Inexpensive Progress poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Encase your legs in nylons, Bestride your hills with pylons O age without a soul; Away with gentle willows And all the elmy billows That through your valleys roll. Let’s say goodbye to hedges And roads with grassy edges And winding country lanes; Let all things travel faster Where motor car is master […]
In Westminster Abbey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Let me take this other glove off As the vox humana swells, And the beauteous fields of Eden Bask beneath the Abbey bells. Here, where England’s statesmen lie, Listen to a lady’s cry. Gracious Lord, oh bomb the Germans, Spare their women for Thy Sake, And if that is not too easy We […]
How To Get On In Society poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Phone for the fish knives, Norman As cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. Are the requisites all in the toilet? The frills round the cutlets can wait Till the girl has replenished the cruets And switched on the logs in the […]
Harrow-on-the-Hill poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
When melancholy Autumn comes to Wembley And electric trains are lighted after tea The poplars near the stadium are trembly With their tap and tap and whispering to me, Like the sound of little breakers Spreading out along the surf-line When the estuary’s filling With the sea. Then Harrow-on-the-Hill’s a rocky island And […]
Guilt poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The clock is frozen in the tower, The thickening fog with sooty smell Has blanketed the motor power Which turns the London streets to hell; And footsteps with their lonely sound Intensify the silence round. I haven’t hope. I haven’t faith. I live two lives and sometimes three. The lives I live make […]
Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
With one consuming roar along the shingle The long wave claws and rakes the pebbles down To where its backwash and the next wave mingle, A mounting arch of water weedy-brown Against the tide the off-shore breezes blow. Oh wind and water, this is Felixstowe. In winter when the sea winds chill and […]
Executive poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner; I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm’s Cortina. In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill The ma?tres d’h?tel all know me well, and let me sign the bill. You ask me what it is I do. Well, […]
Dilton Marsh Halt poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Was it worth keeping the Halt open, We thought as we looked at the sky Red through the spread of the cedar-tree, With the evening train gone by? Yes, we said, for in summer the anglers use it, Two and sometimes three Will bring their catches of rods and poles and perches To […]
Diary of a Church Mouse poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Here among long-discarded cassocks, Damp stools, and half-split open hassocks, Here where the vicar never looks I nibble through old service books. Lean and alone I spend my days Behind this Church of England baize. I share my dark forgotten room With two oil-lamps and half a broom. The cleaner never bothers me, So […]
Devonshire Street W.1 poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The heavy mahogany door with its wrought-iron screen Shuts. And the sound is rich, sympathetic, discreet. The sun still shines on this eighteenth-century scene With Edwardian faience adornment — Devonshire Street. No hope. And the X-ray photographs under his arm Confirm the message. His wife stands timidly by. The opposite brick-built house looks […]
Death In Leamington poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
She died in the upstairs bedroom By the light of the ev’ning star That shone through the plate glass window From over Leamington Spa Beside her the lonely crochet Lay patiently and unstirred, But the fingers that would have work’d it Were dead as the spoken word. And Nurse came in with […]
Dawlish poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Bird-watching colonels on the old sea wall, Down here at Dawlish where the slow trains crawl: Low tide lifting, on a shingle shore, Long-sunk islands from the sea once more: Red cliffs rising where the wet sands run, Gulls reflecting in the sharp spring sun; Pink-washed plaster by a sheltered patch, Ilex shadows upon […]
Cornish Cliffs poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Those moments, tasted once and never done, Of long surf breaking in the mid-day sun. A far-off blow-hole booming like a gun- The seagulls plane and circle out of sight Below this thirsty, thrift-encrusted height, The veined sea-campion buds burst into white And gorse turns tawny orange, seen beside Pale drifts of […]
