Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding by T. S. Eliot
I Midwinter spring is its own season Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown, Suspended in time, between pole and tropic. When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire, The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches, In windless cold that is the heart’s heat, Reflecting in a watery mirror A glare that […]
Four Quartets 3: The Dry Salvages by T. S. Eliot
(The Dry Salvages—presumably les trois sauvages—is a small group of rocks, with a beacon, off the N.E. coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Salvages is pronounced to rhyme with assuages. Groaner: a whistling buoy.) I I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable, […]
Four Quartets 2: East Coker by T. S. Eliot
I In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth Which is […]
Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton by T. S. Eliot
I Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been […]
Dans le Restaurant by T. S. Eliot
LE garçon délabré qui n’a rien à faire Que de se gratter les doigts et se pencher sur mon épaule: “Dans mon pays il fera temps pluvieux, Du vent, du grand soleil, et de la pluie; C’est ce qu’on appelle le jour de lessive des gueux.” (Bavard, baveux, à la croupe arrondie, Je te prie, […]
Cousin Nancy by T. S. Eliot
MISS NANCY ELLICOTT Strode across the hills and broke them, Rode across the hills and broke them— The barren New England hills— Riding to hounds Over the cow-pasture. Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked And danced all the modern dances; And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it, But they knew that it […]
Conversation Galante by T. S. Eliot
I OBSERVE: “Our sentimental friend the moon! Or possibly (fantastic, I confess) It may be Prester John’s balloon Or an old battered lantern hung aloft To light poor travellers to their distress.” She then: “How you digress!” And I then: “Someone frames upon the keys That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain The night and […]
Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town by T. S. Eliot
Bustopher Jones is not skin and bones– In fact, he’s remarkably fat. He doesn’t haunt pubs–he has eight or nine clubs, For he’s the St. James’s Street Cat! He’s the Cat we all greet as he walks down the street In his coat of fastidious black: No commonplace mousers have such well-cut trousers Or such […]
Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar by T. S. Eliot
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire—nil nisi divinum stabile est; caetera fumus—the gondola stopped, the old palace was there, how charming its grey and pink—goats and monkeys, with such hair too!—so the countess passed on until she came through the little park, where Niobe presented her with a cabinet, and so departed. BURBANK crossed a little bridge Descending at a […]
Aunt Helen by T. S. Eliot
MISS HELEN SLINGSBY was my maiden aunt, And lived in a small house near a fashionable square Cared for by servants to the number of four. Now when she died there was silence in heaven And silence at her end of the street. The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet— He was […]
Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot
I Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the […]
A Cooking Egg by T. S. Eliot
En l’an trentiesme do mon aage Que toutes mes hontes j’ay beues… PIPIT sate upright in her chair Some distance from where I was sitting; Views of the Oxford Colleges Lay on the table, with the knitting. Daguerreotypes and silhouettes, Here grandfather and great great aunts, Supported on the mantelpiece An Invitation to the Dance. […]
Woman by Tala Bar
I’m as old as the mountain As young as Spring – Always changing, Always constant; I’m as rush as the river, As still as a pool – Always running, Always there – Waiting for you to discover The treasure hidden within.
Walk with Me by Tammy L Ames
take a little walk with me a journey built for two and share with me the steps you took that led you to be you talk to me of onions the layers and the tears the sweet relief of sharing grief that bade you drink for years take a little walk with me so i’ll […]
Today’s News by Ted Berrigan
Today’s News by Ted Berrigan My body heavy with poverty (starch) It uses up my sexual energy constantly & I feel constantly crowded On the other hand, One Day in the Afternoon of The World Pervaded my life with a heavy grace today I’ll never smile again Bad Teeth But I’m dancing with tears in […]
The Woman Of His Dreams by Talha Jafri
The old man didn’t know how to love for his tender love was compensated by a loving wife She loved him endlessly while he did the same for her They were perfect in this imperfect world, Two answers to a larger question asked by God But she left him from the face of the Earth, […]
The Soundless Ocean by Tanmoy
It’s a soundless ocean. Little balls of faint light wave and move inside. A circular passage exists, which leads to another revealation. Each year passes like a second in this space, Every moment is useless here. From time to time, only darkness, someone’s flute plays a music, and throws down to the underlying creation. The […]
The Poet by Thom Douglas Carlisle
=== The Poet . . . ( Referencing Moonglow, ) Novels, novellas, writers of documents and manuscripts, Bred of grace and order, What makes a ‘Fellow-of-Letters’ construct for the mind that which the eye Can never see? New passive resident in moments of ancient breathing, held down, bound tightly In this ethereal, far dimension, Forged […]
The Narrative by Talha Jafri
Like a story told from a book Every detail is drawn in to create a larger picture Every high and low in the story are all drawn together so perfectly All the missing pieces to the puzzle all have a loose end that gets tied up And like a story told from the eyes of […]
The Garden by Tammy L. Ames
Wearied by mine anguish Laden with my strife, I begged The Lord for mercy For flowers in my life. The Gardener took heed the call My desperate, mortal plea, And knowing hands, they tilled in love That life might root in me. The barren land He found there My heart, once cracked and dry, Grew […]
The Eclipsed Past by Tholana Ashok Chakravarthy
A long and steep gaze Into the eclipsed past, Provide my thoughts an edge To unroll the bygone past. Paths adorned with flowers Became skyscraper blocks, The playground glitters Sans the delightful brook. Childhood flew into teens Joys became a scarce rainbow, Age changed the directions Flooding me in life’s flow. Some gripping circumstances, Paved […]
The Call of the Crows by Tanmoy
I do not know why the crows are calling in this time of night, as if it is a morning! Now,again their spirits dampen. On the other room, she is an astrologer. She predicts futures,and she gains by showing half accuracy and half control over the mind. But to me,she has never lied. She says […]
The Blind Man by Théophile Gautier
The Blind Man by Théophile Gautier A blind man, on the thoroughfare, Startle-eyed as an owl by day, Piping a dismal little air, Taps here and there, loses his way, Tootles awry his time-old ditty Undauntedly, as by his side Lopes his dog, guides him through the city, Specter diurnal, sleepy-eyed. Days, stark, wash over […]
The Beautiful Heartbreak by Talha Jafri
When the heart aches everyone thinks to the time where the heart achieved so much It’s unable to fathom the fact that it is broken and needs to cured But we carry on through each day routinely Unable to bare the pain, we shield ourselves in the heartbreak We listen to the world’s melody to […]
Snow Flakes by Tala Bar
Gently falls the snow, and Bouncing – My swift, white sisters Dancing Cold, but Melting in the Sun, appearing for A second.
