The Gipsy Trail by Rudyard Kipling

The white moth to the closing bine, The bee to the opened clover, And the gipsy blood to the gipsy blood Ever the wide world over. Ever the wide world over, lass, Ever the trail held true, Over the world and under the world, And back at the last to you. Out of the dark […]

The Galley-Slave by Rudyard Kipling

Oh gallant was our galley from her caren steering-wheel To her figurehead of silver and her beak of hammered steel; The leg-bar chafed the ankle and we gasped for cooler air, But no galley on the waters with our galley could compare! Our bulkheads bulged with cotton and our masts were stepped in gold — […]

The English Flag by Rudyard Kipling

Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack, remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts, and seemed to see significance in the incident. — DAILY PAPERS. Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro — And what […]

The Derelict by Rudyard Kipling

And reports the derelict Mary Pollock still at sea. SHIPPING NEWS. I was the staunchest of our fleet Till the sea rose beneath our feet Unheralded, in hatred past all measure. Into his pits he stamped my crew, Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw, Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure. Man made me, and my […]

The Deep-Sea Cables by Rudyard Kipling

The wrecks dissolve above us; their dust drops down from afar — Down to the dark, to the utter dark, where the blind white sea-snakes are. There is no sound, no echo of sound, in the deserts of the deep, Or the great gray level plains of ooze where the shell-burred cables creep. Here in […]

The Declaration of London by Rudyard Kipling

We were all one heart and one race When the Abbey trumpets blew. For a moment’s breathing-space We had forgotten you. Now you return to your honoured place Panting to shame us anew. We have walked with the Ages dead– With our Past alive and ablaze. And you bid us pawn our honour for bread, […]

Route Marchin’ by Rudyard Kipling

We’re marchin’ on relief over Injia’s sunny plains, A little front o’ Christmas-time an’ just be’ind the Rains; Ho! get away you bullock-man, you’ve ‘eard the bugle blowed, There’s a regiment a-comin’ down the Grand Trunk Road; With its best foot first And the road a-sliding past, An’ every bloomin’ campin’-ground exactly like the last; […]

Rimini by Rudyard Kipling

Marching Song of a Roman Legion of the Later Empire Enlarged From “Puck of Pook’s Hill” When I left Rome for Lalage’s sake, By the Legions’ Road to Rimini, She vowed her heart was mine to take With me and my shield to Rimini– (Till the Eagles flew from Rimini–) And I’ve tramped Britain, and […]

Oonts by Rudyard Kipling

Wot makes the soldier’s ‘eart to penk, wot makes ‘im to perspire? It isn’t standin’ up to charge nor lyin’ down to fire; But it’s everlastin’ waitin’ on a everlastin’ road For the commissariat camel an’ ‘is commissariat load. O the oont*, O the oont, O the commissariat oont! With ‘is silly neck a-bobbin’ like […]

Mowgli’s Song Against People by Rudyard Kipling

I will let loose against you the fleet-footed vines– I will call in the Jungle to stamp out your lines! The roofs shall fade before it, The house-beams shall fall; And the Karela,. the bitter Karela, Shall cover it all! In the gates of these your councils my people shall sing. In the doors of […]

Mowgli’s Song by Rudyard Kipling

The Song of Mowgli — I, Mowgli, am singing. Let the jungle listen to the things I have done. Shere Khan said he would kill — would kill! At the gates in the twilight he would kill Mowgli, the Frog! He ate and he drank. Drink deep, Shere Khan, for when wilt thou drink again? […]

Mary, Pity Women! by Rudyard Kipling

You call yourself a man, For all you used to swear, An’ Leave me, as you can, My certain shame to bear? I’ear! You do not care — You done the worst you know. I ‘ate you, grinnin’ there…. Ah, Gawd, I love you so! Nice while it lasted, an’ now it is over — […]

Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea, There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me; For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: “Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!” Come you back to Mandalay, Where the old Flotilla lay: […]

