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Famous Short Southern Poems

Famous Short Southern Poems. Short Southern Poetry by Famous Poets. A collection of the all-time best Southern short poems


by Sylvia Plath
 Color of lemon, mango, peach,
These storybook villas
Still dream behind
Shutters, thier balconies
Fine as hand-
Made lace, or a leaf-and-flower pen-sketch.

Tilting with the winds,
On arrowy stems,
Pineapple-barked,
A green crescent of palms
Sends up its forked
Firework of fronds.

A quartz-clear dawn
Inch by bright inch
Gilds all our Avenue,
And out of the blue drench
Of Angels' Bay
Rises the round red watermelon sun.



by Wang Wei
 Down horse drink gentleman alcohol 
Ask gentleman what place go 
Gentleman say not achieve wish 
Return lie south mountain near 
Still go nothing more ask 
White cloud not exhaust time 


Dismounting, I offer my friend a cup of wine, 
I ask what place he is headed to. 
He says he has not achieved his aims, 
Is retiring to the southern hills. 
Now go, and ask me nothing more, 
White clouds will drift on for all time.

by A R Ammons
 It was May before my
attention came
to spring and

my word I said
to the southern slopes
I've

missed it, it
came and went before
I got right to see:

don't worry, said the mountain,
try the later northern slopes
or if

you can climb, climb
into spring: but
said the mountain

it's not that way
with all things, some
that go are gone

by Wang Wei
I dismount from my horse and I offer you wine, 
And I ask you where you are going and why. 
And you answer: "I am discontent 
And would rest at the foot of the southern mountain. 
So give me leave and ask me no questions. 
White clouds pass there without end." 

by Wang Wei
 With its three southern branches reaching the Chu border, 
And its nine streams touching the gateway of Jing, 
This river runs beyond heaven and earth, 
Where the colour of mountains both is and is not. 
The dwellings of men seem floating along 
On ripples of the distant sky -- 
These beautiful days here in Xiangyang 
Make drunken my old mountain heart!



by Emily Dickinson
 'Tis not that Dying hurts us so --
'Tis Living -- hurts us more --
But Dying -- is a different way --
A Kind behind the Door --

The Southern Custom -- of the Bird --
That ere the Frosts are due --
Accepts a better Latitude --
We -- are the Birds -- that stay.

The Shrivers round Farmers' doors --
For whose reluctant Crumb --
We stipulate -- till pitying Snows
Persuade our Feathers Home.

by Carl Sandburg
 HUNTINGTON sleeps in a house six feet long.
Huntington dreams of railroads he built and owned.
Huntington dreams of ten thousand men saying: Yes, sir.

Blithery sleeps in a house six feet long.
Blithery dreams of rails and ties he laid.
Blithery dreams of saying to Huntington: Yes, sir.

Huntington,
Blithery, sleep in houses six feet long.

by Wang Wei
 Light boat south hill go 
North hill vast expanse hard reach 
Separate bank see person home 
Long way off not recognise 


A light boat sets off from the southern hill, 
The north is hard to reach across the vastness. 
On the other bank, I look for my home, 
It cannot be recognised so far off.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry