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.
...
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.
...
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;
...
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.
...
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
...
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.
Was never form and never face
So sweet to SEYD as only grace
Which did not slumber like a stone,
But hovered gleaming and was gone.
Beauty chased he everywhere,
In flame, in storm, in clouds of air.
He smote the lake to feed his eye
With the beryl beam of the broken wave;
He flung in pebbles well to hear
The moment's music which they gave.
Oft pealed for him a lofty tone
From nodding pole and belting zone.
He heard a voice none else could hear
From centred and from errant sphere.
The quaking earth did quake in rhyme,
Seas ebbed and flowed in epic chime.
In dens of passion, and pits of woe,
He saw strong Eros struggling through,
To sun the dark and solve the curse,
And beam to the bounds of the universe.
While thus to love he gave his days
In loyal worship, scorning praise,
How spread their lures for him in vain
Thieving Ambition and paltering Gain!
He thought it happier to be dead,
To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
...
I've come by, she says, to tell you
that this is it. I'm not kidding, it's
over. this is it.
I sit on the couch watching her arrange
her long red hair before my bedroom
mirror.
she pulls her hair up and
piles it on top of her head-
she lets her eyes look at
my eyes-
...
Surrounded by mountains, beside a quiet river,
There lies a valley filled with peace.
A few small houses, plain in their colors,
Rest among fields where cattle wander free.
The people live with gentle hearts—
Strong, healthy, and wise in simple ways.
They trust in their hands more than machines,
And live close to the rhythm of the earth.
...
Rats strong ties, in which family survival lies
Infants nurtured with care by each parental pair
A power structure cemented in place
Every rat knows another's face
...
I. The Unchained Sky
Fly, Shuk Bird, fly—thy chains I've loosed today,
Beyond the walls where greed erects its spires;
...
Sonnet I — The Mystery of Beauty
What mortal tongue may frame what beauty means?
No law defines the wonder of her grace;
...
I. The Empty Dawn
When sleep withdrew, I woke to find you gone,
Your scent still lingered in the broken air;
...
These past few days have been hard. The pain feels constant, and I can't bring myself to share it with anyone close. Parents are too old to be troubled, sibling already has her own struggles, and I don't want to add more weight to anyone's shoulders. I have turned to God, not because it's easy, but because He's the only one who fully understands what I can't say out loud. His words echo in my heart again and again: "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
I will be honest, I have been upset, wondering what "sufficient" really means when I can barely hold myself together. But even in the pain, I notice small mercies like moments of rest, enough strength to cook, to clean, to pray, to breathe. Somehow, I keep moving. Somehow, He keeps me. It doesn't mean the pain is gone, but it means I'm not alone in it. And that gives me hope that His grace truly is sufficient, even now, even here, even in this. Therefore I say with confidence and gratitude: Yes, His timing is perfect, and His grace is truly sufficient for me.
...
A Thousand Versions of Me'
by Barner Keisham
I am Barner Keisham.
...
What dies is the robe of days, not the weaver.
What fades is the vessel of clay, not the wine.
What shatters is the mirror of breath—
not the face held in its silver.
...
It is better to remember all—
That love lived beyond time;
When we were not yet words,
But a silent song,
...
The pen holds might beyond the sword,
A resonance deeper than the tongue—
For the tongue stumbles upon the surface of things,
And cannot sound the depths the heart has sealed.
...
I guess I should have known. All the signs were always there. And even now, your own words say more than you will ever admit. And deep down I knew it all too. Deep down, I lied to myself for so long, hoping that if I hoped for long enough, reality would somehow change. Because I didn't want to live in a world where you weren't real. But deep down I now know that is the only life I have left to live. I wanted to believe in you, even though it was simple math that showed you were racking up points with someone else. What's so messed up is that I doubt you even believe me when I say I have suffered all this time over you. Otherwise, how could you ever do this to me? Surely, some sort of justification you must have invented for yourself, all this time. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to go through with everything you did to me. I hope you sleep easy at night, though. It's not guilt that I wish you had. No..I think I just see that I am in such a jam. I see that I'm living in a cruel world. I see that no one will ever care about me. I see that she herself, I have realized that she herself, you know who I'm referring to, I have realized that she never loved me. What am I now? What is left of me now? It feels like I gave up what was left of my life for you. I have no one now, and my future seems like an almost certain hell. Do you even care? You don't. You never did.
Why did you even do this to me? And what becomes of me now? Do you expect me to roll over and die? I guess I just don't even exist in your world anymore. But I do exist in mine. And here I am, in the darkness, typing away, lonely as ever. I think I didn't want to see the truth because I knew I'd have to feel lonely again if you weren't real. So even though you've given me every sign, both unintentionally and purposely, such a huge part of me wants to believe in you still. Isn't that sad? I guess I have to be lonely. I have spent my entire life running away from loneliness. I think I have no choice but to stop running now. I have to face it, and face whatever comes my way in life. Jiri was poisoned now too, and I can't help but to feel like life is hell, a nightmare. And all the good parts of life are used to hurt me in the end.
...
The Flight of the Soul
— From Nāsūt to Nāsūt
From the clamour of dust and time I was born,
...
Beyond the world's tumult,
a valley of silence is woven—
where the soul recalls its wings,
and time bows to stillness.
...
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—
...