La Nue
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Oft when sweet music undulated round, Like the full moon out of a perfumed sea Thine image from the waves of blissful sound Rose and thy sudden light illumined me. And in the country, leaf and flower and air Would alter and the eternal shape emerge; Because they […]
Kyrenaikos
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Lay me where soft Cyrene rambles down In grove and garden to the sapphire sea; Twine yellow roses for the drinker’s crown; Let music reach and fair heads circle me, Watching blue ocean where the white sails steer Fruit-laden forth or with the wares and news Of merchant cities […]
Juvenilia An Ode To Natural Beauty
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) There is a power whose inspiration fills Nature’s fair fabric, sun- and star-inwrought, Like airy dew ere any drop distils, Like perfume in the laden flower, like aught Unseen which interfused throughout the whole Becomes its quickening pulse and principle and soul. Now when, the drift of old desire […]
I Loved
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I loved illustrious cities and the crowds That eddy through their incandescent nights. I loved remote horizons with far clouds Girdled, and fringed about with snowy heights. I loved fair women, their sweet, conscious ways Of wearing among hands that covet and plead The rose ablossom at the rainbow’s […]
I Have A Rendezvous With Death
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air— I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into […]
Fragments
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) In that fair capital where Pleasure, crowned Amidst her myriad courtiers, riots and rules, I too have been a suitor. Radiant eyes Were my life’s warmth and sunshine, outspread arms My gilded deep horizons. I rejoiced In yielding to all amorous influence And multiple impulsion of the flesh, To […]
Eudaemon
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) O happiness, I know not what far seas, Blue hills and deep, thy sunny realms surround, That thus in Music’s wistful harmonies And concert of sweet sound A rumor steals, from some uncertain shore, Of lovely things outworn or gladness yet in store: Whether thy beams be pitiful […]
El Extraviado
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Over the radiant ridges borne out on the offshore wind, I have sailed as a butterfly sails whose priming wings unfurled Leave the familiar gardens and visited fields behind To follow a cloud in the east rose-flushed on the rim of the world. I have strayed from the […]
Do You Remember Once
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Do you remember once, in Paris of glad faces, The night we wandered off under the third moon’s rays And, leaving far behind bright streets and busy places, Stood where the Seine flowed down between its quiet quais? The city’s voice was hushed; the placid, lustrous waters Mirrored […]
Coucy
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) The rooks aclamor when one enters here Startle the empty towers far overhead; Through gaping walls the summer fields appear, Green, tan, or, poppy-mingled, tinged with red. The courts where revel rang deep grass and moss Cover, and tangled vines have overgrown The gate where banners blazoned with a […]
Champagne 1914 15
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) In the glad revels, in the happy fetes, When cheeks are flushed, and glasses gilt and pearled With the sweet wine of France that concentrates The sunshine and the beauty of the world, Drink sometimes, you whose footsteps yet may tread The undisturbed, delightful paths of Earth, To […]
Broceliande
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Broceliande! in the perilous beauty of silence and menacing shade, Thou art set on the shores of the sea down the haze of horizons untravelled, unscanned. Untroubled, untouched with the woes of this world are the moon-marshalled hosts that invade Broceliande. Only at dusk, when lavender clouds in […]
Bellinglise
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Deep in the sloping forest that surrounds The head of a green valley that I know, Spread the fair gardens and ancestral grounds Of Bellinglise, the beautiful chateau. Through shady groves and fields of unmown grass, It was my joy to come at dusk and see, Filling a little […]
At The Tomb Of Napoleon
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I stood beside his sepulchre whose fame, Hurled over Europe once on bolt and blast, Now glows far off as storm-clouds overpast Glow in the sunset flushed with glorious flame. Has Nature marred his mould? Can Art acclaim No hero now, no man with whom men side As with […]
Ariosto Orlando Furioso Canto X 91 99
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Ruggiero, to amaze the British host, And wake more wonder in their wondering ranks, The bridle of his winged courser loosed, And clapped his spurs into the creature’s flanks; High in the air, even to the topmost banks Of crudded cloud, uprose the flying horse, And now above the […]
Antinous
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Stretched on a sunny bank he lay at rest, Ferns at his elbow, lilies round his knees, With sweet flesh patterned where the cool turf pressed, Flowerlike crept o’er with emerald aphides. Single he couched there, to his circling flocks Piping at times some happy shepherd’s tune, Nude, with […]
An Ode To Antares
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) At dusk, when lowlands where dark waters glide Robe in gray mist, and through the greening hills The hoot-owl calls his mate, and whippoorwills Clamor from every copse and orchard-side, I watched the red star rising in the East, And while his fellows of the flaming sign From prisoning […]
All Thats Not Love
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) All that’s not love is the dearth of my days, The leaves of the volume with rubric unwrit, The temple in times without prayer, without praise, The altar unset and the candle unlit. Let me survive not the lovable sway Of early desire, nor see when it goes […]
After An Epigram Of Clement Marot
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) The lad I was I longer now Nor am nor shall be evermore. Spring’s lovely blossoms from my brow Have shed their petals on the floor. Thou, Love, hast been my lord, thy shrine Above all gods’ best served by me. Dear Love, could life again be mine How […]
