The Collection....
This is the part of the webpage I've been telling
everybody about. I've been paging people at random on Powwow
and asking if they had any poetry I could use, I've been
begging friends and e-mail pals to send me stuff, I've
been scouring my room for things I've written down in the past--and now here it all is.
This collection consists of published and unpublished
poems, verses (and quotes), by well known and amateur
authors. I
have given credit wherever possible. Any use of these works without
consent from the authors, is strictly prohibited. (so there).
If you have comments or fan mail for any of the available authors,
you can
e-mail them by clicking on their name at the bottom of the piece.
Also if you have something you wrote, or a cool quote, that you'd
like to offer for this page, then more power to ya--send it on down!
You'll get credit and everything!
But anyways, this is all stuff that personally rang my
chimes, so I hope you enjoy it.
"Warning"
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
with a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me
and I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin sandals, and say we have no money for butter.
And I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick flowers in other people's gardens.
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow fat
and eat three pounds of sausage at a go
or only eat bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens & pencils & beermats & things in boxes.
But meanwhile we must stay respectable
and must not shame the children: they mind more,
even than we do, being noticeable.
We will keep dry with sensible clothes and spend
according to good value, and do what's best
to bring the best for us and for our children.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
when suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
--Jenny Joseph
Partings.
Your sharpest twang shall not outsing
The unsuspecting pitch of birds.
Deliver her from shades of night,
Protect her from the waking light!
Yet who shall quail before the snake
Which coiling on the midday path
Itself will cease, beneath the reaping moon
Will yield to scythings by and by?
And who shall hold the tiny rain
Or compass round the nimble breeze?
The rivers freeze and none may seize
The darting fish unseen, below.
(C) 1990 By Grant Robinson
"Untitled"
Today is a rainfall
a lush garden of tangled flowers
a waterfall from the heavens
A lone flute
echoing
Silent
(C) 1997 Stacey Clark
"Reality is only a collective hunch"
--Woody Allen
"Ode To My Perfect Friend"
I wish that
For once
The world would
Come crashing
Down around
Your ankles
And you would
Actually
Bat an eye.
(C) 1997 Alison Hughey
"I'm a marvelous housekeeper! Every time I leave a man,
I keep his house..."
--Zsa Zsa Gabor
I Can Remember
I can remember
The lime popsicle summers
With the smell of the sun
And the fresh mowed grass
(so cool to the naked feet)
When ants and woodbugs
Were our sole enemies;
The pleasure
We created by building
Cowboy forts in the backyard
With old sheets and stolen clothespins.
I can remember
when buttercups
(outside the basement windows)
Were more precious than
Roses or gold
When skinned knees and bruises and mosquito bites
Were competed for
(the winner was greatly admired)
When the twelve year old
Around the corner was an adult
To be respected
And a quarter was a small fortune.
I can remember
That sad September
With stiffly starched dresses
And shiny brown oxfords
(soft pink erasers and
sharp orange pencils)
Grade Primary
The adult world entered
When we were taught not to be children
At the age of five.
(C) 1996 Marcia David
"Men [people] are like steel.
When they lose their temper, they lose their worth."
--Chuck Norris
change of season
once upon a time/in
fall, a wolf stood
on its hind legs to kiss a bird.
they swayed in this unreason-
able--unlikely--embrace
through winter, come spring,
the little bird still stiff
from cold, watched with glassy eyes:
the wolf
off to find a summer pack.
(C) 1991, from "Dark Diaspora...in dub"
"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are as dull as night,
and his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted...."
--Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice
"Two Cats"
Biscuit and Bleuette ate suet.
They did not bother to chew it.
It came up intact
As a matter of fact,
On the rug. I don't know how they do it.
(C) 1997 Fred Schueler, PhD.
"A Christmas Poem"
OH! The joys of the Holiday Season.
For shopping, the only good reason.
A present for each boy and girl,
and fruitcake until we could hurl.
Smelling turkey a mile away,
with leftovers 'till Valentine's Day.
Good eating, it's true, for your family and you,
but leftover cranberry sauce turns nasty on you after about a week
in the fridge,
so they say.
(C) 1996 Nancy Shaw (yeah, it's me)
"In times of change, learners inherit the earth
while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no
longer exists."
- Eric Hoffer
"Success"
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent
people and affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest
critics and endure the betrayal
of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the
best in others; to leave the world
a little bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Law of Cybernetic Entomology:
There's always one more bug.
--Pat Hartson
"When you're young, you want to be the master of
your fate and the capatain of your soul. When you're older,
you'll settle for the being master of your weight and the
captain of your bowling team."
--Parts Pups
"Ever notice how we spend the first 18 months of our
lives being told to stand up and talk, and the next 18 years
being told to sit down and listen?"
--Jim Heffelfinger
"Will-Chill Factor"
To crimson the toes,
numb the nose,
inspire a quiver,
shiver the liver,
summon a sneeze,
or freeze the knees,
nothing we know
does it like snow.
--(C) 1996 Constance Brancato
"The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed
in battle."
--Warrior's Motto
Cree Prophecy:
After the last tree has been cut down,
After the last river has been poisoned,
After the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that money
cannot be eaten.
"I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific."
--Lily Tomlin