The Forsaken by Duncan Campbell Scott
There one night they camped, and on the morrow
Gathered their kettles and birch-bark,
Their rabbit-skin robes and their mink-traps,
Launched their canoes and slunk away through the islands,
Left her alone forever,
Without a word of farewell,
Because she was old and useless,
Like a paddle broken and warped,
Or a pole that was splintered.
40---Love by Roger McGough
middle aged
couple playing
ten nis
when the
game ends
and they
go home
the net
will still
be be
tween them
The Critical Putt by George Gabor
Palmer Swings the putt looks good itās over the rise yes it misses by 14 feet
Love as Art by Jess Bush
one one
one one
one
Titanic Versus Iceberg by Patrick Pidduck
It was a great party until the Titanic Iceberg
affair, after which it was
all downhill for the
Titanic
Tractor-Factor
If the / field looks / anything / like this / when you /stop, / youāre in / Big Trouble / in any / Case
Remember by Christina Rossetti
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Preparedness by Edwin Markham
When you are the anvil, bear---
When you are the hammer, strike.
Outwitted by Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out---
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
The Avengers by Edwin Markham
They come on wool-soft sandals,
But they strike with iron hands.
Epigram by Samuel Coleridge
A dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.
Epigram from the French by Alexander Pope
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
A Word to Husbands by Ogden Nash
Whenever youāre wrong, admit it;
Whenever youāre right, shut up.
On His Blindness by John Milton
To server therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
āDoth God exact day-labour, light denied?ā
Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in me behold) by William Shakespeare
In me thou seeāst the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Deathās second self, that seals up all in rest.
Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds by William Shakespeare
Loveās not Timeās fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickleās compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the decks my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep well
And better than thy stroke; why swellāst thou then?
Viva la Vida by Coldplay (modified)
I had been king, the world my own domain:
eāen seas would rise when I have the command.
The Villanelle by Billy Collins
How can a poet hope to go wildly astray
or sing out like a romantic gondolier
when the first line will not go away
and the third always has the final say?
Maternity by Alice Meynell
āTen years ago was born in pain
A child, not now forlorn.
But oh, ten years ago, in vain,
A mother, a mother was born.ā
When I Have Fears by John Keats
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; ---then on the shore
I Never Saw a Moor by Emily Dickinson
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heave;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.
The Sky Is Low by Emily Dickinson
A Narrow Wind complains all Day
How some one treated him
Nature, like Us, is sometimes caught
Without her Diadem.
Richard Cory by E. A. Robinson
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Iām Nobody by Emily Dickinson
How dreary to be Somebody!
How public-- like a frog--
To Tell oneās name the livelong June
To an admiring bog!
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
This Is Just to Say by William C. Williams
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Young Woman at a Window by William C. Williams
She sits with
tears on
her cheek
her cheek on
her hand
Nantucket by William C. Williams
a key is lying- And the
immaculate white bed
The Act by William C. Williams
There were roses, in the rain.
Donāt cut them, I pleaded.
They wonāt last, she said
The Turtle by Ogden Nash
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.
The Look by Sara Teasdale
But the kiss in Colinās eyes
Haunts me night and day.
Thoughts by Sara Teasdale
When I can make my thoughts come forth
To walk like ladies up and down,
What Do I remember of the Evacuation by Joy Kogawa
And I prayed to the God who loves
All children in his sight
That I might be white.
Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Suicideās Note by Langston Hughes
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.
Harlem by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Incident by Countee Cullen
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December
Of all the things that happened there
Thatās all that I remember.
Cross by Langston Hughes
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where Iām gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie:
A Poison Tree by William Blake
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
They by Siegfried Sassoon
The Bishop tells us: āWhen the boys come back
They will not be the same; for theyāll have fought
In a just cause: they led the last attack
When I Think About Myself by Maya Angelou
They grow the fruit,
But eat the rind,
I laugh until I start to crying,
When I think about my folks.
Mother to Son
Don't you fall now ---
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
From the Inside Out by Alice VanWart
She bitches and swears
Sees rains in sun
She cannot love
She is the one
Behind the eyes.
Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks
When Sadie said her last so-long
Her girls struck out from home.
(Sadie had left as heritage
Her fine-tooth comb.)