'Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.'
This is one of the first lines of poetry that I remember. I am pretty sure I was in the 7th grade when I read this in a book of poems that had made its way to me randomly (the poem is Charge of the Light Brigade by Tennyson if you are curious). Poems speak to me, just like I imagine pictures may speak to you or songs make your heart skip a beat. Every once in a while a random line of poetry will pop into my head, almost like an excerpt from a life. Except this is my life. Over the years I have come across poems for all sorts of occasions and feelings and people and lives. I share them online, sometimes I email them to friends, occasionally I imprint them on myself. In this post, I am going to put them all together in a list to which I can keep adding. I hope it brings you some happiness.
Adrienne Rich
I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language
guessing at some words while others keep you reading
and I want to know which words they are.
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse.
&
But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged
into our personal weather
Brown Girl Sings the Blues
You remind me of all these.
The forgotten, pushed away,
Hidden parts of me,
The lekin and the agar in me,
The abey and the oye in me,
The ab to ho gaya in me.
Clementine von Radics
I am not the first person you loved.
You are not the first person I looked at
with a mouthful of forevers. We
have both known loss like the sharp edges
of a knife. We have both lived with lips
more scar tissue than skin.
