The Jacket by Rudyard Kipling
Through the Plagues of Egyp’ we was chasin’ Arabi, Gettin’ down an’ shovin’ in the sun; An’ you might ‘ave called us dirty, an’ you might ha’ called us dry, An’ you might ‘ave ‘eard us talkin’ at the gun. But the Captain ‘ad ‘is jacket, an’ the jacket it was new — (‘Orse Gunners, […]
The ‘eathen by Rudyard Kipling
The ‘eathen in ‘is blindness bows down to wood an’ stone; ‘E don’t obey no orders unless they is ‘is own; ‘E keeps ‘is side-arms awful: ‘e leaves ’em all about, An’ then comes up the Regiment an’ pokes the ‘eathen out. All along o’ dirtiness, all along o’ mess, All along o’ doin’ things […]
Pagett, M.P. by Rudyard Kipling
The toad beneath the harrow knows Exactly where eath tooth-point goes. The butterfly upon the road Preaches contentment to that toad. Pagett, M.P., was a liar, and a fluent liar therewith — He spoke of the heat of India as the “Asian Solar Myth”; Came on a four months’ visit, to “study the East,” in […]
Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
You may talk o’ gin and beer When you’re quartered safe out ‘ere, An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it; But when it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water, An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ‘im that’s got it. Now in Injia’s sunny clime, Where I used to spend […]
Gentlmen-Rankers by Rudyard Kipling
To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned, To my brethren in their sorrow overseas, Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed, And a trooper of the Empress, if you please. Yea, a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses, And faith he went […]
Cells by Rudyard Kipling
I’ve a head like a concertina: I’ve a tongue like a button-stick: I’ve a mouth like an old potato, and I’m more than a little sick, But I’ve had my fun o’ the Corp’ral’s Guard: I’ve made the cinders fly, And I’m here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal’s eye. […]
An American by Rudyard Kipling
If the Led Striker call it a strike, Or the papers call it a war, They know not much what I am like, Nor what he is, My Avatar. Throuh many roads, by me possessed, He shambles forth in cosmic guise; He is the Jester and the Jest, And he the Text himself applies. The […]
Untitled by Quincy Troupe
Untitled by Quincy Troupe in brussels, eye sat in the grand place cafe & heard duke’s place, played after salsa between the old majestic architecture, jazz bouncing off all that gilded gold history snoring complacently there flowers all over the ground, up inside the sound the old white band jammin the music tight & heavy, […]
on the edge of the seat by Raj Arumugam
on the edge of the seat by Raj Arumugam you’re not going are you today to the edge of your seat to the corners of insanity? to the corners at the cinema nearest the exit to run off when the demons come to sleep in the day below your bed so the rabbits cannot find […]
Even Because by Ralph Angel
Even Because by Ralph Angel Because it all just breaks apart, and the pieces scatter and rearrange without much fanfare or notice. Because you can’t and don’t remember the step that kicked up dust and left this planet—you’d give up even more now. Because the body itself—the heart’s not dead but deeper, wrapped up in […]
Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year by Raymond Carver
October. Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s face. Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string of spiny yellow perch, in the other a bottle of Carlsbad Beer. In jeans and denim shirt, he leans against the front fender of a 1934 Ford. He would like to […]
Concrete Backyard by Ryssel Guzman
Sun awakes me through my window. I open up my blinds to see,A crack of sunlight squeezing in trying to find its place between buildings and concrete.Residue left over from last night’s crack reunion.Instead of grass and flowers, I see used needles and empty beer bottles.Garbage piled up, the ghetto doesn’t believe in recycling.Smells like what […]
Attitude: Don Juan in the Shopping Mall by S. K. Kelen
Attitude: Don Juan in the Shopping Mall by S. K. Kelen Let us fly to bounty land…Aqua I Today’s Don Juan could be any of a million characters: Mohammed Hatim a wayward son of the Mujahideen, Doan Huan sporting a Da Nang pedigree, or Mario Lanza living out a serious fetish for muscle cars, Jim […]
My Modern Surrealist Mind by Shaunna Harper
The beer has drowned itself in the cask; I’m pulling brown air for punters. The fridge is baring its teeth to my throat; its inner cold works wonders. I’m falling out of love with myself and rising into bad karma, slipping in circles into wrong holes, the maelstrom enfolding this drama. The house is talking […]
