Poem Hunter: Poems - Poets - Poetry

Squire Adam had two wives, they say,
   Two wives had he, for his delight,
He kissed and clypt them all the day
   And clypt and kissed them all the night.
   Now Eve like ocean foam was white
And Lilith roses dipped in wine,
   But though they were a goodly sight
No lady is so fair as mine.

To Venus some folk tribute pay
   And Queen of Beauty she is hight,
And Sainte Marie the world doth sway
   In cerule napery bedight.
   My wonderment these twain invite,
Their comeliness it is divine,
   And yet I say in their despite,
No lady is so fair as mine.

Dame Helen caused a grievous fray,
   For love of her brave men did fight,
The eyes of her made sages fey
   And put their hearts in woeful plight.
   To her no rhymes will I indite,
For her no garlands will I twine,
   Though she be made of flowers and light
No lady is so fair as mine.

L'Envoi

Prince Eros, Lord of lovely might,

...

Satiety help me I have inhabit
of this world. Extant upon its designs
to be more aimlessly fluttering at
the window, to shadow all the patterns

it offers each sun. In frames far as eye
I draw my words towards a juggler's shards
as if our fallings-down our deaths occurred
but did not involve a lot of colloquialized


...

I have been
mysteriously silent
in the subject of love.
Not empty.
Not cold.
Just quiet
the way deep water is quiet—
holding currents no one sees
until they surface.
I watched others speak it freely,

...

How stern are the woes of the desolate mourner
As he bends in still grief o'er the hallowed bier,
As enanguished he turns from the laugh of the scorner,
And drops to perfection's remembrance a tear;
When floods of despair down his pale cheeks are streaming,
When no blissful hope on his bosom is beaming,
Or, if lulled for a while, soon he starts from his dreaming,
And finds torn the soft ties to affection so dear.
Ah, when shall day dawn on the night of the grave,
Or summer succeed to the winter of death?
Rest awhle, hapless victim! and Heaven will save
The spirit that hath faded away with the breath.
Eternity points, in its amaranth bower
Where no clouds of fate o'er the sweet prospect lour,
Unspeakable pleasure, of goodness the dower,
When woe fades away like the mist of the heath.
...

(For Eduardo Chirinos)

Downstairs I left a candle burning
In its light I'll read a few lines when I return

By the time I returned the candle had burned out
Those few lines had faded like innocence

You walk with me
The way moon walks along with a child sitting in a train window

...

Before me are two vessels,
Filled cups; one clear, one grey.
One brimming life and beauty,
One steeped in death, decay.

My soul desires with thirst,
The love, the healing, hope.
Yet my hand grasps for the other,
The shackles, chain.., the rope..


...

A faithless shepherd courted me,
He stole away my liberty.
When my poor heart was strange to men,
He came and smiled and stole it then.

When my apron would hang low,
Me he sought through frost and snow.
When it puckered up with shame,
And I sought him, he never came.

When summer brought no fears to fright,
He came to guard me every night.
When winter nights did darkly prove,
None came to guard me or to love.

I wish, I wish, but all in vain,
I wish I was a maid again.
A maid again I cannot be,
O when will green grass cover me?
...

'As a people we are now called Australians because a vast & lonely land
has touched us with her differences'
- George Ivan Smith, 1953 preface to For The Term Of His Natural Life

'it's noble to refuse to be added up or divided'
- Frank O'Hara

'In this dawn as in the first

...

I just want to wake beside you at seven,
When the world is still, and the light is uneven.
To watch you reach for the alarm, still lost in sleep,
Your hair messy, yet somehow, you're everything I want to keep.

I want to be the warmth when the day has drained you,
To be the silence that comforts, when nothing else will do.
But most of all, I want to whisper in the night,
Telling you "I love you, " until the dark feels right.


...