She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
She Walks in Beauty - Lord Byron
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
Discretion is the better part of Valerie
(though all of her is nice)
lips as warm as strawberries
eyes as cold as ice
the very best of everything
only will suffice
not for her potatoes
and puddings made of rice
Not for her potatoes
and puddings made of rice
she takes carbohydrates
like God takes advice
a surfeit of ambition
is her particular vice
Valerie fondles lovers
like a mousetrap fondles mice
And though in the morning
she may whisper: "it was nice"
you can tell by her demeanour
that she keeps her love on ice
but you've lost your hard-earned heart
now you'll have to pay the price
for she'll kiss you on the memory
and vanish in a trice
Valerie is corruptible
but known to be discreet
Valerie rides a silver cloud
where once she walked the street.
Discretion - Roger McGough
but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply
'What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, And Where, And Why' by Edna St Vincent Millay
...it was nearly done, this frail
travelling coincidence; and what it held
stood ready to be loosed with all the power
that being changed can give
'The Whitsun Weddings' by Philip Larkin
The Raincoat
by Ada Limón
When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say, even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.
I'M NOBODY! WHO ARE YOU? Emily Dickinson
I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog
Flowers by the road side.
Flowers by the road side and flowers on one more grave
Someone driving carelessly with another life taken away
Drinking and drugs causing those heartaches for those left behind
And yet day after day there still appears that craziness forever all the time
So another glass of whisky and then taking some kind of drug unknown
And then getting behind the car wheel while in their mind totally stoned
And then showing off to a friend or two-and more drinks in the car
Travelling too fast around every sharp corner-but not getting very far
For two young lovers were out walking-and suddenly their lives became none
So all that drinking, drugs and driving didn’t turn out to be much fun
Because two more lives were now over-and they were only in their teens
And now for those teenage lovers-the end became their only dream
Because through stupidity of that driver-so high on drugs and drink
Two more lives were taken away-because that driver just did not think.
So another two families now suffer without their daughter and their son
Because of another stupid driver who thought drink and drugs would be fun
And there is no real justice-no matter how many lives have come to end
Stop drinking and taking all those drugs before you kill again.
Do not use Rod
