas Campion

Follow Thy Fair Sun

BY THOMAS CAMPION

Follow thy fair sun, unhappy shadow,

Though thou be black as night

And she made all of light,

Yet follow thy fair sun unhappy shadow.

Follow her whose light thy light depriveth,

Though here thou liv’st disgraced,

And she in heaven is placed,

Yet follow her whose light the world reviveth.

Follow those pure beams whose beauty burneth,

That so have scorched thee,

As thou still black must be,

Till Her kind beams thy black to brightness turneth.

Follow her while yet her glory shineth,

There comes a luckless night,

That will dim all her light,

And this the black unhappy shade divineth.

Follow still since so thy fates ordained,

The Sun must have his shade,

Till both at once do fade,

The Sun still proved, the shadow still disdained.

Great language from the 1500's. I have a link to learn more here.http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-campion

Knowledge by Louise Bogan

Knowledge by Louise Bogan


Now that I know
How passion warms little
Of flesh in the mould,
And treasure is brittle,--

I'll lie here and learn
How, over their ground
Trees make a long shadow
And a light sound. 


I like her poems. A link to learn more is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louise-bogan

Garden by H.D.

Garden

BY H. D.

I

You are clear

O rose, cut in rock,

hard as the descent of hail.

I could scrape the colour   

from the petals

like spilt dye from a rock.

If I could break you   

I could break a tree.

If I could stir

I could break a tree—

I could break you.

II

O wind, rend open the heat,   

cut apart the heat,   

rend it to tatters.

Fruit cannot drop   

through this thick air—

fruit cannot fall into heat

that presses up and blunts

the points of pears   

and rounds the grapes.

Cut the heat—

plough through it,

turning it on either side   

of your path.

A master of imagery. A link to read more about this poet is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/h-d