A Message To America
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) You have the grit and the guts, I know; You are ready to answer blow for blow You are virile, combative, stubborn, hard, But your honor ends with your own back-yard; Each man intent on his private goal, You have no feeling for the whole; What singly none would […]
Valhalla
by Alan J. Blaustein Valhalla by Alan J. Blaustein High on West Street walking summer day Sunlight in my face and to my right Seeing more the Hudson than the street ahead. I expected factories parking lots and bars, Nothing else than pleasant afternoon And then the wonder stopped me seized my […]
The Masks of Love
by Alden Nowlan I come in from a walk With you And they ask me If it is raining. I didn’t notice But I’ll have to give them The right answer Or they’ll think I’m crazy. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External […]
The Bull Moose
by Alden Nowlan Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar, stumbling through tamarack swamps, came the bull moose to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture. Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware there was no place left to go, […]
The Window
by Alan Noakes I raise my head slowly Old eyes peer through the glass I see the leaves gently swaying Fondly caressed, By a soft south west breeze. Rooftops baked in the sun Shadows cast, as windows Sparkle in reflection. Higher and higher I raise my gaze, The heaven a deep blue […]
So Small, So Vital
by Albert Russo Pretty coffeebean beckons the grain of rice don’t look so despondent you’re not alone remember, we’re humans’ mainstay without us most people would look distraught or die of hunger you tickle their buds and pep them up with your intoxicating aroma whilst I challenge the imagination of chefs around […]
If Only
by Alan Noakes Yes the ‘if onlys’ seem to persist for ever As hovering wraithlike used-up dreams. ‘if only ‘ this or that On such and such a day Had varied by an hour or an inch Or something neglected had been done Or that something […]
haiku
by Alan Summers all my mistakes each click of the pen the robin moves traffic jam a driver fingers the breeze through the sunroof summer wind a sparrow re-rights itself at the peanut cage the rain almost a friend this funeral snowing through the blizzard particles of me […]
Valhalla
by Alan J. Blaustein Valhalla by Alan J. Blaustein High on West Street walking summer day Sunlight in my face and to my right Seeing more the Hudson than the street ahead. I expected factories parking lots and bars, Nothing else than pleasant afternoon And then the wonder stopped me seized my […]
The Masks of Love
by Alden Nowlan I come in from a walk With you And they ask me If it is raining. I didn’t notice But I’ll have to give them The right answer Or they’ll think I’m crazy. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External […]
The Bull Moose
by Alden Nowlan Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar, stumbling through tamarack swamps, came the bull moose to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture. Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware there was no place left to go, […]
The Window
by Alan Noakes I raise my head slowly Old eyes peer through the glass I see the leaves gently swaying Fondly caressed, By a soft south west breeze. Rooftops baked in the sun Shadows cast, as windows Sparkle in reflection. Higher and higher I raise my gaze, The heaven a deep blue […]
So Small, So Vital
by Albert Russo Pretty coffeebean beckons the grain of rice don’t look so despondent you’re not alone remember, we’re humans’ mainstay without us most people would look distraught or die of hunger you tickle their buds and pep them up with your intoxicating aroma whilst I challenge the imagination of chefs around […]
If Only
by Alan Noakes Yes the ‘if onlys’ seem to persist for ever As hovering wraithlike used-up dreams. ‘if only ‘ this or that On such and such a day Had varied by an hour or an inch Or something neglected had been done Or that something […]
haiku
by Alan Summers all my mistakes each click of the pen the robin moves traffic jam a driver fingers the breeze through the sunroof summer wind a sparrow re-rights itself at the peanut cage the rain almost a friend this funeral snowing through the blizzard particles of me […]
A Mysterious Naked Man
by Alden Nowlan A mysterious naked man has been reported on Cranston Avenue. The police are performing the usual ceremonies with coloured lights and sirens. Almost everyone is outdoors and strangers are conversing excitedly as they do during disasters when their involvement is peripheral. ‘What did he look like? ‘ the lieutenant is […]
A Certain Kind of Holy Men
by Alden Nowlan Not every wino is a Holy Man. Oh, but some of them are. I love those who’ve learned to sit comfortably for long periods with their hams pressed against their calves, outdoors, with a wall for a back-rest, contentedly saying nothing. These move about only when necessary, on foot, and […]
A Life Story
by Albert Russo when you’re in a daze not sure whether you’re awake or still dreaming you will yourself from the farthest memories to unfurl your life then, overwhelmed you catch yourself embracing every single detail your first steps as a child yesterday’s road accident your grandfather’s smile […]
Two Quits And Drum And Elegy Drinkers
A poem by Alan Dugan 1. ON ASPHALT: NO GREENS Quarry out the stone of land, cobble the beach, wall surf, name it “street,” allow no ground or green cover for animal sins, but let opacity of sand be glass to keep the heat outside, the senses in. Then, when time’s Drunk, reeling to […]
Two Quits And A Drum And Elegy For Drinkers
A poem by Alan Dugan 1. ON ASPHALT: NO GREENS Quarry out the stone of land, cobble the beach, wall surf, name it “street,” allow no ground or green cover for animal sins, but let opacity of sand be glass to keep the heat outside, the senses in. Then, when time’s Drunk, reeling to […]
To Sayf Al Dawla
A poem by Alan Dugan by Al Mutanabbi Resolutions are measured against those who make them; generosity in accordance with the giver. *** Littleness is magnified by small men, while grandeur is deprecated by the great. *** Sayf al-Dawla imposes upon the army his will, yet seasoned armies […]