Memory Poems
Exposure
by Wilfred Owen
I
1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ...
2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...
3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...
4 Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
5 But nothing happens.
6 Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
7 Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.
......
The Poem Of Zuhair
by İbn Abî Sûlmâ Zuhayr
'Does the blackened ruin, situated in the stony ground between Durraj and Mutathallam, which did not speak to me, when addressed, belong to the abode of Ummi Awfa?
'And is it her dwelling at the two stony meadows, seeming as though they were the renewed tattoo marks in the sinews of the wrist?
'The wild cows and the white deer are wandering about there, one herd behind the other, while their young are springing up from every lying-down place.
'I stood again near it, (the encampment of the tribe of Awfa,) after an absence of twenty years, and with some efforts, I know her abode again after thinking awhile.
'I recognized the three stones blackened by fire at the place where the kettle used to be placed at night, and the trench round the encampment, which had not burst, like the source of a pool.
......
Memory
by William Wordsworth
A pen--to register; a key--
That winds through secret wards
Are well assigned to Memory
By allegoric Bards.
As aptly, also, might be given
A Pencil to her hand;
That, softening objects, sometimes even
Outstrips the heart's demand;
......
Interior Portrait
by Rainer Maria Rilke
You don't survive in me
because of memories;
nor are you mine because
of a lovely longing's strength.
What does make you present
is the ardent detour
that a slow tenderness
traces in my blood.
......
After The Funeral (In Memory Of Ann Jones)
by Dylan Thomas
After the funeral, mule praises, brays,
Windshake of sailshaped ears, muffle-toed tap
Tap happily of one peg in the thick
Grave's foot, blinds down the lids, the teeth in black,
The spittled eyes, the salt ponds in the sleeves,
Morning smack of the spade that wakes up sleep,
Shakes a desolate boy who slits his throat
In the dark of the coffin and sheds dry leaves,
That breaks one bone to light with a judgment clout'
After the feast of tear-stuffed time and thistles
......
A Grandpa's Studio
by Robynne Eller
In a land beyond the sea,
Rooted beneath the earth,
Lived a wise, white lindworm.
Within his grotto could be found,
Life's trinkets and treasures to greet the weary traveller.
At first, his precise position cannot be drawn by the eye,
But instead the timbre of striking keys and scents of shades and spirits.
In the innermost of this inky pit, sits an empty canvas,
Perched proudly on its pedestal, illuminated from above.
My presence revealed, the lindworm nudges me a pallet full of pigment --
......
Nostalgia
by Scott Biggerstaff
Glory he only knew in retrospect -
a life misremembered,
time's gentle mercy
insidious slow poison senescence.
He's doubled over in reverie -
photoshopped recollections,
swapped sense of self,
Change's open wound embrace
ignored.
......
Determined Memories
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Hot days at the beach
sunshine on lavender skies
Frolics of childhood
Moments captured in golden
with colors, laughter and song
Soon thoughts come calling
with sand castle memories
in a dance with time
Peachy sun on gleaming sand
......
Oscoda, Michigan Memories
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
golden fried doughnuts
ice cream made of new snowfall
backyard starlit woods
moonlight children's tales
still lingering in my mind
Halloween treat bags
adopted kitties
a Christmas tree from the woods
......
Pretty Rich
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
sun on autumn leaves
struck it rich with gold on gold
hued blossoms shiver
chill winds wandering
with varicolored birds, far
time's slow surrender
on saying goodbye
nature leaves hued memories
......
