William Blake

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

 

Alexander Pope/ Solitude

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
      In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter, fire.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind;
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mixed, sweet recreation, And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

 

"Home is so Sad" by Philip Larkin

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft.

And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.

 

This stanza from Shelley's "To a Skylark"

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

 

 

"Resume" by Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

 

 

"Ode to the West Wind" by Shelly

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither'd leaves, to quicken new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an extinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

 

 

"Amsterdam" by Robert Egeter

Between 'I love you',
And his sensing it is really true,
Our words still scamper like hermit
And sometimes fall into their own pit.
(from Up Country)

 

 

Poems by Kamala Wijeratne

A few golden nuggets I have stolen...

From Millennium Poems

Memory

… They floated away … Like the wisps of cotton … Hard to reach, Hard to hold.

Shades of green

Dark green Light green Greens in between

Two Voices

… Cook and wash Breed and feed … Freedom is not for you I wouldn't know What to do with it too.

In the New Millennium

… We will grow asphalt jungles And pave our roads with used cars. …

From The White Saree and Other Poems

The Light in your Window

The light in your window Used to lift up my heart As the light gloom enveloped me; …. But now the curtains are drawn And your room is dark I shiver with the cold.