If I were a voice, a persuasive voice, That could travel the wide world through… I would fly on the beams of the morning… And speak to men with a gentle might, And tell them to be true.

You have no enemies, you say? Alas! my friend, the boast is poor; He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes! If you have none,

The useless dawn finds me in a deserted… Nights are proud waves; darkblue topheav… Nights have a habit of mysterious gifts… The surge, that night, left me the custo… and odd ends: some hated friends to chat…

Up, black, striped and demasked like the… At a funeral mass, the skunk’s tail Paraded the skunk. Night after night I expected her like a visitor. The refrigerator whinnied into silence.

The furies are at home in the mirror; it is their address. Even the clearest water, if deep enough can drown. Never think to surprise them.

Either peace or happiness, let it enfold you when I was a young man I felt these things were dumb, unsophisticated.

Candy Is Dandy But liquor Is quicker.

The apes yawn and adore their fleas in t… The parrots shriek as if they were on fi… Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller… Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrict…

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow) I see a glory in the stable grow Which, with the ox’s dullness might at l… Give me an ox’s strength. Among the asses (stubborn I as they)

Dancer, Dance under the pale lit moon To the aging familiar tune While daisies die

Born like this Into this As the chalk faces smile As Mrs. Death laughs As the elevators break

All I know is a door into the dark. Outside, old axles and iron hoops rustin… Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitch… The unpredictable fantail of sparks Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in wate…

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice,

Walking around in the park Should feel better than work: The lake, the sunshine, The grass to lie on, Blurred playground noises

He hinted at times that I was a bastard and I told him to listen to Brahms, and I told him to learn to paint and drink and not be dominated by women and dollars but he screamed at me, F...

Abstraction is an old story with the philosophers, but it has been like a new toy in the hands of the artists of our day. Why can’t we have any one quality of poetry we choose by itself...

The witch that came (the withered hag) To wash the steps with pail and rag Was once the beauty Abishag, The picture pride of Hollywood. Too many fall from great and good

No speed of wind or water rushing by But you have speed far greater. You can… Back up a stream of radiance to the sky, And back through history up the stream o… And you were given this swiftness, not f…

The sun has come. The mist has gone. We see in the distance... our long way home. I was always yours to have.

if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start. if you’re going to try, go all the way.

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring, And with these sky-flakes down in flurry… There is more unmixed color on the wing Than flowers will show for days unless t… But these are flowers that fly and all b…

The west was getting out of gold, The breath of air had died of cold, When shoeing home across the white, I thought I saw a bird alight. In summer when I passed the place

The pig, if I am not mistaken; Supplies us sausage, ham, and bacon. Let others say his heart is big— I call it stupid of the pig.

It went many years, But at last came a knock, And I thought of the door With no lock to lock. I blew out the light,

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh,… In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in… But a few weeds and stubble showing last… The woods around it have it—it is theirs…

He is that fallen lance that lies as hur… That lies unlifted now, come dew, come r… But still lies pointed as it ploughed th… If we who sight along it round the world… See nothing worthy to have been its mark…

I’m big I suppose that’s why my women always see… small but this 6 foot goddess who deals in real estate

I’m going out to clean the pasture sprin… I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I m… I sha’n’t be gone long.—You come too. I’m going out to fetch the little calf

the hearse comes through the room filled… the beheaded, the disappeared, the livin… mad. the flies are a glue of sticky paste their wings will not

A voice said, Look me in the stars And tell me truly, men of earth, If all the soul-and-body scars Were not too much to pay for birth.

waiting for death like a cat that will jump on the bed I am so very sorry for

When the spent sun throws up its rays on… And goes down burning into the gulf belo… No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud At what has happened. Birds, at least m… It is the change to darkness in the sky.

It will not always be like this, The air windless, a few last Leaves adding their decoration To the trees’ shoulders, braiding the cu… Of the boughs with gold; a bird preening

Others taunt me with having knelt at wel… Always wrong to the light, so never seei… Deeper down in the well than where the w… Gives me back in a shining surface pictu… Me myself in the summer heaven godlike