Selecting A Reader by Ted Kooser
Selecting A Reader by Ted Kooser First, I would have her be beautiful, and walking carefully up on my poetry at the loneliest moment of an afternoon, her hair still damp at the neck from washing it. She should be wearing a raincoat, an old one, dirty from not having money enough for the cleaners. […]
Seasons by Tala Bar
I don’t believe in good and evil – Cool is the August Moon; I don’t believe in good and evil – On Midsummer noon; I don’t believe in good and evil – Flowery May so cries; I don’t believe in good and evil When my lover dies.
Ritual by Tala Bar
From my peak of a mountain I see you, all. God is sad, but Life awakens my laughter And I laugh the sadness of life. In my heart of a mountain A cry is born, in time! The procession passes in slow motion Round and round the mountain; We bury my god, in time! At […]
Passion of Greatness by Terence Ray Robertson
Roses comes in pairs. Left off from the weeds, Cherish yourself cherish your seeds. Left behind, leave a trail to follow the scents of this love. Give in to this love watch it bloom forth. As queens move foward This battle is not yours. ————— The End And that’s the […]
On The Move ‘Man, You Gotta Go. by Thom Gunn
On The Move ‘Man, You Gotta Go. by Thom Gunn The blue jay scuffling in the bushes follows Some hidden purpose, and the gush of birds That spurts across the field, the wheeling swallows, Have nested in the trees and undergrowth. Seeking their instinct, or their pose, or both, One moves with an uncertain violence […]
My Sad Captains by Thom Gunn
My Sad Captains by Thom Gunn One by one they appear in the darkness: a few friends, and a few with historical names. How late they start to shine! but before they fade they stand perfectly embodied, all the past lapping them like a cloak of chaos. They were men who, I thought, lived only […]
Meeting at an Airport by Taha Muhammad Ali
You asked me once, on our way back from the midmorning trip to the spring: “What do you hate, and who do you love?” And I answered, from behind the eyelashes of my surprise, my blood rushing like the shadow cast by a cloud of starlings: “I hate departure . . . I love the […]
Lucid Dreams by Talha Jafri
Can we pretend that this isn’t a dream, but a reality that tries to persists even against all my will? Now let’s go back to the days where situations weren’t so complicated With age, wisdom comes, but with age comes complications and emotions Emotions transform into whatever society wants it to become We had simpler […]
Love In Reverse by Talha Jafri
There is no love lost here, I have moved on with a smile on my face Illustrating the pain I went through with the ballsy attitude of trying to make things better for me I often narrate so that I could make things better for all of us Love ends up to be the course […]
Love Equals Insanity by Talha Jafri
Who would have guessed that having feelings for another person would be so hard? Humans don’t tend to think so far ahead when they fall for someone The present is all that matters and when the future begins to loom, Relationships unravel. Can’t understand why, but serious commitment requires hard work If it’s worth the […]
Light by Tala Bar
Last Poem by Ted Berrigan
Last Poem by Ted Berrigan Before I began life this time I took a crash course in Counter-Intelligence Once here I signed in, see name below, and addedSome words remembered from an earlier time, ‘The intention of the organism is to survive.’ My earliest, & happiest, memories pre-date WWII,They involve a glass slipper & a […]
In January by Ted Kooser
In January by Ted Kooser Only one cell in the frozen hive of night is lit, or so it seems to us: this Vietnamese café, with its oily light, its odors whose colorful shapes are like flowers. Laughter and talking, the tick of chopsticks. Beyond the glass, the wintry city creaks like an ancient wooden […]
I Want It Now by Roald Dahl
Gooses, geeses I want my geese to lay gold eggs for easter At least a hundred a day And by the way I want a feast I want a bean feast Cream buns and doughnuts And fruitcake with no nuts So good you could go nuts No, now I want a ball I want a […]
Exodus by Taha Muhammad Ali
The street is empty as a monk’s memory, and faces explode in the flames like acorns— and the dead crowd the horizon and doorways. No vein can bleed more than it already has, no scream will rise higher than it’s already risen. We will not leave! Everyone outside is waiting for the trucks and the […]