My Book of Poetry and Quotations
Hi there! I see you have decided to check out my poetry and quotes page. I have a few poems and quotes here that I have found that I particularily like. The authors are diverse, just as we are as humans. Enjoy the words that follow. If any of the following should not be on here, please let me know. I don't want to step on anyone's toes.
My son's favorite poet is Langston Hughes. The following are his poems:
FREEDOM
Freedom will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.
I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my own two feet
And own the land.
I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course,
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
Freedom
is a strong seed
Planted
in a great need.
I live here too.
I want freedom
Just as you.
I, TOO
I, Too, Sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to some,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, Too, am America.
PEACE
We passed their graves:
The dead men there,
Winners or losers,
Did not care.
In the dark
They could not see
Who had gained
The victory.
Some more of my son's favorites are:
Part of Chief Seattle's Speech, 1854
This we know
the earth does not
belong to man--
man belongs to the earth.
All things are connected,
like blood which
connects one family.
Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the children of
the earth--
Man did not weave the
web of life--
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web
he does to himself.
From Stephen Crane, we get:
THINK AS I THINK
"Think as I think" said a man,
"Or you are abominally wicked;
You are a toad."
And after I had thought of it,
I said "I will, then, be a toad."
From Sue Weaver we get the quote:
Neither rich nor famous,
yet I count myself successful.
For I am walking the path
I was created for.
Some of my personal favorites...
QUIET THINGS
A baby's quiet slumbering,
A dancing cloud above,
A friendly smile across the room
And quiet things I love.
When friends are true they need not speak
Each minute they are near
For quiet times when shared by friends
Are meaningful and dear.
An unborn infant's silent voice,
The calm of nesting doves,
A tear of joy, a handshake firm
Are quiet things I love.
A lazy snow that covers all,
A hand to guide the way
When footsteps falter in their goal,
All know the quiet way.
I thank my God for quiet things
Which come to bless the day
With gentle peace and harmony,
Each in its special way.
---author unknown
SOMEONE SPECIAL
There's someone very special
I found along the way,
Who know my deep affection,
The words I do not say.
How changed would be the story
Without this someone dear,
Who shares my hopes, my dreaming,
Who laughs away a tear.
Companionship so priceless
And understanding, too.
Who is this someone special?
My child, it is you.
---author unknown
The Time is Now
If you are ever going to love me,
Love me now,
while I can know the sweet and tender feelings
which from true affection flow.
Love me now while I am living.
Do not wait until I'm gone.
And then have it chiseled in marble,
sweet words on ice cold stone.
If you have tender thoughts of me
please tell me now.
If you wait until I am sleeping, never to awaken,
there will be death between us,
and I won't hear you then.
So, if you love me,
even a little bit,
let me know it while I am living,
so I can treasure it.
---author unknown
I AM
I am: yet what I am none cares or knows
My friends forsake me like a memory lost,
I am the self-consumer of my woes--
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love's frenzied, stifled throes--
And yet I am, and live--like vapors tossed
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
Even the dearest, that I love the best,
Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes, where man hath never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept-
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling, and untroubled where I lie,
The grass below--above the vaulted sky.
John Clare
