Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

Kitchenette Building

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan,Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" mate, a giddy sound, not strongLike "rent", "feeding a wife"..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

The Ballad Of Rudolph Reed

Rudolph Reed was oaken.His wife was oaken too.And his two good girls and his good little manOakened as they grew."I am not hungry for berries.I am..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

The Sonnet-Ballad

Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?They took my lover's tallness off to war,Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guessWhat I can use an empty heart-cup..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

The Bean Eaters

They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.Dinner is a casual affair.Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,Tin flatware.Two who are Mostly..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

A Sunset Of The City

Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,Are gone from the house.My..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell

I hold my honey and I store my breadIn little jars and cabinets of my will.I label clearly, and each latch and lidI bid, Be firm till I return from..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

Speech To The Young : Speech To The Progress-Toward

Say to them,say to the down-keepers,the sun-slappers,the self-soilers,the harmony-hushers,"even if you are not ready for dayit cannot always be..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

Sadie And Maud

Maud went to college.Sadie stayed home.Sadie scraped lifeWith a fine toothed comb.She didn't leave a tangle inHer comb found every strand.Sadie was..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

The Crazy Woman

I shall not sing a May song.A May song should be gay.I'll wait until NovemberAnd sing a song of gray.I'll wait until NovemberThat is the time for..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

To Be In Love

To be in loveIs to touch with a lighter hand.In yourself you stretch, you are well.You look at thingsThrough his eyes.A cardinal is red.A sky is..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

The Mother

Abortions will not let you forget.You remember the children you got that you did not get,The damp small pulps with a little or with no hair,The..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

The Pool Players.Seven at the Golden Shovel.We real cool. WeLeft school. WeLurk late. WeStrike straight. WeSing sin. WeThin gin. WeJazz June. WeDie..

© Gwendolyn Brooks

At Sea

It is not through weeping,but all evening the pale blue eyeon your most photogenic side has keptits own unfathomable tide. Like the boyat the dyke I..

© Simon Armitage

Cataract Operation

The sun comes like a headthrough last night's turtleneck.A pigeon in the yard turns tailand offers me a card. Any card.From pillar to post, a..

© Simon Armitage

The Jay

I was pegging out your lime-green dress;you were hoping the last of the sunmight sip the last few beads of drip-dry waterfrom its lime-green hem.I..

© Simon Armitage

The Tyre

Just how it came to rest where it rested,miles out, miles from the last farmhouse even,was a fair question. Dropped by hurricaneor aeroplane perhaps..

© Simon Armitage

The Hard

Here on the Hard, you're welcome to pull up and stay;there's a flat fee of a quid for parking all day.And wandering over the dunes, who wouldn't..

© Simon Armitage

The Golden Toddy

We hunted, swept the planet pole to poleto capture a glimpse of that rare species.Through a thermal lens we spotted a shoal,picked up the trail of..

© Simon Armitage

It Ain't What You Do, It's What It Does To You

I have not bummed across Americawith only a dollar to spare, one pairof busted Levi's and a bowie knife.I have lived with thieves in Manchester.I..

© Simon Armitage

About His Person

Five pounds fifty in change, exactly,a library card on its date of expiry.A postcard stamped,unwritten, but franked,a pocket size diary slashed with..

© Simon Armitage

Poem

And if it snowed and snow covered the drivehe took a spade and tossed it to one side.And always tucked his daughter up at nightAnd slippered her the..

© Simon Armitage

I Say I Say I Say

Anyone here had a go at themselvesfor a laugh? Anyone opened their wristswith a blade in the bath? Those in the darkat the back, listen hard. Those..

© Simon Armitage

I Am Very Bothered

I am very bothered when I thinkof the bad things I have done in my life.Not least that time in the chemistry labwhen I held a pair of scissors by the..

© Simon Armitage

Understanding

When I was young and frivolous and never stopped to think,When I was always doing wrong, or just upon the brink;When I was just a lad of seven and..

© Edgar Albert Guest

The Price Of Joy

You don't begrudge the labor when the roses start to bloom;You don't recall the dreary days that won you their perfume;You don't recall a single..

© Edgar Albert Guest