Famous Outlived Poems by Famous Poets

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An Abandoned Factory Detroit

 The gates are chained, the barbed-wire fencing stands, 
An iron authority against the snow, 
And this grey monument to common sense 
Resists the weather. Fears of idle hands, 
Of protest, men in league, and of the slow 
Corrosion of their minds, still charge this fence. 

Beyond, through broken windows one can see 
Where the great presses paused between their...Read more of this...

A Forest Hymn

The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 
And spread the roof above them,---ere he framed 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, 
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down, 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication. For his...Read more of this...

Epistle To Augusta

 My sister! my sweet sister! if a name
Dearer and purer were, it should be thine;
Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim
No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:
Go where I will, to me thou art the same— 
A loved regret which I would not resign.
There yet are two things in my destiny,— 
A world to roam through, and a...Read more of this...

After great pain a formal feeling comes

 After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs --
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round --
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone --

This is the Hour of Lead --
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow...Read more of this...

Willow

 And I grew up in patterned tranquillity, 
In the cool nursery of the young century. 
And the voice of man was not dear to me, 
But the voice of the wind I could understand. 
But best of all the silver willow. 
And obligingly, it lived 
With me all my life; it's weeping branches 
Fanned my insomnia with dreams. 
And...Read more of this...

Portrait

 Because life's passing show
 Is little to his mind,
There is a man I know
 Indrawn from human kind.
His dearest friends are books;
 Yet oh how glad he talks
To birds and trees and brooks
 On lonely walks.
He takes the same still way
 By grove and hill and sea;
He lives that each new day
 May like the last one be.
He hates...Read more of this...

The Woman And The Angel

 An angel was tired of heaven, as he lounged in the golden street;
His halo was tilted sideways, and his harp lay mute at his feet;
So the Master stooped in His pity, and gave him a pass to go,
For the space of a moon, to the earth-world, to mix with the men below.

He doffed his celestial garments, scarce waiting to...Read more of this...

Regret

 It's not for laws I've broken
That bitter tears I've wept,
But solemn vows I've spoken
And promises unkept;
It's not for sins committed
My heart is full of rue,
but gentle acts omitted,
Kind deeds I did not do.

I have outlived the blindness,
The selfishness of youth;
The canker of unkindness,
The cruelty of truth;
The searing hurt of rudeness . . .
By mercies great and small,
I've come to...Read more of this...

A Forest Hymn

THE GROVES were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft and lay the architrave  
And spread the roof above them¡ªere he framed 
The lofty vault to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood 5 
Amidst the cool and silence he knelt down  
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And...Read more of this...

Where elves lived

Elves lived here, once, 
where today the blanched shells lie
of snails
who have outlived their selves; 

I would, if I could, 
bring back elves
but I feel they would, too, like snails, 
who have outlived their time, 
lose themselves where once they lived. 






(from A Sad Piper, 1994) ...Read more of this...

The Children Look At The Parents

 We being so hidden from those who
Have quietly borne and fed us,
How can we answer civilly
Their innocent invitations?

How can we say "we see you
As but-for-God's-grace-ourselves, as
Our caricatures (we yours), with
Time's telescope between us"?

How can we say "you presumed on
The accident of kinship,
Assumed our friendship coatlike,
Not as a badge one fights for"?

How say "and you remembered
The sins of our outlived...Read more of this...

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