~Other's Work~
~The Gift~
To pull the metal splinter from my palm,
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.
I can't remember the tale,
but hear his voice still, a well
of dark water, a prayer,
And I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head.
Had you entered that afternoon
you would have thought you saw a man
planting something in a boy's palm,
a silver tear, a tiny flame
Had you followed that boy
you would have arrived here,
where I bend over my wife's right hand.
Look how I shave her thumbnail down
so carefully she feels no pain.
Watch as I lift the splinter out.
I was seven when my father
took my hand like this,
and I did not hold up that shard
between my fingers and think,
Metal that will bury me,
christen it Little Assassin.
Ore Going Deep for My Heart.
And I did not lift up my wound and cry,
Death visited here!
I did what a child does
when he's given something to keep.
I kissed my father.
~Li-Young Lee
~The Road Not Taken~
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost
~The Paintbrush~
I keep my paintbrush with me
Wherever I may go,
In case I need to cover up
So the real me doesn't show.
I'm so afraid to show you me,
Afraid of what you'll do - that
You might laugh or say mean things.
I'm afraid I might lose you.
I'd like to remove all my paint coats
To show you the real, true me,
But I want you to try and understand,
I need you to like what you see.
So if you'll be patient and close your eyes,
I'll strip off all my coats real slow.
Please understand how much it hurts
To let the real me show.
Now that my coats are all stripped off.
I feel naked, bare and cold.
And if you still love me with all that you see,
You are my friend, pure as gold.
I need to save my paintbrush, though,
And hold it in my hand,
I want to keep it handy
In case somebody doesn't understand.
So please protect me, my dear friend
And thanks for loving me true,
But, please let me keep my paint brush with me
Until I love me too.
~Bettie B. Youngs
~Why?~
All alone, I stare out the window,
Feeling my soul in me cry,
Feeling the painful screams of my heart,
Calling sliently: Why?
Why are your dreams scattered, destroyed?
Why are you put in this cage?
Why is the world silently watching?
Why can't they hear your rage?
Why is the barbed wire holding me prisoner?
Blocking to freedom my way?
Why do I still keep waiting and dreaming?
Hoping... Maybe... Someday...
I see above me the snow-covered mountains.
Magestic, proud, and high.
If, like a free bird, I could reach their peaks,
Maybe from there the world will hear my cry:
Why?
~True Beauty~
Darkness of the night
Brightness of the stars
Calmness in the trees
Silence of the nature
Beauty is in many shapes
Beauty is in many forms
Beauty is in many moments
Beauty is in many aspects
A hollow moon upon the sky
Can be true beauty in itself
A bright star in the heavens
Can light the brightest night
A gentle breeze through the trees
Can calm the most worried man
A silent moment in the woods
Can say more then any speech
However, one thing is better
More beautiful then all the rest
The most amazing thing that can exist
In all of the universe…
Love…
~Burl Carpenter
~Wasted~
I would kill for you,
For you I'd lie,
I would live for you,
For you I'd die,
I've fought all the battles,
You just closed your eyes,
I tried so hard to save you,
You said they were lies,
I offered you the world at once,
You pushed it away,
And I died again for you,
You forgot it in a day,
If no one can help you,
If that's not enough to see,
There was so much you could have done,
So much that you could be,
But I cannot save you,
If you die anyway.
A sacrifice is worthless,
And nothing I can say,
Will make you give it value.
~Lizzie Platz
~Annabel Lee~
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
~Edgar Allan Poe
~Stupid Pencil Maker~
Some dummy built this pencil wrong-
The eraser's down here where the point belongs,
And the point's at the top-it's no good to me.
It's amazing how stupid some people can be.
~Shel Silverstein
~Changes~
"Friends forever," you promised.
"Together till the end."
We did everything together.
You were my best friend.
When I was sad, you were by my side.
When I was scared, you felt my fear.
You were my best support-
If I needed you, you were there.
You were the greatest friend,
You always knew what to say.
You made everything seem better.
As long as we had each other,
Everything would be okay.
But, somewhere along the line,
We slowly came apart.
I was here, you were there,
It tore a whole in my heart.
Things were changing,
Our cheerful music reversed its tune.
It was like having salt without pepper,
A sun without its moon.
Suddenly, we were miles apart,
Two different people with nothing the same.
It was as if we hadn't been friends,
Although we knew deep in our hearts
Neither of us was to blame.
You had made many new friends
And, luckily, so had I
But that didn't change the hurt-
The loss of our friendship made me cry.
As we grow older, things must change
But they don't always have to end.
Even though it is different now,
You will always be my friend.
~Phyllis Lin~
~Please Hear What I'm Not Saying~
Don't be fooled by the face I wear.
For I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
masks that I'm afraid to take off.
and none of them is me.
Pretending is an art that's second nature to me,
but don't be fooled.
For God's sake don't be fooled.
I give you the impression that I'm secure,
that confidence is my name and coolness is my game,
that the water's calm and I'm in command,
and that I need no one.
But don't believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface
is my mask, ever-varying and ever-concealing.
Beneath lies no complacence.
Beneath lies confusion and fear and aloneness.
But I hide this. I don't want anyone to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness and fear being exposed.
That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
a nonchalant sophisticated facade, to help me pretend,
to sheild me from the glance that knows.
But such a glance is precisely my salvation.
My only hope, and I know it.
That is, if it's followed by acceptance,
if it's followed by love.
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself,
from my own self-built prison walls,
from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It's the only thing that will assure me
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
I don't like to hide.
I don't like to play superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me,
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand
even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the bland stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind and gentle and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings, very small wings,
very feeble wings,
but wings!
With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
Who I am, you may wonder.
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet,
and I am every woman you meet.
~Author Unknown~
~But You Didn't~
I looked at you and smiled the other day
I thought you'd see me but you didn't
I said "I love you" and waited for what you would say
I thought you'd hear me but you didn't
I asked you to come outside and pay ball with me
I thought you'd follow me but you didn't
I drew a picture just for you to see
I thought you'd save it but you didn't
I made a fort for us in the back of the woods
I thought you'd camp with me but you didn't
I found some worms 'n such for fishing if we could
I thoguht you'd want to go but you didn't
I needed you just to talk to, my thoughts to share
I thought you'd want to but you didn't
I told you about the game hoping you'd be there
I thought you'd surely come but you didn't
I asked you to share my youth with me
I thought you'd want to but you couldn't
My country called me to war, you asked me to come home safely
But I didn't.
~Stan Gebhardt~
~The Little Boy and the Old Man~
Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the little old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded. "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy,, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.
~Shel Silverstein~
~The Chariot~
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 't is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
~Emily Dickinson
Home
Poetry Home
