Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know. If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so. There … Continue reading ‘If I could tell you’ by Wystan Hugh Auden
In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. Speech is born out of longing, True description from the real taste. The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies. How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out? And in whose being you still exist? And who … Continue reading ‘Reality’ by Rabia al-Basri
I take a jewel from a junk-shop tray And wish I had a love to buy it for. Nothing I choose will make you turn my way. Nothing I give will make you love me more. I know that I’ve embarrassed you too long And I’m ashamed to linger at your door. Whatever I embark … Continue reading ‘Nothing’ by James Fenton
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending … Continue reading ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth
Unbreakable, O Lord, Is the love That binds me to You: Like a diamond, It breaks the hammer that strikes it. My heart goes into You As the polish goes into the gold. As the lotus lives in its water, I live in You. Like the bird That gazes all night At the passing moon, … Continue reading ‘Unbreakable’ by Mirabai
I’ve watched the Seasons passing slow, so slow, In the fields between La Bassée and Bethune; Primroses and the first warm day of Spring, Red poppy floods of June, August, and yellowing Autumn, so To Winter nights knee-deep in mud or snow, And you’ve been everything. Dear, you’ve been everything that I most lack In … Continue reading ‘1915’ by Robert Graves
Puisque les plus heureux ont des douleurs sans nombre, Puisque le sol est froid, puisque les cieux sont lourds, Puisque l’homme ici-bas promène son cœur sombre Parmi les vains regrets et les courtes amours, Que faire de la vie? O notre âme immortelle, Où jeter tes désirs et tes élans secrets ? Tu voudrais posséder, … Continue reading ‘A une artiste’ by Louise Ackermann
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet … Continue reading ‘Love is not all’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay
There you met it – the mystery of hatred. After your billions of years in anonymous matter That was where you were found – and promptly hated. You tried your utmost to reach and touch those people With gifts of yourself – Just like your first words as a toddler When you rushed at every … Continue reading ‘God Help the Wolf after Whom the Dogs Do Not Bark’ by Ted Hughes
Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too … Continue reading ‘Not waving but drowning’ by Stevie Smith