Night Poems | Poemist

Popular Night Poems

Boots

by Rudyard Kipling

INFANTRY COLUMNS

We're foot--slog--slog--slog--sloggin' over Africa --
Foot--foot--foot--foot--sloggin' over Africa --
(Boots--boots--boots--boots--movin' up an' down again!)
There's no discharge in the war!

Seven--six--eleven--five--nine-an'-tw enty mile to-day --
Four--eleven--seventeen--thirty-two the day before --
(Boots--boots--boots--boots--movin' up an' down again!)

......

Duino Elegies: The First Elegy

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly
pressed me against his heart, I would perish
in the embrace of his stronger existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure and are awed
because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Each single angel is terrifying.
And so I force myself, swallow and hold back
the surging call of my dark sobbing.

......

Travel

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I should like to rise and go
Where the golden apples grow;--
Where below another sky
Parrot islands anchored lie,
And, watched by cockatoos and goats,
Lonely Crusoes building boats;--
Where in sunshine reaching out
Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosque and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,

......

Courage

by Robert William Service

Today I opened wide my eyes,
And stared with wonder and surprise,
To see beneath November skies
An apple blossom peer;
Upon a branch as bleak as night
It gleamed exultant on my sight,
A fairy beacon burning bright
Of hope and cheer.

'Alas! ' said I, 'poor foolish thing,

......

Mariana

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

WITH BLACKEST moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all:
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable-wall.
The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
Unlifted was the clinking latch;
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.
She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;

......

Recent Night Poems

quechua, llaqtaq runakunapaq

by atef ayadi

ñuqa hamuyku punchawkunapi,
ch’isi, k’uychi, ch’uñu,
mana tukuychu kanki.

Mulberry

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

in navy blue dusk
mulberry brushes green grass ~
a scene that's starlit

Consummating the Word

by Ghairo Daniels

CONSUMMATING THE WORD

In the beginning was
The Word
Consummating it is
becoming Wordless

I fly them through windows
onto tarred roads
where tyres tread them

......

Sky of Fireflies

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

Sultry evening surprise,
the starry sky of fireflies!
Pink, shining, full moon
on rosy, Dragonfly Lagoon.
Lofty fireflies are winking,
as gold time is blinking.
Ash silhouetted clouds,
partially veil fleet crowds,
that glow emerald green,
until so suddenly unseen.

......

Reflections of the Self

by Ayatullah Nurjati

As I stand, a poet in an ocean of words,
Unspoken feelings, unheard verses surge.
What is this craft, this calling to write?
Is it light for others or my own plight?

I pen the tales of others, the struggles they bear,
Yet each word I write is a weight I wear.
To live, to serve, to break free from norm,
A poet’s life—a perpetual storm.

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