Journey Poems
A Nightmare
by William Schwenck Gilbert
When you're lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is
taboo'd by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in
without impropriety;
For your brain is on fire - the bedclothes conspire of usual
slumber to plunder you:
First your counterpane goes and uncovers your toes, and your sheet
slips demurely from under you;
Then the blanketing tickles - you feel like mixed pickles, so
terribly sharp is the pricking,
......
Sonnet Vii
by Alan Seeger
To me, a pilgrim on that journey bound
Whose stations Beauty's bright examples are,
As of a silken city famed afar
Over the sands for wealth and holy ground,
Came the report of one -- a woman crowned
With all perfection, blemishless and high,
As the full moon amid the moonlit sky,
With the world's praise and wonder clad around.
And I who held this notion of success:
To leave no form of Nature's loveliness
......
The Poem Of Antar
by Antarah (Ant Ibn Shaddad
Have the poets left in the garment a place for a patch to be patched by me; and did you know the abode of your beloved after reflection?2
The vestige of the house, which did not speak, confounded thee, until it spoke by means of signs, like one deaf and dumb.
Verily, I kept my she-camel there long grumbling, with a yearning at the blackened stones, keeping and standing firm in their own places.
It is the abode of a friend, languishing in her glance, submissive in the embrace, pleasant of smile.
Oh house of 'Ablah situated at Jiwaa, talk with me about those who resided in you. Good morning to you, O house of 'Ablah, and be safe from ruin.
......
A Tree Telling Of Orpheus
by Denise Levertov
White dawn. Stillness.When the rippling began
&nbs p; I took it for sea-wind, coming to our valley with rumors
&nb sp; of salt, of treeless horizons. But the white fog
didn't stir; the leaves of my brothers remained outstretched,
unmoving.
& nbsp; &n bsp; &nb sp;Yet the rippling drew nearer – and then
my own outermost branches began to tingle, almost as if
fire had been lit below them, too close, and their twig-tips
were drying and curling.
& nbsp; &n bsp; &nb sp; Yet I was not afraid, only
......
The Indian Burying Ground
by Philip Freneau
In spite of all the learn'd have said;
I still my old opinion keep,
The posture, that we give the dead,
Points out the soul's eternal sleep.
Not so the ancients of these lands --
The Indian, when from life releas'd
Again is seated with his friends,
And shares gain the joyous feast.
......
unsigned horizon
by Rikske Kessner
“unsigned horizon”
The horizon stays unsigned,
a gray span that won’t take a mark.
The raft holds by its own inward pull,
nothing formal keeping it together.
No place for the shore to grab hold,
no cut in the wood for a hook
to turn it toward the wharf.
......
Northern Nigeria
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
These vast plains of steadfast savannahs
Haunt me joyfully with the silent hissing tune
Of the setting sun, smiling at the
Sashaying clouds of low skies, and ogling select woods.
The earth is brown here (snuff-brown, I insist),
And with the courage of humble humus soil
Into whose fecund wombs the fattest disciples of yam —
Each tuber a testimony to nutritious creation —are nursed.
Need I guess correctly the mating time of sorghum — in the rains
Or in droughts?
......
Tossed At Sea
by Jeff Bresee
This ship that I’ve chosen to sail be proven swift and strong.
We’ve weathered much together, she and I.
So many days amidst the wind and storms we’ve travelled long
to cross this mighty ocean here beneath the endless sky.
Sometimes it seems that this will be how I spend all my days,
like being tossed at sea is all there is.
It’s hard to hold out faith that there be more than endless waves,
but I am being true to his promise -
......
Eagle’s Challenge
by Ghairo Daniels
meet me on high in limpid luminescent sky
from whence you’ll catch my twigs perhaps
there I cloudless am guided to harlequin horizons
precision wings gliding pearly path to clarity’s
timeless apex called unearthly eos heaven
our mahogany missions in photons seared
at azure axis of Giza activate starseeds dear
akasha includes human evolution tough treading nucleic space unfolding quantum revolutions
silence training crystalline separation ablutions
......
Journey on for the Moment
by Ghairo Daniels
if I could describe your soul it would be
clear mirror shattering forevermore
where pieces are jigsaw puzzles
not fitting, falling under oak table
stuck on persian carpet existing
upside down on another planet
soul shadows broken spiderwebs
hanging on ceilings not existing
another calls himself father holding
......
