Poems List
Explore poems from our collection
Ideals
Ideals
Better than land or gold or trade
Are a high ideal and a purpose true;
Better than all of the wealth we've made
Is the work for others…
He Who Serves
He Who Serves
He has not served who gathers gold,
Nor has he served, whose life is told
In selfish battles he has won,
Or deeds of skill that he ha…
Grace At Evening
Grace At Evening
For all the beauties of the day,
The innocence of childhood’s play,
For health and strength and laughter sweet,
Dear Lord, our tha…
Father
Father
My father knows the proper way
The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
Just what should now be done.
He knows t…
Compensation
Compensation
I'd like to think when life is done
That I had filled a needed post.
That here and there I'd paid my fare
With more than idle ta…
A Christmas Greeting
A Christmas Greeting
Here's to you, little mother,
With your boy so far away;
May the joy of service smother
All your grief this Christmas day;
When, Like a Running Grave
When, Like a Running Grave
When, like a running grave, time tracks you down,
Your calm and cuddled is a scythe of hairs,
Love in her gear is slowly throu…
Why East Wind Chills
Why East Wind Chills
Why east wind chills and south wind cools
Shall not be known till windwell dries
And west's no longer drowned
In winds that br…
When I Woke
When I Woke
When I woke, the town spoke.
Birds and clocks and cross bells
Dinned aside the coiling crowd,
The reptile profligates in a flame,
We Lying By Seasand
We Lying By Seasand
We lying by seasand, watching yellow
And the grave sea, mock who deride
Who follow the red rivers, hollow
Alcove of words out o…
Twenty Four Years
Twenty Four Years
Twenty-four years remind the tears of my eyes.
(Bury the dead for fear that they walk to the grave in labour.)
In the groin of the natu…
Vision and Prayer
Vision and Prayer
Who
Are you
Who is born
In the next room
So loud to my own
That I can hear the womb
Opening and the dark …
This Bread I Break
This Bread I Break
This bread I break was once the oat,
This wine upon a foreign tree
Plunged in its fruit;
Man in the day or wine at night
L…
To Others Than You
To Others Than You
Friend by enemy I call you out.
You with a bad coin in your socket,
You my friend there with a winning air
Who palmed the lie on…
Then Was My Neophyte
Then Was My Neophyte
Then was my neophyte,
Child in white blood bent on its knees
Under the bell of rocks,
Ducked in the twelve, disciple seas
The Seed-At-Zero
The Seed-At-Zero
The seed-at-zero shall not storm
That town of ghosts, the trodden womb,
With her rampart to his tapping,
No god-in-hero tumble dow…
The Conversation of Prayer
The Conversation of Prayer
The conversation of prayers about to be said
By the child going to bed and the man on the stairs
Who climbs to his dying love …
The Hand That Signed the Paper
The Hand That Signed the Paper
The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halve…
Prologue
Prologue
This day winding down now
At God speeded summer's end
In the torrent salmon sun,
In my seashaken house
On a breakneck of rocks…
Should Lanterns Shine
Should Lanterns Shine
Should lanterns shine, the holy face,
Caught in an octagon of unaccustomed light,
Would wither up, an any boy of love
Look tw…
Out Of The Sighs
Out Of The Sighs
Out of the sighs a little comes,
But not of grief, for I have knocked down that
Before the agony; the spirit grows,
Forgets, and c…
Poem In October
Poem In October
It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested …
Once It Was the Colour of Saying
Once It Was the Colour of Saying
Once it was the colour of saying
Soaked my table the uglier side of a hill
With a capsized field where a school sat stil…
On The Marriage Of A Virgin
On The Marriage Of A Virgin
Waking alone in a multitude of loves when morning's light
Surprised in the opening of her nightlong eyes
His golden yesterday…