Rg Gregory Short Poems
Famous Short Rg Gregory Poems. Short poetry by famous poet Rg Gregory. A collection of the all-time best Rg Gregory short poems
by
Rg Gregory
for what my heart held clear
and didn’t have the wit to show
for what my path proposed
and got lost in its diversions
for what my beginnings dreamed
and my ends cannot lay hold of
for what promises i made
and have not had the shine to keep to
i ask your understanding
for what i have been
and could not be another
i ask your love
by
Rg Gregory
the horses have bolted
the one door's been locked
the flood can't get out
the greasy bilge swills
up the walls to the roof
hercules is hopeless
the manger is mangy
fresh myths and sayings
are urgently wanted
mythmakers get busy
by
Rg Gregory
you have gone away from yourself
you walk in a dead way
your loins have lost their sweets
your breasts deny touch
your face exudes cold pain
everything you were
now you are not
the revolution then
has nearly been successful
by
Rg Gregory
the children played games
getting from here
to where the truth was
without touching a flake
needless to say
the only ones who got there
were liars
but while the honest ones
shrank back from
the touch of snow
the liars
were where the truth was
by
Rg Gregory
each sunset is unique
so others tell us
fools - with flowers
of envy pushing
through their teeth
i think differently
a feeble skill that
can't repeat itself
i'll have the sun in
for a spell to make
a proper artist of him
by time i finish with
this yellow fickle lout
his sunset will be perfect
by
Rg Gregory
loneliness is a state
the lonely cannot reach
it carries a grandeur
that doesn't fit into
bed-sitters or rejected
ideas - it's the label stuck
on the bottle after
the tables have gone
by
Rg Gregory
the song wasn't up to the task
of getting through the double-glazing
into the ears pressed on the outside pane
the rest of their bodies had faded away but
the ears were straining still towards the music
in order to know the good times being had in the room
night fell the cold grew and the lights went out but
the ears hung around believing in music until
they froze and dropped to the ground like
slugs that had missed out on the seasons
it was a bad christmas for ears
by
Rg Gregory
when the old man said
i know everything
the young girl replied
what is everything
when the old man said
wisdom is mine
the young girl replied
what is wisdom
when the old man said
i am privy to all life’s secrets
the young girl replied
what is privy
when the old man said
you don’t know anything
the young girl replied
what has a bald head
a tight mouth
and dribbles when it eats
when the old man said
respect your elders
the young girl replied
i will when i’m older
by
Rg Gregory
martin’s death
has made me scared
of the old bat
that clings to the eaves
waiting to enter the house
by
Rg Gregory
for the naming of tara
this bowl of joy
that her fruits of earth
she’ll well employ
for the naming of tara
this bunch of flowers
that she bloom brightly
through her natural powers
for tbe naming of tara
this poem’s desire
that (in a full life)
she may kindly aspire
for the naming of tara
three gifts intent
on marking her day
with love and excitement
by
Rg Gregory
the red man says hello
the green tree says i'm here
all grown-ups are sleeping
only the children hear
decorations are delighted
presents hug the floor
the room in its festive hat
hides behind the door
through the glittering day
two worlds split the one
grown-ups lose their tempers
children have the fun
the red man says goodbye
the green tree says next year
grown ups are exhausted
only the children hear
by
Rg Gregory
the man and the horse and the crocodile
lay down on the couch together
the man said
this isn't going to work
the horse neighed
i love you
the crocodile
slimy as ever
neither complained nor adored
idly
it snapped its jaws
and got on with the feast
by
Rg Gregory
the bluefish was surprised
i was there to greet it
this world it said is mine
it feeds on blueness
for the first time in my life
i felt i'd found my truth
bluefish i cried in joy
you are my deepest mirror
the bluefish gawped in pain
it saw no blue in me
i set about explaining
what we are we are not.....
the bluefish looked at me
in pity - then swam away
since then it's stayed with me
in every room i've been in
by
Rg Gregory
In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.
by
Rg Gregory
fancy shooting a man dead for an old label
but think
if there weren't any old labels
nobody would ever be shot dead
and all those poor people
whose livelihood depends on making guns
would have to be left to starve
make up your mind
who would you sooner see living
men with bullets in them
or thousands of ordinary people
going about their decent business
there's a lot to thank old labels for
by
Rg Gregory
it comes like a convict
squeezing through bars
and is gone before
the promptest siren
it suddenly turns
in the ear or rides
the eye of a thought
before dissolving
i have it in a faint
taste or shudder
an ache like a spring
high in the mountains
it was once called love
and now a longing
for a song to be heard
that doesn't bear singing
by
Rg Gregory
be moved by your own time
but move it too
the sun hasn't all the answers
it can be made to listen to you
however adamant the pavement
it's a book of feet
though they need it to take them through town
people control the street
from the irreproachable mountain
wisdom drips down
spray it with your own salt
manacled clown
by
Rg Gregory
fog owns the town
in its palm
lawyers nibble each other's fingers
the churches take their cut
at the fat lunch
the men of business
carve themselves prayers and praises
the fog comes to my window
and lisping in says
i've drained the town of you
and you of the town
come outside
and let me smother you
to the border
no person calls
and only the headless
watch and watch in the street
by
Rg Gregory
my jerusalem
my newfoundland
juicy as redcurrants
with their sweet tang taste
my desire
my holy requirement
caught in a cleft of mountain
ever clambered towards
my yearning
my place of the blood-red fruit
my want at the first sherd
for the full-bosomed bowl
my jerusalem
my sinewy prayer
where dust and the dry rock
are chastened by the cool red juice
my jerusalem
my revolving love
as the year bends and the fruit's
pangs purchase my lips
by
Rg Gregory
i belch
acre upon acre
of cotton wool
and there is still
not enough for his beard
by
Rg Gregory
i like the silence of reading
flat on my stomach on the woollen floor
my legs waving upwards like the fronds of ferns
and in my mind
gigantic screaming monsters
or the mystery ship
scuttling crablike to the shore
i am lost to the spell of words
the enchantment of sea in the silent shell
i hear nothing apart from that racing world
alive in this room through my staring eyes
and the hush of my stifled breath
i miss the passing of time
the gale outside
and the very loud knock at the door
by
Rg Gregory
the sky is shattered
its debris
clutters the world's streets
where the light came from
is a question
charred beyond recognition
heads hang out of walls
limbs unattached
rigid in their will to crawl away
but there's a bird (black
in the jagged sky)
with a twig still stuck in its beak
is it falling or flying
there's no witness
with the fullness to interpret
the intolerable direction
it must decide
is the thread the scene hangs on
by
Rg Gregory
when
one summer
everything opened out
and nobody close by
was quick enough
with needle and gut
to stitch the blue sky away
from all that fresh flesh
how we splashed about
in the red lake
daggers skimmed in and out
of each other's wake
like speedboats
thirsting for death
by
Rg Gregory
when the time comes
yield
to the forces outside you
images simply
of your inner compulsions
when the time comes
invite
your enemies inside you
inversions simply
of your face on the world
when the time comes
die
from the fears that hold you
the action simply
of seceding old skins
when the time comes
arise
that marsh birds greet you
rendering simply
the raw joy-notes of dawn
by
Rg Gregory
begin at a chapter you have read before
with new words and a new hand turning
the pages where the print vibrates and the white
paper runs in a stream of many colours
stand with a new light at your shoulder
and wander slowly through familiar doors
into tomorrows no shadows yet have trodden
or come in an old way to a new place
and there i think you will find me entering
from the other side along the same path
carrying my heart in a silver rosebowl
and you in the palace of my heart