Well, I'm having to take it day by day, even when I lose track of what day it actually is. If you're also doing your best to simply exist right now then don't let anyone tell you it isn't enough. Featuring Whitman, Poe, Rossetti, Melville, Thomas, Pound, Brontë and more, here are some poems for May in the hope that morsels of poetry will sustain, soothe, or at least distract when needed the most.
1. "To a Stranger" by Walt Whitman
PASSING stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me, as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall'd as we flit by each other, fluid, affection- ate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me, or a girl with me,
I ate with you, and slept with you—your body has become not yours only, nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass—you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you—I am to think of you when I sit alone, or wake at night alone,
I am to wait—I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
2. "Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allen Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
3. Untitled Refrigerator Poem by @shmingsington
4. "The Swan" by Mary Oliver (As recommended by Diana Pelliccia)
5. Blackout Poem
6. "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
7. "Local Boys and Girls Small Town Stuff" by Marsden Hartley
A panther sprang at the feet Of the young deer in the gray wood. It was the lady who had sworn To love him, That rose, wraithlike From the flow of his blood. He swooned with her devotions.
There was never one More jolly and boyish Than he was, in the great beginning. Once his slippers were fastened With domesticity, He settled down Like a worn jaguar Weary with staring through bars. The caresses that were poured Over his person Staled on him. Love had grown rancid. Have you emptied the garbage John?
Prometheus fire Never can worship The smell of hams and hocks Issuing from the smokehouse. The odours of the street Hold enticements That bear entertaining. There is at least The tincture of virility Present.
8. "Calling the Violet" by Lucy Larcom
Dear Little Violet,
Don't be afraid!
Lift your blue eyes
From the rock's mossy shade!
All the birds call for you
Out of the sky;
May is here, waiting,
And here, too, am I.
Come, pretty Violet,
Winter's away:
Come, for without you
May isn't May.
Down through the sunshine
Wings flutter and fly;—
Quick, little Violet,
Open your eye!
Hear the rain whisper, "Dear Violet, come!" How can you stay In your underground home? Up in the pine-boughs For you the winds sigh. Homesick to see you, Are we—May and I.
9. "May-Flower" by Emily Dickinson (Can't leave her out! <3 )
Pink, small, and punctual, Aromatic, low, Covert in April, Candid in May, Dear to the moss, Known by the knoll, Next to the robin In every human soul. Bold little beauty, Bedecked with thee, Nature forswears Antiquity.
10. "Tell Me, Tell Me..." by Emily Jane Brontë
Tell me, tell me, smiling child,
What the past is like to thee?
"An autumn evening, soft and mild,
With a wind that sighs mournfully."
Tell me, what is the present hour?
"A green and flowery spray,
Where a young bird sits gathering its power
To mount and fly away."
And what is the future, happy one?
"A sea beneath a cloudless sun–
A mighty, glorious, dazzling sea,
Stretching into infinity."
11. "Art" by Herman Melville
In placid hours well pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt–a wind to freeze;
Sad patience–joyous energies;
Humility–yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity–reverence. These must mate
And fuse with Jacob's mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel– Art
12. "Song" by Christina Rossetti
When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at me head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows,
I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on as if in pain:
And dreaming though the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
And haply may forget.
13. "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
As always, I'd love to hear your recommendations and favorites as well. Don't hesitate to reach out in the comments below or via email to carrianne@carrianndillon.com.
Best,
–C
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