Christmas poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across the night Has caught the streaks of winter rain In many a stained-glass window sheen From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green. TThe bells of waiting Advent ring, The Tortoise stove is lit again And lamp-oil light across […]
Business Girls poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
From the geyser ventilators Autumn winds are blowing down On a thousand business women Having baths in Camden Town Waste pipes chuckle into runnels, Steam’s escaping here and there, Morning trains through Camden cutting Shake the Crescent and the Square. Early nip of changeful autumn, Dahlias glimpsed through garden doors, At the […]
Back From Australia poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Cocooned in Time, at this inhuman height, The packaged food tastes neutrally of clay, We never seem to catch the running day But travel on in everlasting night With all the chic accoutrements of flight: Lotions and essences in neat array And yet another plastic cup and tray. “Thank you so much. Oh no, […]
An Edwardian Sunday, Broomhill, Sheffield poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
High dormers are rising So sharp and surprising, And ponticum edges The driveways of gravel; Stone houses from ledges Look down on ravines. The vision can travel From gable to gable, Italianate mansion And turretted stable, A sylvan expansion So varied and jolly Where laurel and holly Commingle their greens. Serene on a […]
A Subaltern’s Love Song poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun, What strenuous singles we played after tea, We in the tournament; you against me! Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, I am weak from your […]
A Shropshire Lad poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The gas was on in the Institute, The flare was up in the gym, A man was running a mineral line, A lass was singing a hymn, When Captain Webb the Dawley man, Captain Webb from Dawley, Came swimming along the old canal That carried the bricks to Lawley. Swimming along – Swimming along […]
A Bay In Anglesey poem – John Betjeman poems | Poems and Poetry
The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide Slaps at the rocks the sun has dried, Too lazy, almost, to sink and lift Round low peninsulas pink with thrift. The water, enlarging shells and sand, Grows greener emerald out from land And brown over shadowy shelves below The waving forests of seaweed […]
Joe Biden, a Ghazal
He murders children, rapes and steals, oh mad Joe Biden He serves the Zionist swine that squeals, oh bad Joe Biden He stole elections too, without shame He is a puppet of the Neocon fame, oh sad Joe Biden He started war in the Ukraine Bloodthirsty tyrant’s accursed name’s mad Joe Biden He’s sadist, deranged, […]
Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali
Ghazal BY AGHA SHAHID ALI Feel the patient’s heart Pounding—oh please, this once— —JAMES MERRILL I’ll do what I must if I’m bold in real time. A refugee, I’ll be paroled in real time. Cool evidence clawed off like shirts of hell-fire? A former existence untold in real time … The one you would […]
Words You Said poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
Remember when we played? Really was lots of fun Though that moment hasn’t stayed It’s gone; new ones have come I hold my head, rub my eye Those words you said encourage me to try Try to fulfill them By what I choose to do My hearts’ treasured gem “You’re strong […]
The Unpromised Land, Montgomery, Alabama poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
Despite the noon sun shimmering on Court Street, each day I leave my desk, and window-shop, waste time, and use my whole lunch hour to stroll the route the marchers took. The walk is blistering– the kind of heat that might make you recall Nat Turner skinned and rendered into grease if you share […]
Sounds of your love poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
Echoes sounds of you so clear to my ears and your groom I’ll be but patiently I’ll wait on my knees. With each rhythm I write it’s you I hear, tone of your love so very clear. Melodies of your love seduces my soul and each beat that you play erupts through […]
Sexual eyes poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
I notice you wanting me, needing and lowering me with the passions in your lusting eyes, I see as I look through your eyes as you extract the content and emotions of my sex. How extremely physically sweet you feel but how your taste to me enhance a more uniquely mental feel […]
Satisfaction of my eyes poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
