Archive for the ‘poetry’ Category

My mom recently found a bunch of papers and crafts I created while in elementary school. One of the things she found was a “report” I wrote on poet Emma Lazarus. I remember being fascinated with her when I was a kid. I loved that this woman wrote words that were bold and strong enough to appear on something as awesome as the Statue of Liberty. I enjoy her writing–her poems are descriptive. She’s not afraid of big words and metaphors. I feel like she has been a quiet inspiration in my own writing, ever since that paper I wrote a long time ago.

Here’s a great one by her, called “Autumn Sadness.”

Air and sky are swathed in gold
Fold on fold,
Light glows through the trees like wine.
Earth, sun-quickened, swoons for bliss
‘Neath his kiss,
Breathless in a trance divine.

Nature pauses from her task,
Just to bask
In these lull’d transfigured hours.
The green leaf nor stays nor goes,
But it grows
Royaler than mid-June’s flowers.

Such impassioned silence fills
All the hills
Burning with unflickering fire-
Such a blood-red splendor stains
The leaves’ veins,
Life seems one fulfilled desire.

While earth, sea, and heavens shine,
Heart of mine,
Say, what art thou waiting for?
Shall the cup ne’er reach the lip,
But still slip
Till the life-long thirst give o’er?

Shall my soul, no frosts may tame,
Catch new flame
From the incandescent air?
In this nuptial joy apart,
Oh my heart,
Whither shall we lonely fare?

Seek some dusky, twilight spot,
Quite forgot
Of the Autumn’s Bacchic fire.
Where soft mists and shadows sleep,
There outweep
Barren longing’s vain desire.

(I’ll be posting my own poetry here occasionally–it’s my favorite form of expression and I enjoy sharing my thoughts. I encourage others to do the same!)

Not For Me

Walking steadily along this path
   chosen for me by better people
Sometimes I pause and take a
   breath, wonder where it is I’m
   going, exactly
But they don’t like questions, so I
   keep my thoughts tucked inside
   and I pad along slowly
Moving purposefully toward the
   end I don’t know, but that I’ve
   prepared for my whole life

Sometimes, I live my life for everyone but me.