A man said to the universe: by Stephen Crane
A man said to the universe: “Sir I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.” ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the […]
A man feared that he might find an assassin by Stephen Crane
A man feared that he might find an assassin; Another that he might find a victim. One was more wise than the other. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository of world poetry. Poetry Monster — the multilingual […]
A little ink more or less! by Stephen Crane
A little ink more or less! I surely can’t matter? Even the sky and the opulent sea, The plains and the hills, aloof, Hear the uproar of all these books. But it is only a little ink more or less. What? You define me God with these trinkets? Can my misery meal on an ordered […]
A god in wrath by Stephen Crane
A god in wrath Was beating a man; He cuffed him loudly With thunderous blows That rang and rolled over the earth. All people came running. The man screamed and struggled, And bit madly at the feet of the god. The people cried, “Ah, what a wicked man!” And — “Ah, what a redoubtable god!” […]
Charity thou art a lie, by Stephen Crane
Charity thou art a lie, A toy of women, A pleasure of certain men. In the presence of justice, Lo, the walls of the temple Are visible Through thy form of sudden shadows. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the […]
Blustering God by Stephen Crane
i Blustering God, Stamping across the sky With loud swagger, I fear You not. No, though from Your highest heaven You plunge Your spear at my heart, I fear You not. No, not if the blow Is as the lightning blasting a tree, I fear You not, puffing braggart. ii If Thou canst see into […]
Black riders came from the sea. by Stephen Crane
Black riders came from the sea. There was clang and clang of spear and shield, And clash and clash of hoof and heel, Wild shouts and the wave of hair In the rush upon the wind: Thus the ride of sin. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems […]
Behold, from the land of the farther suns by Stephen Crane
Behold, from the land of the farther suns I returned. And I was in a reptile-swarming place, Peopled, otherwise, with grimaces, Shrouded above in black impenetrableness. I shrank, loathing, Sick with it. And I said to him, “What is this?” He made answer slowly, “Spirit, this is a world; This was your home.” ————— The […]
A youth in apparel that glittered by Stephen Crane
A youth in apparel that glittered Went to walk in a grim forest. There he met an assassin Attired all in garb of old days; He, scowling through the thickets, And dagger poised quivering, Rushed upon the youth. “Sir,” said this latter, “I am enchanted, believe me, To die, thus, In this medieval fashion, According […]
A spirit sped by Stephen Crane
A spirit sped Through spaces of night; And as he sped, he called, “God! God!” He went through valleys Of black death-slime, Ever calling, “God! God!” Their echoes From crevice and cavern Mocked him: “God! God! God!” Fleetly into the plains of space He went, ever calling, “God! God!” Eventually, then, he screamed, Mad in […]
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices by Stephen Crane
A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile, Spreads its curious opinion To a million merciful and sneering men, While families cuddle the joys of the fireside When spurred by tale of dire lone agony. A newspaper is a court Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried […]
With No Experience In Such Matters by Stephen Dunn
With No Experience In Such Matters by Stephen Dunn To hold a damaged sparrow under water until you feel it die is to know a small something about the mind; how, for example, it blames the cat for the original crime, how it wants praise for its better side. And yet it’s as human as […]
Welcome by Stephen Dunn
Welcome by Stephen Dunn if you believe nothing is always what’s left after a while, as I did, If you believe you have this collection of ungiven gifts, as I do (right here behind the silence and the averted eyes) If you believe an afternoon can collapse into strange privacies- how in your backyard, for […]
The Sudden Light And The Trees by Stephen Dunn
The Sudden Light And The Trees by Stephen Dunn My neighbor was a biker, a pusher, a dog and wife beater. In bad dreams I killed him and once, in the consequential light of day, I called the Humane Society about Blue, his dog. They took her away and I readied myself, a baseball bat […]
Story by Stephen Dunn
Story by Stephen Dunn A woman’s taking her late-afternoon walk on Chestnut where no sidewalk exists and houses with gravel driveways sit back among the pines. Only the house with the vicious dog is close to the road. An electric fence keeps him in check. When she comes to that house, the woman always crosses […]
Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn
Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn This is not the way I am. Really, I am much taller in person, the hairline I conceal reaches back to my grandfather, and the shyness my wife will not believe in has always been why I was bold on first dates. My father a crack salesman. […]
The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet (A Pharaoh Speaks.) I said, “Why should a pyramid Stand always dully on its base? I’ll change it! Let the top be hid, The bottom take the apex-place!” And as I bade they did. The people flocked in, scores on scores, To see it balance on its tip. They […]
The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet
The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet “Ah, did you once see Shelley plain?” — Browning. “Shelley? Oh, yes, I saw him often then,” The old man said. A dry smile creased his face With many wrinkles. “That’s a great poem, now! That one of Browning’s! Shelley? Shelley plain? The time that I remember best […]
The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet Gods, what a black, fierce day! The clouds were iron, Wrenched to strange, rugged shapes; the red sun winked Over the rough crest of the hairy wood In angry scorn; the grey road twisted, kinked, Like a sick serpent, seeming to environ The trees with magic. All the […]
The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet
The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet It was not when temptation came, Swiftly and blastingly as flame, And seared me white with burning scars; When I stood up for age-long wars And held the very Fiend at grips; When all my mutinous body rose To range itself beside my foes, And, like a greyhound […]
Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet
Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet Tobacco smoke drifts up to the dim ceiling From half a dozen pipes and cigarettes, Curling in endless shapes, in blue rings wheeling, As formless as our talk. Phil, drawling, bets Cornell will win the relay in a walk, While Bob and Mac discuss the Giants’ chances; Deep in a […]
Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet
Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet I shall go away To the brown hills, the quiet ones, The vast, the mountainous, the rolling, Sun-fired and drowsy! My horse snuffs delicately At the strange wind; He settles to a swinging trot; his hoofs tramp the dust. The road winds, straightens, Slashes a marsh, Shoulders out […]
Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet
Rain After a Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benet The last pose flickered, failed. The screen’s dead white Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light Stabbing the eyes; and as I stumbled out The curtain rose. A fat girl with a pout And legs like hams, began to sing “His Mother”. Gusts of bad […]
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet After the whipping he crawled into bed, Accepting the harsh fact with no great weeping. How funny uncle’s hat had looked striped red! He chuckled silently. The moon came, sweeping A black, frayed rag of tattered cloud before In scorning; very pure and pale she seemed, Flooding […]
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet
Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benet He lay within a warm, soft world Of motion. Colors bloomed and fled, Maroon and turquoise, saffron, red, Wave upon wave that broke and whirled To vanish in the grey-green gloom, Perspectiveless and shadowy. A bulging world that had no walls, A flowing world, most like the […]
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet
Music by Stephen Vincent Benet My friend went to the piano; spun the stool A little higher; left his pipe to cool; Picked up a fat green volume from the chest; And propped it open. Whitely without rest, His fingers swept the keys that flashed like swords, . . . And to the brute drums […]
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet
May Morning by Stephen Vincent Benet I lie stretched out upon the window-seat And doze, and read a page or two, and doze, And feel the air like water on me close, Great waves of sunny air that lip and beat With a small noise, monotonous and sweet, Against the window — and the scent […]
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet
Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet There were not many at that lonely place, Where two scourged hills met in a little plain. The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again. Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race Unseen by any. Toward the further woods A dim harsh noise of voices rose and […]
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet
Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benet Here, where men’s eyes were empty and as bright As the blank windows set in glaring brick, When the wind strengthens from the sea — and night Drops like a fog and makes the breath come thick; By the deserted paths, the vacant halls, One may […]
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet
Elegy for an Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benet (For G. H.) Say, does that stupid earth Where they have laid her, Bind still her sullen mirth, Mirth which betrayed her? Do the lush grasses hold, Greenly and glad, That brittle-perfect gold She alone had? Smugly the common crew, Over their knitting, Mourn her — as […]
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room by Stephen Vincent Benet Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn, Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars; Strange entrees with a jangle of glass bars Fantastically alive with subtle scorn; Fish, by a plopping, gurgling rush of waters, Clear, vibrant waters, beautifully austere; Roast, with a […]
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet
Dedication by Stephen Vincent Benet To W. R. B. And so, to you, who always were Perseus, D’Artagnan, Lancelot To me, I give these weedy rhymes In memory of earlier times. Now all those careless days are not. Of all my heroes, you endure. Words are such silly things! too rough, Too smooth, they boil […]
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet
Colors by Stephen Vincent Benet (For D. M. C.) The little man with the vague beard and guise Pulled at the wicket. “Come inside!” he said, “I’ll show you all we’ve got now — it was size You wanted? — oh, dry colors! Well” — he led To a dim alley lined with musty bins, […]
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet
Before an Examination by Stephen Vincent Benet The little letters dance across the page, Flaunt and retire, and trick the tired eyes; Sick of the strain, the glaring light, I rise Yawning and stretching, full of empty rage At the dull maunderings of a long dead sage, Fling up the windows, fling aside his lies; […]
The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit
The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. An adjective is what describes the noun. In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz” of and with are prepositions. The’s an article, a can’s a noun, a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does. […]
The Convoy by Stephenie Tucker
All goes dark, first sound, then sight. I look to see my men alright. Deafening silence in concrete rain, Distract me from the searing pain. All time stops and vantage ends, As I look upon my dying friends. Radio in and evac out, No time for tears between the shouts. Between the blood and shrapnel […]
Resolute by Stephenie Tucker
The men were dead, their lives, long gone. And yet, their cause still lingered on. The banners wavered in the breeze, through borderlands of ship less seas. And now Apollo shall rise once more, to ferry souls to whitened shores. Now red shall rise the yellow sun, and end at last what we have done. […]
Numb by Stephenie Tucker
The door kicked in the dust relayed, The area secure and stayed. No longer taking time for peace, Within myself, it’s out of reach. No more time spent to say goodbyes, No more tears left for me to cry. I do my job and stay detached, Don’t even care if I come back. They call […]
Must Work by Steve Downes
Must write must write must work must work minimum wage or better can’t be too physical got a bad back can’t be too stressful bend under pressure can’t be too sexual haven’t got the legs Must write must write must work must work minimum wage or better can’t work for corporate I’m an anarchist can’t […]
Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant
Lifetime Of Death by Steve Sant A Lifetime Of Death The broken feeling you learn it young You must for it’s certainty true No hysterical fits just stiff upper lips We are British and that’s what we do So when I was but five and my grandfather died And old aunts wept silent tears I […]