Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
...
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
...
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
...
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
...
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
...
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
...
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
...
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
...
I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.
...
Writing a poem is not about bringing some words together to create some charming sentences. It's so much deeper than that. Writing poetry is a bridge that allows people to express their feelings and make others live every single word they read. Poetry is to educate people, to lead them away from hate to love, from violence to mercy and pity. Writing poetry is to help this community better understand life and live it more passionately. PoemHunter.com contains an enormous number of famous poems from all over the world, by both classical and modern poets. You can read as many as you want, and also submit your own poems to share your writings with all our poets, members, and visitors.
Ay, gaze upon her rose-wreathed hair,
And gaze upon her smile;
Seem as you drank the very air
Her breath perfumed the while:
And wake for her the gifted line,
That wild and witching lay,
And swear your heart is as a shrine,
That only owns her sway.
'Tis well: I am revenged at last,—
Mark you that scornful cheek,—
The eye averted as you pass'd,
Spoke more than words could speak.
Ay, now by all the bitter tears
That I have shed for thee,—
The racking doubts, the burning fears,—
Avenged they well may be—
By the nights pass'd in sleepless care,
The days of endless woe;
All that you taught my heart to bear,
All that yourself will know.
I would not wish to see you laid
Within an early tomb;
I should forget how you betray'd,
And only weep your doom:
...
'Help, help, ' said a man. 'I'm drowning.'
'Hang on, ' said a man from the shore.
'Help, help, ' said the man. 'I'm not clowning.'
'Yes, I know, I heard you before.
Be patient dear man who is drowning,
You, see I've got a disease.
I'm waiting for a Doctor J. Browning.
So do be patient please.'
'How long, ' said the man who was drowning. 'Will it take for the Doc to arrive? '
'Not very long, ' said the man with the disease. 'Till then try staying alive.'
...
Listen, dear brothers, sisters,
Look back in nostalgia;
Think about dear mother,
dear father,
The ones who gave life to you
And thaught you how to be
a man, a woman too;
Your mother who suckled you
Nine months she bore you
in her womb;
...
How shall I teach my baffled heart snow silence
In moments when the air glistens with
So much absence
As to make another universe entire out of it.
...
May people reap what they sow, and the gardens they plant be the seeds that grow.
Tend your garden.
...
Here's a rhapsody for the dim lonely
The excessive daydreamers cast aside
Whose one-eyed jacks just assess too slowly
As forlorn survival rightly decides
...
It wasn't there the first time, the second, the third, the fourth and the countless times we said 'Hi'.
It wasn't there when the sun peaked beyond the greens nor when the sun yawned beyond the waters.
It wasn't there when you were beside me nor when you were away.
It wasn't there when you sang my favorite song nor when you just listened to me singing.
...
It wasn't my hand that touched your cheek, that rainy night, when we first met. It was a premonition from another life, one hundred years before, the same one guided by the synchronicity of each of our paths, over and over.
What we were about to discover and live for a little over a month would change our lives, in a significant way. I will never find out how yours was moved around, for I am not supposed to. But whenever I think of you, my fingers tingle with electricity, still.
Then I remember the leaves.
I remember the lung-shaped clouds.
...
Dearest Laura,
There's something strangely fleeting about this present moment, isn't there? Yet, here it is, captured in a forgotten photo, trapped within the fading whispers of cellulose. Your eyes, once pools of gentle sublimity, now appear as muted moons through the haze of time.
The picture jolts a memory awake, a memory sharp as a shard of glass. It throws me back to that night, when the truth of our connection settled in my heart - a love that bloomed only on one side. You were, and always would be, a dear friend, a source of unwavering support. But the ache for something more, something beyond the boundaries of friendship, lingered unrequited.
I can't recall why I took that photo, or why I held onto it for so long. Perhaps it was a silent testament to a fleeting dream. Now, unearthed from the dusty corners of forgotten boxes, your placid gaze unlocks a flood of memories - the scent of spring blossoms mingling with fresh rain, the nervous anticipation that thrummed in my veins. It was the night you accepted my invitation to the dance, a night etched in both joy and sadness.
...
On clear moonlit nights repeatedly in the old days,
I had the same bright dream in hours that precede sunrise:
A handsome knight strode through desert in sultry haze, -
True hero of children's books, as I could to surmise.
...
I know the importance
Of the deleted page
Nowadays,
That's why
...
Along the wynds and alleys of old Edinburgh, a city of historic places I wandered, thinking of the poets, Burns, Scott they walked the same paths. Dreams of the past surround your senses amongst the medieval buildings and the cobbled streets. Its beautiful in all seasons and captures your heart.
Michael Cochrane © 2024
...
Coffee alone
is not as fun
as drinking with
my sweet HUN! ! !
...
No need to be good
when chasing the great
The moral imperative
deludes and conflates
...
I dwell
In the absence
You left behind
...
If you die before me
I would jump down into your grave
and hug you so innocently
that angels will become jealous.
...
Indoors by technology, outdoors by speedy transport
I travel the world
Today in Japan, tomorrow in Rome,
Next day by an ancient civilization or in Hawaii or Coast Ivory,
...
The low lands call
I am tempted to answer
They are offering me a free dwelling
Without having to conquer
...
Beautiful is the 'thank you'
Wrapped with gratitude,
Offered to peace prone people
Who offer what is real-themselves
...
The Peace Warrior Of Mzansi, among heroes - a colossus!
Sun Of The Nation; a rare gift of Providence.
Once, entangled in the web of racist succubus;
Unruffled he declares before High Justice:
...
(This is a composition in Pilipino Language the first one I did, the only one, and hope some of the Filipinos will get this funny poem in this site. The poem is updated with English translation)
Noong taong otsenta dekada
...
Love and lust are poles apart.
Lust is chaos, love is art.
...
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
Et tu marchais souriante
Épanouie ravie ruisselante
...
you put this pen
in my hand and you
take the pen from you put this pen
...
On this dry prepared path walk heavy feet.
This is not "dinner music." This is a power structure.
...
"Come, pretty birds, present your lays,
And learn to chaunt a goddess praise;
Ye wood-nymphs, let your voices be
Employ'd to serve her deity:
...
If you had the choice of two women to wed,
(Though of course the idea is quite absurd)
And the first from her heels to her dainty head
Was charming in every sense of the word:
...
A little while, a little while,
The weary task is put away,
And I can sing and I can smile,
Alike, while I have holiday.
...
Between us now and here -
Two thrown together
Who are not wont to wear
Life's flushest feather -
...
185
"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see—
...