Frog Poems

What scene would I want to be enveloped in
more than this one,
an ordinary night at the kitchen table,
floral wallpaper pressing in,
...

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
They'd banish -- you know!
...

At the bottom of my garden
There's a hedgehog and a frog
And a lot of creepy-crawlies
Living underneath a log,
...

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As 'Slimy skin,' or 'Polly-wog,'
Or likewise 'Ugly James,'
...

Following are several translations
of the 'Old Pond' poem, which may be
the most famous of all haiku:
...

My Soul: I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
...

Purple as tulips in May, mauve
into lush velvet, purple
as the stain blackberries leave
on the lips, on the hands,
...

Once upon a time a frog
Croaked away in Bingle Bog
Every night from dusk to dawn
He croaked awn and awn and awn
...

You said the anger would come back
just as the love did.

I have a black look I do not
...

Drinking my tea
Without sugar-
No difference.
...

A grief ago,
She who was who I hold, the fats and the flower,
Or, water-lammed, from the scythe-sided thorn,
...

Contemptuous of his home beyond
The village and the village-pond,
A large-souled Frog who spurned each byway
...

old pond.....
a frog leaps in
water's sound
...

You who live secure
In your warm houses
Who return at evening to find
Hot food and friendly faces:
...

I

Reg wished me to go with him to the field,
I paused because I did not want to go;
...

'Oh, dear, this utterly sweltering season of the highly rampant sun is drawing nigh, and it will always be good enough to go on taking daytime baths, as the lakes and rivers will still be with plenteous waters, and at the end of the day, nightfall will be pleasant with fascinating moon, and in such nights Love-god can somehow be almost mollified...[who tortured us in the previous vernal season... but now without His sweltering us, we can happily enjoy the nights devouring cool soft drinks and dancing and merrymaking in outfields...]
...

A city plum is not a plum;
A dumb-bell is no bell, though dumb;
A party rat is not a rat;
...

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
...

Round about the couldron go:
In the poisones entrails throw.
Toad,that under cold stone
...

Bird perched, Branch fell
Bird thought, “I did”.
Hen cackled, Sun Rose
Hen thought, “I did”.
...

A frog along with her frog-lets
remained in the crevices
between the lining stones
of a shallow dug-well.
...

In my heart/mind are fond memories of snakes and frogs,
which I might find at pond edges, in grass, or on top of logs.
In my youth I was no real fan of either household dogs or cats.
I'd prefer wild animals to catch, or just view, perhaps even big rats.
...

A scorpion did meet a frog.
On a river bank were the two,
And were having a dialogue,
'I cannot give a ride to you'
...

Wonderful World.

I trod down the road because i could not afford a Ford Ranger. The danger of a stranger being the arranger of a rambler is that he finds it a bender trying to explain that Jesus was born in a menger and starts to behave like an avenger instead of seeing things done out of fun by human beings as being sins leading to pins being stuck in their souls. Thats all!
...

You've probably heard the story of the scorpion who asked the frog
to help him cross the river by giving him a lift on the frog's back.
The frog refused but finally gave in after the scorpion promised he would not sting the frog, but he ultimately did.
...

The tree frog was in a good mood.
Because on top of its head was its food.
The grasshopper thought that they were friends.
But the frog would eat the grasshopper in the end.
...

The splash changed the course of the universe
as the fish startled in his round of the pond.
Why are you here? asked the fish.
I fell in, cried the rat, wearing water he donned.
...

I love frogs
A frog isn't like others
A frog is smooth
A frog is temperament
...

Into the well,
The frog fell!
The frog was happy,
Though the well was nasty!
...

i met a frog in my garden today
lurking under a stone - it said
there used to be a pond here
i know i said i had to dig it up

pity said the frog and looked at me
as if i was the thickest mortal
a garden without water it croaked
is worse than a tongue without spit

there's a pond next door i said
you could get there in two short hops
the frog eyed me with green contempt
next door it said is not where we are

that night there was a full moon
it came and sat on my hedge
there used to be a frog here it said
what have you done to upset it

i hate frogs that talk i complained
moon eyed me with silver contempt
you can't treat frogs like that - repent
i beg you or you'll end up cursed

it tipped backwards off the hedge
and plopped into next door's pond
such a cackle of frog's song then
moon shone brightly in the water

no frog came back to the stone
moon stayed away from my garden
so (guiltily) i built a pond -
something keeps draining the water
...