 |
| Poems I Love |
| Gold Fish by Jewel In my belly is a gold fish. I swallowed it and kept it there. I sing to it, and can feel it wiggle when it especially likes the tune-- Brahms makes it do backflips of glee. |
| Sonnet xii by Edna St. Vincent Millay We talk of taxes, and I call you friend; Well, such you are,--but well enough we know How thick about us root, how rankly grow Those subtle weeds no man has need to tend, That flourish through neglect, and soon must send Perfume too sweet upon us and overthrow Our steady senses; how such matters go We are aware, and how such matters end. Yet shall be told no meagre passion here; With lovers such as we forevermore Isolde drinks the draught, and Guinevere Receives the Table's ruin through her door, Francesca, with the loud surf at her ear, Lets fall the coloured book upon the floor. |
| Sonnet xiii by Edna St. Vincent Millay Into the golden vessel of great song Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast Let other lovers lie, in love and rest; Not we,--articulate, so, but with the tongue Of all the world: the churning blood, the long Shuddering quiet, the desperate hot palms pressed Sharply together upon the escaping guest, The common soul, unguarded, and grown strong. Longing alone is singer to the lute; Let still on nettles in the open sigh The minstrel, that in slumber is as mute As any many, and love be far and high, That else forsakes the topmost branch, a fruit Found on the ground by every passer-by. |
| Sonnet xiv by Edna St. Vincent Millay Not with libations, but with shouts and laughter We drenched the altars of Love's sacred grove, Shaking to earth green fruits, impatient after The launghing of the coloured moths of Love. Love's proper myrtle and his mother's zone We bound about our irreligious brows, And fettered him with garlands of our own, And spread a banquet in his frugal house. Not yet the god has spoken; but I fear Though we should break our bodies in his flame, And pour our blood upon his altar, here Henceforward is a grove without a name, A pasture to the shaggy goats of Pan, Whence flee forever a woman and a man. |
| Wild Nights-- Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson Wild Nights-- Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our Luxury! Futile-- the Winds-- To a Heart in port-- Done with the Compass-- Done with the Chart! Rowing in Eden-- Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor-- Tonight-- In Thee! |
| I Am Not from Here by Jewel I am not from here, my hair smells of the wind and is full of constellations and I move about this world with a healthy disbelief and approach my days and my work with vaporous consequence a touch that is translucent but can violate stone. |
| Long Has a Cloak by Jewel Long has a cloak of coarse wool and wet feathers smothered my flight. Long has doubt and a thorny chain of words caused my vision to stagger. Tired of my purple burden, in search of freedom, I have longed to throw off the gauze curtains and kisses which bind me my mouth so full of berries and other people's tongues my heart sick with thick hands and spittle But there is a secret I do not tell you; I have dulled my spark and weakened my heart so I could continue to stay where I knew I did not flourish (There. It is said.) To stand new in the naked air with no crutch, no pretty eye, I leave not only you but also the part of me that fears my own song's truth. |
| Absence of Fear by Jewel Inside my skin there is this space >> It twists and turns >> It bleeds and aches >> Inside my heart there's an empty room >> It's waiting for you >> And I am wanting >> And I am needing you here >> Inside the absence of fear >> >> Muscle and sinew >> Velvet and stone >> This vessel is haunted >> It creaks and moans >> My bones call to you >> In their separate skin >> I make myself translucent >> To let you in, for >> I am wanting >> And I am needing you here >> Inside the absence of fear >> >> There is this hunger >> This restlessness inside of me >> And it knows that you're no stranger >> You're my gravity >> >> My hands will adore you through all darkness aim >> They will lay you out in moonlight >> And reinvent your name >> For I am wanting you >> And I am needing you here >> I need you near >> Inside the absence of fear |