The Winner by Shel Silverstein
The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand looked like a drunk old fool, And I knew that if I hit him right, I could knock him off that stool. But everybody said, “Watch out, that’s Tiger Man McCool. He’s had a whole lot of fights, and he always come out the […]
Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe by Shel Silverstein
It’s two in the mornin’ on Saturday night At Rosalie’s Good Eats Café. The onions are fryin’, the neon is bright And the jukebox is startin’ to play. And the sign on the wall says, IN GOD WE TRUST, ALL OTHERS HAVE TO PAY. And it’s two in the mornin’ on Saturday night At Rosalie’s […]
Hamlet As Told On The Street by Shel Silverstein
Now Francisco and Bernardo, they was guardin’ the castle, Leanin’ on their spears, not lookin’ for no hassle, Havin’ themselves a brew or two, When out in the night they hear woo-wooo-wooo. And here comes this ghost, lookin’ ragged and rank, In a rusty suit of armor, goin’ clank, clank, clank. They say, “Hey, Mr. […]
100,000 Pennies by Shel Silverstein
I broke into the bank on Sunday, You should see the money I got. I couldn’t drag it home ’til Monday, ‘Cause it sure weighed an awful lot. Then I sat down to count it, And much to my surprise, A whole lotta little brown, little round coins, Rolled out before my eyes Chorus: I’ve […]
Stretcher Case by Siegfried Sassoon
He woke; the clank and racket of the train Kept time with angry throbbings in his brain. Then for a while he lapsed and drowsed again. At last he lifted his bewildered eyes And blinked, and rolled them sidelong; hills and skies, Heavily wooded, hot with August haze, And, slipping backward, golden for his gaze, […]
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant It was all record playing Jigging and swaying Some experiment too Although not ever I All fumbling and shy I left all the tripping to you Oh I had my wild times Fuelled by beers and wines And I once smoked a funny cigarette Though […]
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant
Purple Heart Liz (My Girl At Woodstock) by Steve Sant It was all record playing Jigging and swaying Some experiment too Although not ever I All fumbling and shy I left all the tripping to you Oh I had my wild times Fuelled by beers and wines And I once smoked a funny cigarette Though […]
Preludes by T. S. Eliot
I THE WINTER evening settles down With smell of steaks in passageways. Six o’clock. The burnt-out ends of smoky days. And now a gusty shower wraps The grimy scraps Of withered leaves about your feet And newspapers from vacant lots; The showers beat On broken blinds and chimney-pots, And at the corner of the street […]
Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton
Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton Eclogue the First. Whanne Englonde, smeethynge from her lethal wounde, From her galled necke dyd twytte the chayne awaie, Kennynge her legeful sonnes falle all arounde, (Myghtie theie fell, ’twas Honoure ledde the fraie,) Thanne inne a dale, bie eve’s dark surcote graie, Twayne lonelie shepsterres dyd abrodden flie, (The rostlyng […]
Which way does the wind blow? by Thomas J Camp
Which way, you ask? Do I perchance wish the wind would blow? S I prefer a Southerly. For me, the best one, don’t you know. The warmth of the Gulf Stream tampers the air of the brisk green sea, Still deeply cold there at the dark depths where the sun’s seeking rays seize to reflect, […]
V by Tony Harrison
V by Tony Harrison ‘My father still reads the dictionary every day. He says your life depends on your power to master words.’ Arthur Scargill Sunday Times, 10 January 1982 Next millennium you’ll have to search quite hard to find my slab behind the family dead, butcher, publican, and baker, now me, bard adding poetry […]
Long Distance I by Tony Harrison
Long Distance I by Tony Harrison Your bed’s got two wrong sides. You life’s all grouse. I let your phone-call take its dismal course: Ah can’t stand it no more, this empty house! Carrots choke us wi’out your mam’s white sauce! Them sweets you brought me, you can have ’em back. Ah’m diabetic now. Got […]
A Color of the Sky by Tony Hoagland
Windy today and I feel less than brilliant, driving over the hills from work. There are the dark parts on the road when you pass through clumps of wood and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean, but that doesn’t make the road an allegory. I should call Marie and apologize […]
