Revelation
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) At your mouth, white and milk-warm sphinx, I taste a strange apocalypse: Your subtle taper finger-tips Weave me new heavens, yet, methinks, I know the wiles and each iynx That brought me passionate to your lips: I know you bare as laughter strips Your charnel beauty; […]
Return From Business
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Evenings in trains, When the little black twittering ghosts Along the brims of cuttings, Against the luminous sky, Interrupt with their hurrying rumour every thought Save that one is young and setting, Headlong westering, And there is no recapture. Poetry Monster – Home […]
Private Property
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) All fly–yet who is misanthrope?– The actual men and things that pass Jostling, to wither as the grass So soon: and (be it heaven’s hope, Or poetry’s kaleidoscope, Or love or wine, at feast, at mass) Each owns a paradise of glass Where never a yearning […]
Points And Lines
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Instants in the quiet, small sharp stars, Pierce my spirit with a thrust whose speed Baffles even the grasp of time. Oh that I might reflect them As swiftly, as keenly as they shine. But I am a pool of waters, summer-still, And the stars are […]
Poem
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Books and a coloured skein of thoughts were mine; And magic words lay ripening in my soul Till their much-whispered music turned a wine Whose subtlest power was all in my control. These things were mine, and they were real for me As lips and darling […]
Panic
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) The eyes of the portraits on the wall Look at me, follow me, Stare incessantly: I take it their glance means nothing at all? –Clearly, oh clearly! Nothing at all … Out in the gardens by the lake The sleeping peacocks suddenly wake; Out in the […]
Out Of The Window
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) In the middle of countries, far from hills and sea, Are the little places one passes by in trains And never stops at; where the skies extend Uninterrupted, and the level plains Stretch green and yellow and green without an end. And behind the glass of […]
On The Bus
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Sitting on the top of the ‘bus, I bite my pipe and look at the sky. Over my shoulder the smoke streams out And my life with it. “Conservation of energy,” you say. But I burn, I tell you, I burn; And the smoke of me […]
Minoan Porcelain
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Her eyes of bright unwinking glaze All imperturbable do not Even make pretences to regard The justing absence of her stays, Where many a Tyrian gallipot Excites desire with spilth of nard. The bistred rims above the fard Of cheeks as red as bergamot Attest that […]
Love Song
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Dear absurd child–too dear to my cost I’ve found– God made your soul for pleasure, not for use: It cleaves no way, but angled broad obtuse, Impinges with a slabby-bellied sound Full upon life, and on the rind of things Rubs its sleek self and utters […]
Lapr S Midi Dun Faune
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) (From the French of Stéphane Mallarmé.) I would immortalize these nymphs: so bright Their sunlit colouring, so airy light, It floats like drowsing down. Loved I a dream? My doubts, born of oblivious darkness, seem A subtle tracery of branches grown The tree’s true self–proving that […]
Italy
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) There is a country in my mind, Lovelier than a poet blind Could dream of, who had never known This world of drought and dust and stone In all its ugliness: a place Full of an all but human grace; Whose dells retain the printed form […]
Inspiration
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Noonday upon the Alpine meadows Pours its avalanche of Light And blazing flowers: the very shadows Translucent are and bright. It seems a glory that nought surpasses– Passion of angels in form and hue– When, lo! from the jewelled heaven of the grasses Leaps a lightning […]
In Uncertainty To A Lady
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) I am not one of those who sip, Like a quotidian bock, Cheap idylls from a languid lip Prepared to yawn or mock. I wait the indubitable word, The great Unconscious Cue. Has it been spoken and unheard? Spoken, perhaps, by you …? Poetry […]
Doors Of The Temple
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Many are the doors of the spirit that lead Into the inmost shrine: And I count the gates of the temple divine, Since the god of the place is God indeed. And these are the gates that God decreed Should lead to his house: – kisses […]
Darkness
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) My close-walled soul has never known That innermost darkness, dazzling sight, Like the blind point, whence the visions spring In the core of the gazer’s chrysolite… The mystic darkness that laps God’s throne In a splendour beyond imagining, So passing bright. But the many twisted darknesses […]
Crapulous Impression
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) (To J.S.) Still life, still life … the high-lights shine Hard and sharp on the bottles: the wine Stands firmly solid in the glasses, Smooth yellow ice, through which there passes The lamp’s bright pencil of down-struck light. The fruits metallically gleam, Globey in their heaped-up […]
Complaint Of A Poet Manqu
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) We judge by appearance merely: If I can’t think strangely, I can at least look queerly. So I grew the hair so long on my head That my mother wouldn’t know me, Till a woman in a night-club said, As I was passing by, “Hullo, here […]
By The Fire
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) We who are lovers sit by the fire, Cradled warm ‘twixt thought and will, Sit and drowse like sleeping dogs In the equipoise of all desire, Sit and listen to the still Small hiss and whisper of green logs That burn away, that burn away With […]
Books And Thoughts
