This is an eclectic tapestry of prose, poetry, and doggrel that I have composed over the years. Some is serious; a lot of it is merely word play; different styles of writing using word imagery. Anything that I had on my hard drive and couldn't find any other use for was fair game for this page, so don't get your hopes up.
I have recently placed some poetry by other authors up as well, for you, gentle reader, to purvey; the links on the top are things I've written, the links on the bottom are by authors with a little more renown.
Enjoy.
My Words
These are some of my words; they are personal, they do have meaning. Not wanting them to go unseen and unremembered, they are being shared, gentle reader, with you.
…
hazy light
cold
whistle
looking glass
Clouds
Simple
…
Strange Wanderings
Haiku
Doggrel
Poetry
Words of others
…
Rudyard Kipling
Mandalay
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' lazy at the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say;
"Come you back, you British Soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"
Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay;
Can't you 'ear their paddles clunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
'Er petticoat was yaller an' 'er little cap was green,
An' 'er name was Supi-Yaw-Lat jes' the same as Theebaw's Queen,
An' I seed her first a-smokin' of a whackin' white cheroot,
An' wastin' Christian kisses on an 'eathen idol's foot:
Bloomin' idol made o' mud-
Wot they called the Great Gawd Budd-
Plucky lot she cared for idols when I kissed 'er where she stud!
On the road to Mandalay …
When the mist was on the rice-fields an' the sun was droppin' slow,
She'd git 'er little banjo an' she'd sing "Kulla-la-lo!"
With 'er arm upon my shoulder an' 'er cheek again my cheek
We useter watch the steamers an' the hathis pilin' teak.
Elephants a-piling teak
In the sludgy, squdgy creek,
Where the silence 'ung that 'eavy you was 'arf afraid to speak!
On the road to Mandalay …
But that's all shove be'ind me - long ago and fur away,
An' there ain't no 'buses runnin' from the Bank to Mandalay;
An' I'm learnin' 'ere in London what the ten-year soldier tells:
"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."
No! you won't 'eed nothin' else
But them spicy garlic smells,
An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells;
On the road to Mandalay …
I am sick 'o wastin' leather on these gritty pavin'-stones,
An' the blasted English drizzle wakes the fever in my bones;
Tho' I walks with fifty 'ousemaids outer Chelsea to the Strand,
An' they talks a lot o' lovin', but wot do they understand?
Beefy face an' grubby 'and-
Law! wot do they understand?
I've a neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land!
On the road to Mandalay …
Ship me somewheres east of Suez, where the best is like the worst,
Where there ain't no Ten Commandments an' a man can raise a thirst;
For the temple-bells are callin', and it's there that I would be-
By the old Moulmein Pagoda, looking lazy at the sea;
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay,
With our sick beneath the awnings when we went to Mandalay!
O the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
--Rudyard Kipling…
E.E. Cummings - pity this busy monster manunkind
Thomas Hardy - Hap, I look into My Glass, and A Broken Appointment
Percy Bysshe Shelley - Ozymandias
T.S. Elliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Rudyard Kipling - If
Rudyard Kipling - The Last of the Light Brigade
Rudyard Kipling - Mandalay
Rudyard Kipling - Recessional
Rudyard Kipling - Tommy
William Carlos Williams - THIS IS JUST TO SAY
Kenneth Koch - Variations on a Theme by Wiliam Carlos Williams
William Butler Yeats - Sailing to Byzantium
William Butler Yeats - On a Picture of a Black Centaur by Edmund Dulac