When Gassy Thompson Struck It Rich by Vachel Lindsay
He paid a Swede twelve bits an hour Just to invent a fancy style To spread the celebration paint So it would show at least a mile. Some things they did I will not tell. They’re not quite proper for a rhyme. But I will say Yim Yonson Swede Did sure invent a sunflower time. […]
Bulgarian Lullaby by Vasil Slavov
Bulgarian Lullaby by Vasil Slavov ( excerpt ) 1. . . . what have you done where have you gone the road back flight of the salmon resembling glistening scimitar cutting deep into the forehead of the falling sun stretched shadows sensing distant premonition . . . 7 seas + oceans lake(s) Monongahela(s) Allegheny(s). . […]
The Men Who Wear My Clothes by Vernon Scannell
Sleepless I lay last night and watched the slow Procession of the men who wear my clothes: First, the grey man with bloodshot eyes and sly Gestures miming what he loves and loathes. Next came the cheery knocker-back of pints, The beery joker, never far from tears, Whose loud and public vanity acquaints The careful […]
A City Remembered by Vernon Scannell
Unlovely city, to which few tourists come With squinting cameras and alien hats; Left under a cloud by those who love the sun And can afford to marry – a cloud of bits Of soot more myriad than gnats, a cloud Of smoke and rain, an insubstantial threat Whose colour is the pigment of long […]
Manifesto for your smile and my songs by Vinko Kalinic
Manifesto for your smile and my songs by Vinko Kalinic 1. classic song has rhyme. modern one has metaphors, philosophy, play of words and lots of bullshitting. my song has nothing. just you. naked. pure. with a smile of an angel and a look of a whore. ( but yes! – the most beautiful angel […]
Manifesto for your smile and my songs by Vinko Kalinic
Manifesto for your smile and my songs by Vinko Kalinic 1. classic song has rhyme. modern one has metaphors, philosophy, play of words and lots of bullshitting. my song has nothing. just you. naked. pure. with a smile of an angel and a look of a whore. ( but yes! – the most beautiful angel […]
Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
1 PROUD music of the storm! Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies! Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains! Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras! You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert, Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations; You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses! […]
Proud Music of The Storm by Walt Whitman
1 PROUD music of the storm! Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies! Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains! Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras! You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert, Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations; You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses! […]
The Child and the Mariner by William Henry Davies
The Child and the Mariner by William Henry Davies A dear old couple my grandparents were, And kind to all dumb things; they saw in Heaven The lamb that Jesus petted when a child; Their faith was never draped by Doubt: to them Death was a rainbow in Eternity, That promised everlasting brightness soon. An […]
The Happy Townland by William Butler Yeats
There’s many a strong farmer Whose heart would break in two, If he could see the townland That we are riding to; Boughs have their fruit and blossom At all times of the year; Rivers are running over With red beer and brown beer. An old man plays the bagpipes In a golden and silver […]
The Old Stone Cross by William Butler Yeats
A statesman is an easy man, He tells his lies by rote; A journalist makes up his lies And takes you by the throat; So stay at home’ and drink your beer And let the neighbours’ vote, Said the man in the golden breastplate Under the old stone Cross. Because this age and the next […]
The Hour Before Dawn by William Butler Yeats
A cursing rogue with a merry face, A bundle of rags upon a crutch, Stumbled upon that windy place Called Cruachan, and it was as much As the one sturdy leg could do To keep him upright while he cursed. He had counted, where long years ago Queen Maeve’s nine Maines had been nursed, A […]
Mingus At The Showplace by William Matthews
Mingus At The Showplace by William Matthews I was miserable, of course, for I was seventeen and so I swung into action and wrote a poem and it was miserable, for that was how I thought poetry worked: you digested experience shat literature. It was 1960 at The Showplace, long since defunct, on West 4th […]