Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A certain Lady - By Dorothy Parker

Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head, 
And drink your rushing words with eager lips, 
And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red, 
And trace your brows with tutored finger-tips. 
When you rehearse your list of loves to me, 
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed. 
And you laugh back, nor can you ever see 
The thousand little deaths my heart has died. 
And you believe, so well I know my part, 
That I am gay as morning, light as snow, 
And all the straining things within my heart 
You'll never know. 

Oh, I can laugh and listen, when we meet, 
And you bring tales of fresh adventurings, -- 
Of ladies delicately indiscreet, 
Of lingering hands, and gently whispered things. 
And you are pleased with me, and strive anew 
To sing me sagas of your late delights. 
Thus do you want me -- marveling, gay, and true, 
Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights. 
And when, in search of novelty, you stray, 
Oh, I can kiss you blithely as you go .... 
And what goes on, my love, while you're away, 
You'll never know. 

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Portrait by Louise Bogan

She has no need to fear the fall
Of harvest from the laddered reach
Of orchards, nor the tide gone ebbing
From the steep beach.

Nor hold to pain's effrontery
Her body's bulwark, stern and savage,
Nor be a glass, where to forsee
Another's ravage.

What she has gathered, and what lost,
She will not find to lose again.
She is possessed by time, who once
Was loved by men.

First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends --
It gives a lovely light!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Hour-Glass by Ben Johnson

Consider this small dust, here in the glass,
By atoms moved:
Could you believe that this the body was
Of one that loved;
And in his mistress' flame playing like a fly,
Was turned to cinders by her eye:
Yes ; and in death, as life unblest,
To have't exprest,
Even ashes of lovers find no rest

Monday, December 29, 2008

Windy Nights by R.L. Stevenson

Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?

Whenever the trees are crying aloud
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

You left me boundaries of pain
Capacious as the sea,
Between eternity and time,
Your consciousness and me.


P.S: Loved this verse by Emily Dickinson

Heart, We Will Forget Him! by Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!