Small English Poems / Ghazals

Silver (Walter de la Mare, 1873 - 1956)

Slowly,silently,now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees,
Silver fruit upon silver trees;






 

One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the pink breasts peep
Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Yours and yours and yours ( Leo Marks )

The life that I have 
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours. 







 

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.

For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

Lying (Jane Hirshfield)

He puts his brush to the canvas,
with one quick stroke
unfolds a bird from the sky.
Steps back, considers.
Takes pity.
Unfolds another.

Self Pity ( D. H. Lawrence )

 
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

Fog ( Carl Sandburg )

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

George Mendoza

 
I stood in the wind 
and tried to capture it. 
But when I saw the butterfly 
flying flat and low-
I let the wind go,
I let it go.

English Ghazals

I hate to think of the day 
that gives me pain at night
But I still recall the Sun 
that used to rain at night.

From HOW SKY HOLDS THE SUN

sunshine
shifting
the earth;
in your eyes
candles flickering

sudden fog
hiding the ocean
we see each other
in a new,
pale light
rainbows
come
rainbows
go
you, my treasure, remain






 

alone together
we listen to the wind
blowing souls
of our past dreams
against the windowpane

narrow mountain road
at each corner you tense,
stare straight ahead,
until, at the top, we stop
to see the world at our feet

My higher self declared:
"Above all, I want to see."
My lower self replied:
"If you truly want to see,
you must, first,
acknowledge me."  

My higher self declared:
"Above all, I want to see."
My lower self replied:
"If you truly want to see,
you must, first,
acknowledge me."