Stimulant art of my eyes, your image entices my sight. Gloomily lost in your world, a tranquil sight ever seen in a girl. This physical lust in you I feel, my eyes must be fulfilling it’s own dreams. Measured by my heavenly desires, a satisfaction of my depiction. Seduced by her eyes I’m […]
Praying Drunk poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
Our Father who art in heaven, I am drunk. Again. Red wine. For which I offer thanks. I ought to start with praise, but praise comes hard to me. I stutter. Did I tell you about the woman, whom I taught, in bed, this prayer? It starts with praise; the simple form keeps things […]
Medicine to my brain poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
You’re the medicine to cure my pain, the substance to heal my brain. The pure beauty in my life, the joys that suffice me and the spark to ignite me. The ryhtm of each beat, the tunes and melody in which I find my peace and release, medicine to my brain. Love, […]
In The Well poem – Andrew Hudgins poems | Poems and Poetry
My father cinched the rope, a noose around my waist, and lowered me into the darkness. I could taste my fear. It tasted first of dark, then earth, then rot. I swung and struck my head and at that moment got another then: then blood, which spiked my mouth with iron. Hand […]
Hawk poem – Andrew Demcak poems | Poems and Poetry
Wings open, wind-carried, an angel’s book. Talons ready to change music to that of funeral dirge. Fixer, finder, life-adopter, sailing through cool ether. Mouse, you are not your hallowed body. Spectacular, the pale glory of flight, sublimely alone. One sharp cry above the May iris, or by winter, over branching pipes […]
French kiss to knickers poem – Andrew Vassell poems | Poems and Poetry
French kissing your lips with the very detail licking and tasting, exploring and touring but damn it’s tile flooring. Her magnificent smile as I feel the squeak of her pearly white teeth and soft gum sandwiching my tongue. Wow to the sight of her shape and the compliment of silk french knickers […]
Beachy Blues poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
“you’re getting a whooped tail” father barks to son as i hold a mermaid’s nail spirit holding a ton Birds cross paths Along the shore Another woman laughs As waves righteously roar Sky now dark many eyes explore camera goes spark moment no more Along spirits sail Towards a setting […]
Words You Said poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
Remember when we played? Really was lots of fun Though that moment hasn’t stayed It’s gone; new ones have come I hold my head, rub my eye Those words you said encourage me to try Try to fulfill them By what I choose to do My hearts’ treasured gem “You’re strong […]
A Winter Twilight poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
A silence slipping around like death, Yet chased by a whisper, a sigh, a breath; One group of trees, lean, naked and cold, Inking their cress ‘gainst a sky green-gold; One path that knows where the corn flowers were; Lonely, apart, unyielding, one fir; And over it softly leaning down, One star that […]
When The Green Lies Over The Earth poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
When the green lies over the earth, my dear, A mantle of witching grace, When the smile and the tear of the young child year Dimple across its face, And then flee, when the wind all day is sweet With the breath of growing things, When the wooing bird lights on restless feet […]
Universe poem – Aminu Ola Rasaq poems | Poems and Poetry
There was an All-knowing Creator of the universe, He had multiple galaxies; But the weakest cried, ‘Please don’t eat me, I’ll devour you, O feeble galaxy!’ It runs in the family of the universe Aminu Ola Rasaq Poetry In Englishwww.poetry.monster
Trees poem – Angelina Weld Grimke poems | Poems and Poetry
God made them very beautiful, the trees: He spoke and gnarled of bole or silken sleek They grew; majestic bowed or very meek; Huge-bodied, slim; sedate and full of glees. And He had pleasure deep in all of these. And to them soft and little tongues to speak Of Him to us, He […]
There is but there is not poem – Amy Haritha Suseel poems | Poems and Poetry
There is no moon, but there’s moonlight. There are no stars, but there’s stardust. There is no rainbow, but there is colour in my life. There is no garden, but there’s flower. There are no bees, but there’s honey. There is no love, but there’s a loving heart with me. There […]
The Voice poem – Andree Chedid poems | Poems and Poetry
Where is the distant voice That speaks like my soul? Buried beneath daylight’s clamor Gold and the seasons Beneath groaning streets And the ferment of cities In my grave of care And blond laughter In what bare tomb must I lie To summon the voice That speaks like my soul? Poetry […]