Lichtenberg by Rudyard Kipling

Smells are surer than sounds or sights To make your heart-strings crack– They start those awful voices o’ nights That whisper, ” Old man, come back! “ That must be why the big things pass And the little things remain, Like the smell of the wattle by Lichtenberg, Riding in, in the rain. There was […]

L’Envoi by Rudyard Kipling

There’s a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield, And the ricks stand gray to the sun, Singing: — “Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover, And your English summer’s done.” You have heard the beat of the off-shore wind, And the thresh of the deep-sea rain; […]

In the Matter of One Compass by Rudyard Kipling

When, foot to wheel and back to wind, The helmsman dare not look behind, But hears beyond his compass-light, The blind bow thunder through the night, And, like a harpstring ere it snaps, The rigging sing beneath the caps; Above the shriek of storm in sail Or rattle of the blocks blown free, Set for […]

England’s Answer by Rudyard Kipling

Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban; Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man. Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare; Stark as your sons shall be — stern as your fathers were. Deeper than speech our love, stronger […]

Cuckoo Song by Rudyard Kipling

(Spring begins in southern England on the 14th April, on which date the Old Woman lets the Cuckoo out of her basket at Heathfield Fair — locally known as Heffle Cuckoo Fair.) Tell it to the locked-up trees, Cuckoo, bring your song here! Warrant, Act and Summons, please, For Spring to pass along here! Tell […]

As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling

As I left the Halls at Lumley, rose the vision of a comely Maid last season worshipped dumbly, watched with fervor from afar; And I wondered idly, blindly, if the maid would greet me kindly. That was all — the rest was settled by the clinking tonga-bar. Yea, my life and hers were coupled by […]

A General Summary by Rudyard Kipling

We are very slightly changed From the semi-apes who ranged India’s Prehistoric clay; He that drew the longest bow Ran his brother down, you know, As we run men down to-tday. “Dowb,” the first of all his race, Met the Mammoth face to face On the lake or in the cave: Stole the steadiest canoe, […]

Lord, what a Beloved is mine! by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Lord, what a Beloved is mine! I have a sweet quarry; I possess in my breast a hundred meadows from his reed. When in anger the messenger comes and repairs towards me, he says, “Whither are you fleeing? I have business with you.” Last night I asked the new moon concerning my Moon. The moon […]

Like This by Rumi

how the perfect satisfaction of all our sexual wanting will look, lift your face and say, Like this. When someone mentions the gracefulness of the nightsky, climb up on the roof and dance and say, Like this. If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is, or what “God’s fragrance” means, lean your head toward him […]

Last night my soul cried O exalted sphere of Heaven by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

Last night my soul cried, “O exalted sphere of Heaven, you hang indeed inverted, with flames in your belly. “Without sin and crime, eternally revolving upon your body in its complaining is the indigo of mourning; “Now happy, now unhappy, like Abraham in the fire; at once king and beggar like Ebrahim-e Adham. “In your […]

Poet Herodia of ancient Pincaeia by Raj Arumugam

Poet Herodia of ancient Pincaeia by Raj Arumugam one day the poet Herodia of ancient Pincaeia found in the garden a note thrown in over the wall: dear poet do not sing us of unpleasant things; do not make us think: sing us of love instead a poem about a kiss is far easier to […]

lovers in nature by Raj Arumugam

lovers in nature by Raj Arumugam sweet love come gentle love we’ll stand before the altar of flowers that bloom on the arms of trees and with the fish in the embracing lake; and moss and soft grass on the ground and clouds kissed by the benign sun we’ll have our hands tied with vines […]

good bye, my sweet angel by Raj Arumugam

good bye, my sweet angel by Raj Arumugam goodbye, my sweet angel you and I now must part; the sun sets gently and so it does too in our love goodbye, my sweet angel the ocean waves come to play along the beach but soon they retreat; and so too now we go in our […]