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Old ghosts that death forgot to ferry Across the Lethe of the years – These are my friends, and at their tears I weep and with their mirth am merry. On a high tower, whose battlements Give me all heaven at a glance, I lie long […]
Anniversaries
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Once more the windless days are here, Quiet of autumn, when the year Halts and looks backward and draws breath Before it plunges into death. Silver of mist and gossamers, Through-shine of noonday’s glassy gold, Pale blue of skies, where nothing stirs Save one blanched leaf, […]
A Melody By Scarlatti
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) HOW clear under the trees, How softly the music flows, Rippling from one still pool to another Into the lake of silence. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External links Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry […]
A Little Memory
A poem by Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) White in the moonlight, Wet with dew, We have known the languor Of being two. We have been weary As children are, When over them, radiant, A stooping star, Bends their Good-Night, Kissed and smiled:– Each was mother, Each was child. Child, from your forehead I […]
Valhalla
by Alan J. Blaustein Valhalla by Alan J. Blaustein High on West Street walking summer day Sunlight in my face and to my right Seeing more the Hudson than the street ahead. I expected factories parking lots and bars, Nothing else than pleasant afternoon And then the wonder stopped me seized my […]
The Masks of Love
by Alden Nowlan I come in from a walk With you And they ask me If it is raining. I didn’t notice But I’ll have to give them The right answer Or they’ll think I’m crazy. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External […]
The Bull Moose
by Alden Nowlan Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar, stumbling through tamarack swamps, came the bull moose to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture. Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware there was no place left to go, […]
The Window
by Alan Noakes I raise my head slowly Old eyes peer through the glass I see the leaves gently swaying Fondly caressed, By a soft south west breeze. Rooftops baked in the sun Shadows cast, as windows Sparkle in reflection. Higher and higher I raise my gaze, The heaven a deep blue […]
So Small, So Vital
by Albert Russo Pretty coffeebean beckons the grain of rice don’t look so despondent you’re not alone remember, we’re humans’ mainstay without us most people would look distraught or die of hunger you tickle their buds and pep them up with your intoxicating aroma whilst I challenge the imagination of chefs around […]
If Only
by Alan Noakes Yes the ‘if onlys’ seem to persist for ever As hovering wraithlike used-up dreams. ‘if only ‘ this or that On such and such a day Had varied by an hour or an inch Or something neglected had been done Or that something […]
haiku
by Alan Summers all my mistakes each click of the pen the robin moves traffic jam a driver fingers the breeze through the sunroof summer wind a sparrow re-rights itself at the peanut cage the rain almost a friend this funeral snowing through the blizzard particles of me […]
Valhalla
by Alan J. Blaustein Valhalla by Alan J. Blaustein High on West Street walking summer day Sunlight in my face and to my right Seeing more the Hudson than the street ahead. I expected factories parking lots and bars, Nothing else than pleasant afternoon And then the wonder stopped me seized my […]
The Masks of Love
by Alden Nowlan I come in from a walk With you And they ask me If it is raining. I didn’t notice But I’ll have to give them The right answer Or they’ll think I’m crazy. Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: External […]
The Bull Moose
by Alden Nowlan Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar, stumbling through tamarack swamps, came the bull moose to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture. Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware there was no place left to go, […]
The Window
by Alan Noakes I raise my head slowly Old eyes peer through the glass I see the leaves gently swaying Fondly caressed, By a soft south west breeze. Rooftops baked in the sun Shadows cast, as windows Sparkle in reflection. Higher and higher I raise my gaze, The heaven a deep blue […]
So Small, So Vital
by Albert Russo Pretty coffeebean beckons the grain of rice don’t look so despondent you’re not alone remember, we’re humans’ mainstay without us most people would look distraught or die of hunger you tickle their buds and pep them up with your intoxicating aroma whilst I challenge the imagination of chefs around […]
If Only
by Alan Noakes Yes the ‘if onlys’ seem to persist for ever As hovering wraithlike used-up dreams. ‘if only ‘ this or that On such and such a day Had varied by an hour or an inch Or something neglected had been done Or that something […]
haiku
by Alan Summers all my mistakes each click of the pen the robin moves traffic jam a driver fingers the breeze through the sunroof summer wind a sparrow re-rights itself at the peanut cage the rain almost a friend this funeral snowing through the blizzard particles of me […]
A Mysterious Naked Man
by Alden Nowlan A mysterious naked man has been reported on Cranston Avenue. The police are performing the usual ceremonies with coloured lights and sirens. Almost everyone is outdoors and strangers are conversing excitedly as they do during disasters when their involvement is peripheral. ‘What did he look like? ‘ the lieutenant is […]
A Certain Kind of Holy Men
by Alden Nowlan Not every wino is a Holy Man. Oh, but some of them are. I love those who’ve learned to sit comfortably for long periods with their hams pressed against their calves, outdoors, with a wall for a back-rest, contentedly saying nothing. These move about only when necessary, on foot, and […]
A Life Story
by Albert Russo when you’re in a daze not sure whether you’re awake or still dreaming you will yourself from the farthest memories to unfurl your life then, overwhelmed you catch yourself embracing every single detail your first steps as a child yesterday’s road accident your grandfather’s smile […]