A Paradise of Poems

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed...

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: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your m...

I’d love to have a picnic with you at Hyde Park, Carrying a bamboo basket, Spreading out our blanket, Enjoying this long cherished afternoon tea moment. I’d love to have a picnic with you at Hyde Park, Birds hovering overhead, Squirrels approaching from behind, Welcome to join us for a cuppa, you said. I’d love to have a picnic with you at Hyde Park, Lying in your arms, Watching my smiling face re...

We are born, We breath, We grow, And then we are gone. Without a trace. Maybe our laughter continues to echo in a Lover’s ear, maybe our words, written on the pages of a book, forgotten on the shelves of a deserted library, are read by a lonely wanderer, maybe someone tastes our tears in the salty waters of the sea, Or maybe our tale lives forever, silent, in the infinite history of the sand . ©️w...

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is...

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 in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars...

Remember the time you lent me your car and I dented it? I thought you'd kill me... But you didn't. Remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was formal, and you came in jeans? I thought you'd hate me... But you didn't. Remember the times I'd flirt with other boys just to make you jealous, and you were? I thought you'd drop me... But you didn't. There were plenty of things you did to put up...

Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose po...

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the l...

No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly d...

庆历四年春，滕子京谪守巴陵郡。越明年，政通人和，百废具兴，乃重修岳阳楼，增其旧制，刻唐贤今人诗赋于其上，属予作文以记之。(具 通：俱) 予观夫巴陵胜状，在洞庭一湖。衔远山，吞长江，浩浩汤汤，横无际涯，朝晖夕阴，气象万千，此则岳阳楼之大观也，前人之述备矣。然则北通巫峡，南极潇湘，迁客骚人，多会于此，览物之情，得无异乎？ 若夫淫雨霏霏，连月不开，阴风怒号，浊浪排空，日星隐曜，山岳潜形，商旅不行，樯倾楫摧，...

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;...

the flesh covers the bone and they put a mind in there and sometimes a soul, and the women break vases against the walls and the men drink too much and nobody finds the one but keep looking crawling in and out of beds. flesh covers the bone and the flesh searches for more than flesh. there's no chance at all: we are all trapped by a singular fate. nobody ever finds the one. the city dumps fill the...

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I w...

There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out But I'm too tough for him I say, stay in there I'm not going to let anybody see you There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out But I pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke And the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks Never know that he's in there There's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out But I'm too tough...

And the people stayed home.  And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.  And listened more deeply.  Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous,...