Short Poems

The fragments were trying to huddle into one.
The cracks were trying to smile again.
The gun barrel was trying to rise, to sit again on the gun carriage.
All were dreaming of their fragile original shape.
With each wind, they were buried further in the sand.
Invisible ocean — bird of passage flashes.

For sport my Julia threw a Lace
Of silke and silver at my face:
Watchet the silke was; and did make
A shew, as if't'ad been a snake:
The suddenness did me affright;
But though it scar'd, it did not bite.

Fone sayes, those mighty whiskers he do's weare,
Are twigs of Birch, and willow, growing there:
If so, we'll think too, (when he do's condemne
Boyes to the lash) that he do's whip with them.

From house to house he goes,
A messenger small and slight;
And whether it rains or snows,
He sleeps outside in the night.

From falsehood and error,
From darkness and terror,
From all that is evil,
From the power of the devil,
From the fire and the doom,
From the judgement to come —
Sweet J ESU , deliver
Thy servants for ever.

From a little seed
A flower grows.
From a little flower
A fragrance blows —
A little fragrance
That's wafted to me
As I lie in the shade
Of the chestnut tree.

Friend sparrow, do not eat, I pray
The little buzzing flies that play
Among my flowers.

Why should my heart
remain stained
by blossoms,
when I thought
I had tossed all that away?

Friend Col and I, both full of whim,
To shun each other oft agree;
For I'm not beau enough for him,
And he's too much a beau for me.
Then let us from each other fly,
And arm in arm no more appear;
That I may ne'er offend your eye,
That you may ne'er offend my ear.

Framed in the cavernous fire-place sits a boy,
Watching the embers from his grandsire's knee:
One sees red castles rise, and laughs with joy;
The other marks them crumble, silently.