Peace Poems
The River
by Sara Teasdale
I came from the sunny valleys
And sought for the open sea,
For I thought in its gray expanses
My peace would come to me.
I came at last to the ocean
And found it wild and black,
And I cried to the windless valleys,
"Be kind and take me back!"
......
The Music Swells
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Edna Morris lived in the town of Shadow Fells, in rich green, hilly country,
With doting parents and sister Violet, plucking fruit from their plum tree.
Pretty Edna was twelve years old, but she and Violet played all seasons,
Making skinny scarecrows and fat snowmen, like blizzards of no reason.
Horses were a common sight in the area, like the pastel beauty of dawn.
The Morrises had yet to aquire one, like black velvet, once moon is gone.
Flexible friends frolicked with Violet and Edna, like thrills of the first fall;
......
A Red Palm
by Gary Soto
You're in this dream of cotton plants.
You raise a hoe, swing, and the first weeds
Fall with a sigh. You take another step,
Chop, and the sigh comes again,
Until you yourself are breathing that way
With each step, a sigh that will follow you into town.
That's hours later. The sun is a red blister
Coming up in your palm. Your back is strong,
Young, not yet the broken chair
......
1914 V: The Soldier
by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
......
Speak Gently
by David Bates
Speak gently! -- It is better far
To rule by love, than fear --
Speak gently -- let not harsh words mar
The good we might do here!
Speak gently! -- Love doth whisper low
The vows that true hearts bind;
And gently Friendship's accents flow;
Affection's voice is kind.
......
The Music Swells
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Edna Morris lived in the town of Shadow Fells, in rich green, hilly country,
With doting parents and sister Violet, plucking fruit from their plum tree.
Pretty Edna was twelve years old, but she and Violet played all seasons,
Making skinny scarecrows and fat snowmen, like blizzards of no reason.
Horses were a common sight in the area, like the pastel beauty of dawn.
The Morrises had yet to aquire one, like black velvet, once moon is gone.
Flexible friends frolicked with Violet and Edna, like thrills of the first fall;
......
You're My Deep Breath
by Frangipani Rhett
Today my child slammed the door too hard
And I took a deep breath and thought of you
You set the standard for how to show love
And so I shifted towards compassion
Last Sunday I met up with a friend for coffee
And she talked for so long, I got bored
I took a deep breath and thought of you
And remembered the presence you gave me
......
Violet Sundance
by Kirsten Sanders
Amid the vestiges of indigo nocturne,
The sky reverberates with anticipation.
The gradual rhythm of light
Breathes order and motion
Under the receding cloak
Of the once reigning night.
A solar sliver slips:
Belly to the horizon,
......
Little Brown Bottle
by Alexander Palmer
heaven sent, arrhythmia rests
silence from my aching chest
though there's no tombstone where I sleep
all I need is what I reap
the earth beneath my fingernails
bleeds into the soil of verdant hills.
my skin a canvas, often wasted
on trifles better left to rot
now blooms violet among the wakeless
......
Magnolia
by T. Caddy
Sitting under the magnolia tree in late summer
The sky is a luminous crackle of varnish on an ancient vase.
I am staring up, staring through a creature’s veins,
innumerable shades of verdant gold
sap rushing into and out of cells,
botanical respiration humming
on just the other side
of sight and sound.
The tree says nothing
and I say nothing.
......
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Frances Ellen Wat Harper (14 poems about Peace)
24 September 1825 – 22 February 1911 / Baltimore, Maryland -
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