I know National Poetry Month was last month, but… any day is always a good day to sink into the beauty of an exquisitely crafted arrangement of words.
Here are some lines of poetry that I love, in no particular order.
from “When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face
from “Are There Not Still Fireflies” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Are these not the last days of the Roman Empire
Is not beauty still beauty
And truth still truth
Are there not still poets
Are there not still lovers
Are there not still mothers
sisters and brothers
Is there not still a full moon
once a month
Are there not still fireflies
Are there not still stars at night
Can we not still see them
in bowl of night
signalling to us
our manifest destinies?
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
from “Poem for Haruko” by June Jordan
How easily you held
my hand
beside the low tide
of the world
from “Tus Manos (Your Hands)” by Pablo Neruda
Los anos de mi vida
yo camine buscandolas.
Subí las escaleras,
crucc los arrecifes,
me llevaron los trenes
las aguas me trajeron,
y en la piel de las uvas
me parecio tocarte.La madera de pronto
me trajo tu contacto,
la almendra me anunciaba
tu suavidad secreta,
hasta que se cerraron
tus manos en mi pecho
y alli como dos alas
terminaron su viaje.
*
All the years of my life
I walked around looking for them.
I went up the stairs,
I crossed the roads,
trains carried me,
waters brought me,
and in the skin of the grapes
I thought I touched you.
The wood suddenly
brought me your touch,
the almond announced to me
your secret softness,
until your hands
closed on my chest
and there like two wings
they ended their journey.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by ee cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
SMASHED SAINT 