Inspiration: Poems
Poem: “Hate,” by James Stephens
My enemy came nigh, And I Stared fiercely in his face. My lips went writhing back in a grimace, And stern I watched him with a narrow eye. Then, as I turned away, my enemy, That bitter heart and savage, said to me: "Some day, when this is past, When all the arrows...
Poem: ” Water Water Water Wind Water,” by Juan Felipe Herrera
for New Orleans and the people of the Gulf Coast water water water wind water across the land shape of a torn heart new orleans waves come louisiana the waves come alabama wind calls alabama and the roofs blow across red clouds inside the divine spiral there is a...
Poem: “Desiderata,” by Max Ehrmann
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their...
Poem: ” Do Not!,” by Stevie Smith
Do not despair of man, and do not scold him, Who are you that you should so lightly hold him? Are you not also a man, and in your heart Are there not warlike thoughts and fear and smart? Are you not also afraid and in fear cruel, Do you not think of yourself as usual,...
Poem: “A Plain Ordinary Steel Needle Can Float on Pure Water,” by Kay Ryan
Who hasn’t seen a plain ordinary steel needle float serene on water as if lying on a pillow? The water cuddles up like Jell-O. It’s a treat to see water so rubbery, a needle so peaceful, the point encased in the tenderest dimple. It seems so simple when things or...
Poem: “Good People,” by W.S. Merwin
From the kindness of my parents I suppose it was that I held that belief about suffering imagining that if only it could come to the attention of any person with normal feelings certainly anyone literate who might have gone to college they would comprehend pain when...
Poem: “God has pity on kindergarten children,” by Yehuda Amichai
God has pity on kindergarten children, He pities school children -- less. But adults he pities not at all. He abandons them, And sometimes they have to crawl on all fours In the scorching sand To reach the dressing station, Streaming with blood. But perhaps He will...
Poem: “For Calling The Spirit Back From Wandering The Earth In Its Human Feet,” by Joy Harjo
Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle of pop. Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control. Open the door, then close it behind you. Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the Earth gathering essences of plants to...
Poem: “Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward,” by Gwendolyn Brooks
Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, “even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night.” You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song....
Poem: Just This Breath,” by Danna Faulds
Settle in the here and now. Reach down into the center where the world is not spinning and drink this holy peace. Feel relief flood into every cell. Nothing to do. Nothing to be but what you are already Nothing to receive but what flows effortlessly from the mystery...
Poem: “Epigrams,” by Edwin Markham
Preparedness FOR all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike: When you are the anvil, bear-- When you are the hammer, Strike. Outwitted He drew a circle that shut me out-- Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that...
Poem: “Protest,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men. The human race Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised Against injustice, ignorance, and lust, The inquisition yet would serve the law, And guillotines decide our least disputes. The few who...
Poem: “Sympathy,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, And the faint perfume from its...
Poem: “Lincoln,” by Carl Sandburg
Lincoln? He was a mystery in smoke and flags Saying yes to the smoke, yes to the flags, Yes to the paradoxes of democracy, Yes to the hopes of government Of the people by the people for the people, No to debauchery of the public mind, No to personal malice nursed and...
Poem: The Calf-Path
Sometimes taking the path of compassion means abandoning the well-traveled path, as this 1895 poem by Sam Walter Foss reminds us: One day through the primeval wood A calf walked home, as good calves should; But made a trail all bent askew, A crooked trail as all...
Poem: “Mysteries, Yes,” by Mary Oliver
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be...
Poem: “The Orange,” by Wendy Cope
At lunchtime I bought a huge orange— The size of it made us all laugh. I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave— They got quarters and I got a half. And that orange, it made me so happy, As ordinary things often do Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park....
Poem: “The Shoelace,” by Charles Bukowski
a woman, a tire that’s flat, a disease, a desire: fears in front of you, fears that hold so still you can study them like pieces on a chessboard… it’s not the large things that send a man to the madhouse. death he’s ready for, or murder, incest, robbery, fire, flood…...
Poem: “Peacemaking,” by Caryn Leigh Wideman
Leave the violence to those who believe in violence Leave the aggression to those who are aggressive. Live the alternative. Seek out the immigrant, the handicapped, the queer, the woman, the child, the...
Poem: “I Won’t Hatch,” by Shel Silverstein
Oh I am a chicken who lives in an egg, But I will not hatch, I will not hatch. The hens they all cackle, the roosters all beg, But I will not hatch, I will not hatch. For I hear all the talk of pollution and war As the people all shout and the airplanes roar, So I’m...
Poem: “Aimless Love,” by Billy Collins
This morning as I walked along the lakeshore, I fell in love with a wren and later in the day with a mouse the cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening, I fell for a seamstress still at her machine in the tailor's window, and...