Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard

At the Window

At the Window
I have not always had this certainty, this pessimism which reassures the best among
us. There was
a time when my friends laughed at me. I was not…

393
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Your Hand

Your Hand

Your hand full of hours, you came to me – and I said:
‘Your hair is not brown.’
You lifted it, lightly,
on to the balance of grief,

426
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

With Every Thought

With Every Thought

With every Thought I went
out of the World: there you were,
you my Gentle One, you my Open One, and –
you received us.

470
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

When You Lie

When You Lie

When you lie
in the Bed of lost Flag-Cloth,
with blue-black Syllables, in Snow-Eyelash-Shadow,
the Crane through Thoughtshowers,

431
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

There Was Earth

There Was Earth

There was Earth in them, and
they dug.


They dug and they dug, and so
their Day went by, and their Night. And they did n…

509
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

To Stand in the Shadow

To Stand in the Shadow

To stand in the Shadow
of the Wound’s-Mark in the Air.


For no-one and nothing to Stand.
Unknown,
for you <…

492
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

The Poles

The Poles

The Poles
are within us,
insurmountable
while Awake,
we sleep across, to the Gate
of Mercy,


I lose you to y…

474
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

The Triumph Of Achilles

The Triumph Of Achilles

In the story of Patroclus
no one survives, not even Achilles
who was nearly a god.
Patroclus resembled him; they wore

501
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Tallow Lamp

Tallow Lamp

The monks with hairy fingers opened the book: September.
Now Jason pelts with snow the newly sprouting grain.
The forest gave you a necklace …

479
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Psalm

Psalm


No-man kneads us again out of Earth and Loam,
no-man spirits our Dust.
No-man.


Praise to you, No-man.
For love of you…

517
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Night Ray

Night Ray

Most brightly of all burned the hair of my evening loved one:
to her I send the coffin of lightest wood.
Waves billow round it as round the bed…

463
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

On my Right

On my Right

On my Right – who? The Death-Woman.
And you, on my Left, you?

The Wandering-Sickles in extraheavenly
Place
mime themselves …

345
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

In Front of a Candle

In Front of a Candle

I formed the holder of gold,
as you told me to mother,
gold, out of which She comes,
a shade, to me, in the middle
of fr…

458
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Little Night

Little Night

Little Night: when you
take me within, within,
up there,
three Pain-Inches above
the Floor:

all the Shroud-Coats of …

407
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Ice, Eden

Ice, Eden

There is a Land that’s Lost,
Moon waxes in its Reeds,
and all that’s turned to frost
with us, burns there and sees.


It …

452
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

I Can Still See You

I Can Still See You

I can still see you: an Echo,
to be touched with Feeler-
Words, on the Parting-
Ridge.


Your face softly shies a…

445
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Fugue of Death

Fugue of Death

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at nightfall

we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night

we drink it and drink …

427
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Death Fugue

Death Fugue

Black milk of daybreak we drink it at sundown

we drink it at noon in the morning we drink it at night

we drink it and drink it

475
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Cologne

Cologne


In Kohln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fang'd with murderous stones
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
I counted tw…

451
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Count The Almonds

Count The Almonds

Count the Almonds,
count, what was bitter, watched for you,
count me in:


I sought your Eye, as it opened and no one a…

511
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Afternoon Of Circus And Citadel

Afternoon Of Circus And Citadel

In Brest, before the Fire-Hoops burning,
In the Tent, where Tigers sprang,
there I heard you, Finite, singing,
ther…

465
Paul Celan
Paul Celan

Alchemical

Alchemical


Silence, like Gold cooked in
charred
Hands.


Vast, grey,
near as all that is Lost
Sisterly-Shape:

464
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda

Your Feet

Your Feet

When I cannot look at your face
I look at your feet.
Your feet of arched bone,
your hard little feet.
I know that they support you,…

659
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda

Your Laughter

Your Laughter

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.


Do not take away the rose,

713