Short Poetry

[Pappa]

I heard about a poetry anthology called "Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems" on the radio a few days ago. I haven't been able to find a copy online, but it sounded pretty interesting. All the poems were no more than 12 lines. I'm not much of a poetry buff, but I've always found short poems interesting, particularly haiku, but also Western poetry.

My very favourite of all time is "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams:

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Anyone got any favourite short poems?

[Animavore]

WB Yeats.

Stick of Incense.

Whence did all that fury come?
From empty tomb or Virgin womb?
Saint Joseph thought the world would melt
But liked the way his finger smelt.

[rachelbean]

I Like My Body When It Is With Your - E.E. Cummings

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric furr,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh….And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

[Xamonas Chegwé]

There was an old man from Nantucket
Who kept his false teeth in a bucket
But bandits one day
Stole the bucket away
And now, when he eats, he must suck it!

[JimC]

The Sick Rose

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

[hadespussercats]

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

[hadespussercats]

one came
and two left...
garden butterflies

-- issa

[hadespussercats]

The Concord School.
( Emily's breakfast. )

[rainbow]

Blod.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

The mosquito knows full well, small as he is,
He's a beast of prey.
But after all
He only takes his bellyful,
He doesn't put my blood in the bank.

DH Lawrence

[Jason]

I was going to post Allen Ginsberg's Howl, but after looking it up found that it's actually longer than

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmM ... OTPqY.dpuf

[Rum]

The hound - the Beagle
is so regal
but leaves small tokens
when not housebroken.

[Pappa]

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

They mentioned that line on the radio programme I was listening to. It's one of the poems in the book.

[Clinton Huxley]

How short is short?

Sir Henry Newbolt, Vitai Lampada


THERE'S a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

[JimC]

In the spirit of the above, a fragment of Kipling:

"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!"