In A New Night - Paul Éluard

Woman I’ve lived with
Woman I live with
Woman I’ll live with

Man forgets - Sri Chinmoy

Man forgets. God forgives.
Man forgets God's Truth. God forgives man's ignorance.

from: The Nymph of the Luo River - Cao Zhi

All at once she straightens herself
Skipping this way and that.

Of Work and Wealth - Masolino da Todi

A man should hold in very dear esteem
    The first possession that his labours gain'd;
    For, though great riches be at length attain'd,
From that first mite they were increased to him.

No one can please forever - Zhang Hua

No one can please forever; affection cannot be for one alone;
if it be so, it will one day end in disgust.

Blessings - Katharine Tynan

God bless the little orchard brown
Where the sap stirs these quickening days.
Soon in a white and rosy gown
The trees will give great praise.

A Farmhouse on the Wei River - Wang Wei

In the slant of the sun on the country-side,
Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;

How can someone separate you from me - Bihari Lal

How can someone separate you from me: your soul from mine?

The Shining Hours (XXI) - Emile Verhaeren

In hours like these, when through our dream of bliss
So far from all things not ourselves we move,
What lustral blood, what baptism is this
That bathes our hearts, straining toward perfect love?

Le Cimetière Marin - Paul Valéry

The sail of doves this tranquil roof assumes
palpitates through pines trees and the tombs.
Imperturbable midday, of fire
and sea, the sea beginning each occasion
to bring such riches in from contemplation:
great settlements of calm the gods inspire.

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower - Johann Scheffler

Thee will I love, my strength, my tower;
Thee will I love, my hope, my joy;
Thee will I love with all my power,
With ardour time will ne’er destroy.
Thee will I love, O light divine,
So long as life is mine.

I am the tree... - Dennis Vincent Brutus

I am the tree
creaking in the wind
outside in the night
twisted and stubborn:

The Factory Girl - John Arthur Phillips

She wasn't the least bit pretty,
And only the least bit gay;
And she walked with a firm elastic tread,
In a business-like kind of way.
Her dress was of coarse, brown woollen,
Plainly but neatly made,
Trimmed with some common ribbon
Or cheaper kind of braid;
And a hat with a broken feather,
And shawl of a modest plaid.

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains - Jalal al-Din Rumi

Hearken to the reed-flute, how it complains,
Lamenting its banishment from its home:—

Taste - Caasha Lul Mohamud Yusuf

If this poem isn't free of flaws or clunkiness,
if it contains disharmony or defects,
if it doesn't illuminate what's hidden
and isn't used to staunch old injuries,
its verses won't nourish, are a withered breast.
Let me recite this with spirit. It's night; it's time.

The Poem’s Gift - Stéphane Mallarmé

I bring you the child of an Idumean night!
Black, with pale naked bleeding wings, Light
Through the glass, burnished with gold and spice,

Sheep - W.H. Davies

When I was once in Baltimore
A man came up to me and cried,
"Come, I have eighteen hundred sheep,
And we will sail on Tuesday's tide.

Vondel's Lucifer (Act I, lines 1-26) - Joost van den Vondel

Belzebub:
My Belial hence hath sped on aery wings
To see where lingers our Apollion,

The Prayer of the Giraffe - Carmen Bernos de Gasztold

Lord,
I who see the world from above
find it hard to get used to its pettiness.

Wullie Waggletail - William Soutar

Wee wullie waggletail, what is a’ your stishie?
Tak a sowp o’ water and coorie on a stane:

Paris Latin Quarter - Femi Osofisan

Sweet Marie-Anne, she thought
Being French, intellectual and brunette

Entitled her, in any Parisian cafe
To prompt service—and she was

Namibia - Dorian Haarhoff

wild west land
holster in the hip of Africa
strung on the studded belt of Capricorn.

To be read in the morning and at night - Bertold Brecht

My love
Has told me
That he needs me.

I Have Forsworn You - Anne Ranasinghe

I have forsworn you, closed all memory;
I work and eat, listen to music, sleep,
Walk in the garden, watch the changing moon
Pretending that I have no need of you.