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Famous Damaged Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Damaged poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous damaged poems. These examples illustrate what a famous damaged poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Levine, Philip
...I could have
now or then. Then I was 19, working
on the loading docks at Railway Express
coming day by day into the damaged body
of a man while I sang into the filthy air
the Yiddish drinking songs my Zadie taught me
before his breath failed. Now Howard is gone,
eleven long years gone, the sweet voice silenced.
"The subtle bridge between Eldridge and Navarro,"
they later wrote, all that rising passion
a footnote to others. I remember in '85
walking the halls o...Read more of this...



by Service, Robert William
...n a simple ass!
I'll believe the real "you"
 Is the "you" without a taint;
 I'll believe each woman too,
But a slightly damaged saint.

Yes, I'll smoke my cigarette,
 Vestured in my garb of dreams,
 And I'll borrow no regret;
All is gold that golden gleams.
So I'll charm my solitude
 With the faith that Life is blest,
 Brave and noble, bright and good, . . .
 Oh, I think that dreams are best!...Read more of this...

by Hahn, Kimiko
...things don't die or remain damaged 
but return: stumps grow back hands, 
a head reconnects to a neck, 
a whole corpse rises blushing and newly elastic. 
Later this vision is not True: 
the grandmother remains dead 
not hibernating in a wolf's belly. 
Or the blue parakeet does not return 
from the little grave in the fern garden 
though one may wake in the morning 
thinking mot...Read more of this...

by Ginsberg, Allen
...
hundreds of suitcases full of tragedy rocking back and 
 forth waiting to be opened, 
nor the baggage that's lost, nor damaged handles, 
 nameplates vanished, busted wires & broken 
 ropes, whole trunks exploding on the concrete 
 floor, 
nor seabags emptied into the night in the final 
 warehouse. 

 II

Yet Spade reminded me of Angel, unloading a bus, 
dressed in blue overalls black face official Angel's work- 
 man cap, 
pushing with his belly a huge tin horse piled h...Read more of this...

by Plath, Sylvia
...t-lightning flicker of situations.

Nightlong, in the granite yard, invisible cats
Have been howling like women, or damaged instruments.
Already he can feel daylight, his white disease,
Creeping up with her hatful of trivial repetitions.
The city is a map of cheerful twitters now,
And everywhere people, eyes mica-silver and blank,
Are riding to work in rows, as if recently brainwashed....Read more of this...



by Brautigan, Richard
...ere did the stream come from?" I asked.

 "Colorado, " he said. "We moved it with loving care. We've

never damaged a trout stream yet. We treat them all as if

they were china. "

 "You're probably asked this all the time, but how's fish-

ing in the stream?" I asked.

 "Very good, " he said. "Mostly German browns, but there

are a few rainbows. "

 "What do the trout cost?" I asked.

 "They come with the stream, " he said. "Of course ...Read more of this...

by Fu, Du
... Country damaged mountains rivers here City spring grass trees deep Feel moment flower splash tears Regret parting bird startle heart Beacon fires join three months Family letters worth ten thousand metal White head scratch become thin Virtually about to not bear hairpin  The country is broken, though hi...Read more of this...

by Lawson, Henry
...ys were aslant, 
Brown arrived in Cambaroora with a little printing plant 
And his worldly goods and chattels -- rather damaged on the way -- 
And a weary-looking woman who was following the dray. 
He had bought an empty humpy, and, instead of getting tight, 
Why, the diggers heard him working like a lunatic all night: 
And next day a sign of canvas, writ in characters of tar, 
Claimed the humpy as the office of the CAMBAROORA STAR. 

Well, I cannot read, that's hones...Read more of this...

by Dunn, Stephen
...To hold a damaged sparrow
under water until you feel it die
is to know a small something
about the mind; how, for example,
it blames the cat for the original crime,
how it wants praise for its better side.

And yet it's as human
as pulling the plug on your Dad
whose world has turned
to feces and fog, human as--
Well, let's admit, it's a mild thing
as human things ...Read more of this...

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