A Late Walk When I go up through the mowing field, The headless aftermath, Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew, Half closes the garden path. And when I come to the garden ground, The whir of sober birds Up from the tangle of withered weeds Is sadder than any words A tree beside the wall stands bare, But a leaf that lingered brown, Disturbed, … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 22, 2016
Evil Land We meet in an evil land That is near to the gates of hell. I wait for thy command To serve, to speed or withstand. And thou sayest, I do not well? Oh Love, the flowers so red Are only tongues of flame, The earth is full of the dead, The new-killed, restless dead. There is danger beneath and o’erhead. And I guard … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 16, 2017
The Fires Men make them fires on the hearth Each under his roof-tree, And the Four Winds that rule the earth They blow the smoke to me. Across the high hills and the sea And all the changeful skies, The Four Winds blow the smoke to me Till the tears are in my eyes. Until the tears are in my eyes And my heart is … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 15, 2017
The Voice of Ocean A cry went through the darkness; and the moon, Hurrying through storm, gazed with a ghastly face, Then cloaked herself in scud: the merman race Of surges ceased; and then th’ Aeolian croon Of the wild siren, Wind, within the shrouds Sunk to a sigh. The ocean in that place Seemed listening; haunted, for a moment’s space, By something dread that … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 14, 2017
The Exposed Nest You were forever finding some new play. So when I saw you down on hands and knees In the meadow, busy with the new-cut hay, Trying, I thought, to set it up on end, I went to show you how to make it stay, If that was your idea, against the breeze, And, if you asked me, even help pretend To make … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 13, 2017
When You Are Old When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 12, 2017
Ode to a Skylark Hail to thee, blithe spirit– Bird thou never wert– That from heaven or near it Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, … Continue reading Poem of the Day for March 11, 2017
Beclouded The sky is low, the clouds are mean, A travelling flake of snow Across a barn or through a rut Debates if it will go. A narrow wind complains all day How some one treated him; Nature, like us, is sometimes caught Without her diadem. –Emily Dickinson Continue reading Poem of the Day for September 25, 2016
The Witch Toil and grow rich, What’s that but to lie With a foul witch And after, drained dry, To be brought To the chamber where Lies one long sought With despair. –William Butler Yeats Continue reading Poem of the Day for September 24, 2016
Sorrow’s Treachery I made a truce last night with Sorrow, The queen of tears, the foe of sleep, To keep her tents until the morrow, Nor send such dreams to make me weep. Before the lusty day was springing, Before the tired moon was set, I dreamed I heard my dead love singing, And when I woke my eyes were wet. –Robert Fuller Murray Continue reading Poem of the Day for September 22, 2016
Point Blank 