Song Poems | Poemist

Popular Song Poems

Song Of The Open Road

by Walt Whitman

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune--I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

The earth--that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;

......

The Day Lady Died

by Frank O'Hara

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don't know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets

......

Tithonus

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground,
Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath,
And after many a summer dies the swan.
Me only cruel immortality
Consumes; I wither slowly in thine arms,
Here at the quiet limit of the world,
A white-hair'd shadow roaming like a dream
The ever-silent spaces of the East,
Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn.

......

We Refugees

by Benjamin Zephaniah

I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.

I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.

......

A Zacinto

by Ugo Foscolo

I'll never step ashore and feel your beach
the way I felt it as a barefoot child,
or see you waver in the windy reach
of goddess-bearing sea. You were the island
Venus made with her first smile,
Zakynthos, the moment she was born.
No song embraced your leafy sky,
not even his who sang the fatal storm
and how Ulysses, his misfortunes past
and beautiful with fame, sailed home at last.

......

Recent Song Poems

Bat Song

by Ghairo Daniels

BAT SONG

(This Song was written in 2009 for a dramatised Rap Music & Dance Group in Rural South Africa. They wanted an amusing song with a message incorporating an unusual rural image. It unfortunately was not performed on stage, but the young teenage group had great fun practicing the drama-song.)

[TWO CHORUSES]

She tried to fly
was too blind
Up she went, fell, fell
flapping webbed wings

......

Headstone Song

by Ghairo Daniels

HEADSTONE SONG

May my gifts spread across the Blue-Green
Globe when I return to Sky
May my smile ripple in your open hearts
When I dance on an orange horizon
May my healings remain remembered
Balms and my presence a
Feather in your hat

......

One Atom

by Ghairo Daniels

ONE ATOM : Song

We sing our songs
wait for meditation gongs
as joints grow red and
knuckles like lead

We catch threads of Grace
prayer hands laced
All the world’s a stage

......

Where's Sam?

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

Mary Davis dwelled on a fruit farm, adoring the company of animals.
Most beloved was sociable Sam, who made her giggle, like bubbles!

Whereas Mary was seven-years-old, Sam, her lamb, was still a baby,
Given to Mary by best neighbors, when they played in orange daisies.

Sam's white fleece was soft and fluffy, like a mound of feather pillows;
Like clouds of endless, turquoise skies, blown by breezes, into billows.

Sweet-natured Sam and Mary's bond, was special. Soon inseperable!

......

Blue Iris

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

blue is wild iris
like the skies of racy clouds
or berries that tempt

sunshine's companion
since mulberry hours of dawn
when scents greeted song

carefree is iris
like warm wind, whistling all day

......