SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,
The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,
The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,
The hill-side whiten'd with blossoms of the mountain ash,
The same, late in autumn--the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and
light and dark green,
The rich coverlid of the grass--animals and birds--the private
untrimm'd bank--the primitive apples--the pebble-stones,
Beautiful dripping fragments--the negligent list of one after
another, as I happen to call them to me, or think of them,
......
BOOK FIRST.
I.
ALL valor died not on the plains of Troy.
Awake, my Muse, awake! be thine the joy
To sing of deeds as dauntless and as brave
As e'er lent luster to a warrior's grave.
Sing of that noble soldier, nobler man,
Dear to the heart of each American.
......
Oh, I know a certain lady who is reckoned with the good,
Yet she fills me with more terror than a raging lion would.
The little chills run up and down my spine whene’er we meet,
Though she seems a gentle creature, and she’s very trim and neat.
And she has a thousand virtues and not one acknowledged sin,
But she is the sort of person you could liken to a pin.
And she pricks you and she sticks you in a way that can’t be said.
If you seek for what has hurt you – why, you cannot find the head.
......
Changed? Yes, I will confess it – I have changed.
I do not love you in the old fond way.
I am your friend still – time has not estranged
One kindly feeling of that vanished day.
But the bright glamour which made life a dream,
The rapture of that time, its sweet content,
Like visions of a sleeper’s brain they seem –
And yet I cannot tell you how they went.
......
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream- -and not make dreams your master;
......
Albert Nelson's father bought a huge clock, the very day he was born,
A happy fellow, with a winsome smile. Like the merry pink sun, at dawn.
Being too tall for the shelf, it stood inside their foyer, for ninety years,
Without the penchant to be slumbering. Tick, tock, tick-joys and tears!
Albert loved to watch its pendulum swing, when he was a young boy.
Like gazing at rich black skies, and loving the champagne, starlight joy.
Fish and frogs frolicked during the fruitful friendships of Albert's youth;
......
I don’t need a hundred hands
Clapping when I speak.
I just need one
That stays
When I don’t say anything.
I’ve seen friends.
They come with noise,
With photos taken just to be posted,
With promises thrown
......
Polly Pleasance was seven years old, like the decade soon is going;
She had so many pretty dollies, like deep purple pansies, showing.
Polly took care of her dear friends, for love's always taken seriously;
Buying doll clothes with her allowance, like night, adorned deliriously!
They were admired, and the envy of friends. She had so many dolls!
As magenta shimmers in twilit moonlight, whilst blue earth revolves.
Polly still believed in fairytales and magic, like many others her age;
......
LET GO (Song )
Let go of multi-coloured cloaks
of roaming rage, of gloat
see frothy waves let go
wild, naked...just so, just so
Mountains watch our fields of
......
Velveteen Rabbit:
left forgotten on the floor,
overlooked, shy, sawdust-made,
snubbed by the grand and mechanical,
a world of prideful toys,
and absent understanding.
Timothy, the wooden lion,
boasts of his noble ties,
the painted boat speaks
......