doughnuts for sale by Raj Arumugam

doughnuts for sale by Raj Arumugam O come buy doughnuts doughnuts doughnuts doughnuts for sale sweet ones, ladies and yummy ones, gents; precious doughnuts you’ve never seen in your lands I made them with my own hands each sugary and yum to the core round and hollow in the middle each doughnut like Einstein’s universe […]

come, sun rays by Raj Arumugam

come, sun rays by Raj Arumugam come, sun rays kiss my naked feet bite them, if you think them sexy; put your warmth in every toe and re-kindle the flames in my blood; kill the fungus if you find any there under or on the nails – and Oh, I so love your touch and […]

Colbert Report: Australia by Raj Arumugam

Colbert Report: Australia by Raj Arumugam Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey with her entourage is going to Australia and it’s timely now for a quick Colbert Report on the state of the colony of Australia Colony? Yes, that’s right Australia is still a British colony – How else do you explain it? as the Head of […]

Tidy by Ralph Angel

Tidy by Ralph Angel I miss you too. Something old is broken, nobody’s in hell. Sometimes I kiss strangers, sometimes no one speaks. Today in fact it’s raining. I go out on the lawn. It’s such a tiny garden, like a photo of a pool. I am cold, are you? Sometimes we go dancing, cars […]

Man in a Window by Ralph Angel

Man in a Window by Ralph Angel I don’t know man trust is a precious thing a kind of humility Offer it to a snake and get repaid with humiliation Luckily friends rally to my spiritual defense I think they’re reminding me I mean it’s important to me it’s important to me so I leave […]

Of Love and All by Raja Mannar

on a sunny day, i asked a passer-by “what is love?”, he gave me a stare and continued walking away, may he not know what love is, so, i went to a saint and asked the same he replied “love is all around you, take a look” i found this a task worthy of me, […]

Dews of Silence by Raju Baruah

The city is sleeping On the lap of the street beggars We are searching for a cup of tea The river is melting with the moonlight Fragrance swimming with the shadows of trees You draw the dews of silence Lantern of love quivering with the kiss of breeze Soundless song just rolling down With the […]

Supply=Demand by Ricardo Sternberg

Supply=Demand by Ricardo Sternberg Supply=Demand Quarter to four on a Sunday as the snow began to fall, she entered the room and whispered I wish for once and for all, you’d tell me how much you love me and how long that love will last for doubt has crept into my heart and passion is […]

Lovers in Cafe by Aiyah De Torres

A perfect morning, the sun shines aglow. Reflecting on leaves kissing by dew. Doves fills the scene outside… Two lovers meet in a wondrous site. Found the love they search too long. Inside the cafe in a midst of Paris, The place where lovers and friends belong. Sitting and sipping a cup of cappuccino. Eyes […]

I Write a Poem by Aiyah De Torres

I write a poem that will entertain the world. A poem that will fade someone’s fear. The one that will inspire you to smile. Something that can make you out of mind. I write a poem for lovers and friends, To describe the feelings, how is love moves the earth. A poem that encourages deads […]

Elusive Lover by Renu Ayyar

From the shackles of boredom and entrap of loneliness Emerged sketches of an elusive lover, With chiseled features & curly tresses; Ah! The perfect Greek god Teasing the romantic in me to write; With a feather dipped in ‘Sea of Love’ Holding my trembling hand; as I begin to write just for HIM In his […]

The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove

She was thinner, with a mannered gauntness as she paused just inside the double glass doors to survey the room, silvery cape billowing dramatically behind her.What’s this, I thought, lifting a hand until she nodded and started across the parquet; that’s when I saw she was dressed all in gray, from a kittenish cashmere skirt […]

A Perfect World by Robby Charters

A world where it doesn’t rain save there are umbrellas for all Where, only on the house of the evil doer, would a tree ever fall Where bad people look gruff and mean, but good men all stand tall …in your dreams, maybe A life of harmony and love that begins with just one kiss […]