Veteran Poems
Minor Litany
by Stephen Vincent Benet
This being a time confused and with few clear stars,
Either private ones or public,
Out of its darkness I make a litany
For the lost, for the half-lost, for the desperate,
For all those who suffer, not in the flesh,
I will say their name, but not yet.
This is for those
Who talk to the bearded man in the quiet office,
Sensibly, calmly, explaining just how it was,
......
22 a Day
by Raven Quigley
They say it's 22 a day
But I don't know what the doctor would say
I am mad?
Am I delusional?
Thoughts race like horses
Trying to get to the finish line
But with no end
What if?
......
Veteran's Hospital
by Ben Belitt
Bringing "only what is needed—essential
toilet articles" in a paper bag,
dressed as for dying, one sees the dying plainly.
These are the homecomings of Agamemnon,
the odysseys to the underside of the web
that weaves and unweaves while the suitors gorge upon plenty
and the languishing sons at home unwish their warring
fathers with strong electric fingers.
The fathers are failing.
......
Before Marching and After
by Thomas Hardy
Orion swung southward aslant
Where the starved Egdon pine-trees had thinned,
The Pleiads aloft seemed to pant
With the heather that twitched in the wind;
But he looked on indifferent to sights such as these,
Unswayed by love, friendship, home joy or home sorrow,
And wondered to what he would march on the morrow.
The crazed household-clock with its whirr
Rang midnight within as he stood,
......
The Unknown
by Harry Kemp
Here, under sacred ground,
The Unknown lies:
Dumb be the earth around
And dumb the skies
Before His laureled Fame—
Yea, let sublime
Silence conduct His Name
Unspelled, till Time,
Bowed with Eternity,
Goes back to God
......
22 a Day
by Raven Quigley
They say it's 22 a day
But I don't know what the doctor would say
I am mad?
Am I delusional?
Thoughts race like horses
Trying to get to the finish line
But with no end
What if?
......
May-Night
by William Ellery Leonard
Blue are the twilight heavens above the hill,
A yellow half-moon's high within the blue,
And rosy May-night clouds are soft and still,
And all the world beside is shut from view.
The plum-trees, whitening buds and greening shoots,
Close in the dusky cottage; and beyond
The wood-thrush in the hazel-thicket flutes,
And frogs are croaking in the unseen pond.
It is the old, the odorous privacy
......
The Unknown
by Harry Kemp
Here, under sacred ground,
The Unknown lies:
Dumb be the earth around
And dumb the skies
Before His laureled Fame—
Yea, let sublime
Silence conduct His Name
Unspelled, till Time,
Bowed with Eternity,
Goes back to God
......
Before Marching and After
by Thomas Hardy
Orion swung southward aslant
Where the starved Egdon pine-trees had thinned,
The Pleiads aloft seemed to pant
With the heather that twitched in the wind;
But he looked on indifferent to sights such as these,
Unswayed by love, friendship, home joy or home sorrow,
And wondered to what he would march on the morrow.
The crazed household-clock with its whirr
Rang midnight within as he stood,
......
Minor Litany
by Stephen Vincent Benet
This being a time confused and with few clear stars,
Either private ones or public,
Out of its darkness I make a litany
For the lost, for the half-lost, for the desperate,
For all those who suffer, not in the flesh,
I will say their name, but not yet.
This is for those
Who talk to the bearded man in the quiet office,
Sensibly, calmly, explaining just how it was,
......
