Evening. Anchoring at Hsuan-yang to See Mount Lu - Meng Hao-jan

Lofting sail a thousand miles
I could not find a famous mountain.

Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room - Stephen Vincent Benét

Soup should be heralded with a mellow horn,
Blowing clear notes of gold against the stars;

There is no god, the wicked sayeth - Arthur Hugh Clough

"There is no God," the wicked saith,
      "And truly it's a blessing,
For what He might have done with us
      It's better only guessing."

Moon over Mountain Pass - Li Bai

All the birds have flown up and gone;
A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.
We never tire of looking at each other -
Only the mountain and I.

Three variants - Boris Pasternak

          1

When  in front of you hangs the day with its
Smallest detail-fine or crude-
The intensely hot cracking squirrel-sounds
Do not cease in the resinous wood.

The Leak in the Dike - Phoebe Cary

The good dame looked from her cottage
At the close of the pleasant day,
And cheerily called to her little son
Outside the door at play:
"Come, Peter! come! I want you to go,
While there is still light to see,
To the hut of the blind old man who lives
Across the dike, for me;
And take these cakes I made for him—
They are hot and smoking yet;
You have time enough to go and come
Before the sun has set."

The Last Reservation - Walter Learned

Sullen and dull, in the September day,
On the bank of the river,
They waited the boat that should bear them away
From their poor homes forever.

The Spider and the Fly - Mary Howitt

Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

Spiders - Christy Birmingham

Spider Legs

My fingers move across the keyboard like spider legs,

Poetry - Eleanor Farjeon

What is Poetry? Who Knows?

Nightfall in the Tropics - Rubén Darío

Here is twilight grey and gloomy
Where the sea its velvet trails;
Out across the heavens roomy
Draw the veils.

To A Lady Asking Him How Long He Would Love Her - Sir George Etherege

It is not, Celia, in our power
  To say how long our love will last;
It may be we within this hour
  May lose those joys we now do taste;
The Blessèd, that immortal be,
From change in love are only free.

Rivers - Ch'on Sang-pyong

The way rivers all flow into the sea
is not the only reason I've been weeping
all day long
up on the hill.

The Genesis of the Butterfly - Victor Hugo

The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers
The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers

Confessio Amantis (Prologue: Motivation and Intent) - John Gower

Of those who wrote before our lives
Their precious legacy survives;

Window song - Nancy Shores

There's a ship lying in and I'd like to be aboard her.
They're loading her with iron rails and cargo for the South.
The water-line is rising with the iron that they're loading,
Down at the docks just inside the harbour mouth.

Cloak of Laughter - Abigail Cresson

I wear a cloak of laughter
Lest anyone should see
My dress of sorrow underneath
And stop to pity me.

Christel - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My senses ofttimes are oppress'd,

Initiation - A W Schack von Staffeldt

I sat far out on the sound’s still shore,
The skies were smiling;
And filled with longing I gazed down o’er
The waves beguiling.
The sun slipped into the sea’s embrace,
The coast and sky joined in blushing grace.

No wine for me! - Agathias Scholasticus

No wine for me! — Nay, an it be thy will,
Kiss first the goblet — I will drink my fill:

Ghazal 85 - Hafez

We couldn't taste his lips before he left.
His light-filled moon face shone no more. He left.

Your pilgrimage - Ko Un

A slower pace, a somewhat slower pace will do.
Of a sudden, should it start to rain,
let yourself get soaked.
An old friend, the rain.

Huron Carol - Jean de Brébeuf

'Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

I Absorbed - Celia Dropkin

I absorbed the sky,
the woods of my old home.

Now These Objects Will Move by Themselves - Hsia Yü

Every time you get to thinking this time doesn't count
Every time you come to feel this here and now isn't real
The sound of silk ripping in the air
You run inside as fast you can
Hide yourself

I Have Loved Hours at Sea - Sarah Teasdale

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
The fragile secret of a flower,
Music, the making of a poem
That gave me heaven for an hour;

Do not ask my love - Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Do not ask, my love, for the love we had before:
You existed, I told myself, so all existence shone,
Grief for me was you; the world?s grief was far.

The Sound of Autumn - Lưu Trọng Lư

Did you hear this season of fall
Sobbing in the dimming moonlight?
Did you hear at all the stirrings
For the image of the war knight
Of his lonely wife's strained heartstrings?

We dreamed of restoration - Bruce Levitan

We dreamed of restoration
When laughter fills our ears,
When songs of joy and praise ring out
And cancel all the tears.