Through Death and Sorrow 
 three dwells peace 
in the heart of the eternal. 

Life’s current flows without cease,
 the sunlight and starlight
carry the smile of existence
 and springtime its songs. 

Waves rise and fall,
 the flowers blossom and fade
and my heart yearns for its place
 at the feet of the Endless. 

                                                                                  Rabindranath Tagore
 

F RIEND:

Come friend, finch not, step down upon the hard earth. 

Do not gather dreams in the dusk 

Storms are brewing in the sky, lighting flashes are striking 
     at our step. 

Come down to the common life. 

The web of illusion is torn, take shelter within walls of rough stones. 

                                                                                     Rabindranath Tagore
 

L OVE:

If there is nothing but pain in loving 
then why is this love? 

What folly is this to claim her heart 
because you have offered her your own! 

With the desire burning in your blood
and madness glowing in your eyes 

Why is this circling of a desert? 

He hankers nothing in the world
who is in possession of himself,
the flowers, the bird songs;
but love comes like a devouring shadow
effacing the whole world,
eclipsing life and youth. 

Then why seek this mist that darkens existence?

                                                                                Rabindranath Tagore

F AT GIRL:

I stood behind a far girl
and saw her barrel shaped
body and ugly thighs 
clothed in nondescript
 brown; 

The too-small head
with its lustreless short
crapped hair
and then she turned 
a face, plain featured
tires with despair
toward me 

 and I realised 
 that no one 
 not even me 
  desired this woman
 and 

  I 

         almost 

                                  cried.

                                                                                      Maurice Abbot

F RIENDSHIP:
 

I fear it’s very wrong of me
And yet I must admit,
when someone offers friendship
I want the whole of it. 

I don’t want everybody else
To share my friends with me. 

At least, I want one special one,
who, indisputably, 

Likes me much more than all the rest,
who’s always on my side,
who never cares what others say,
who let’s me come and hide
within her shadow, in her house ----- 

It doesn’t matter where ------
who lets me simply be myself,
who’s always, always there.

                                                                                      Elizabeth Jennings
 

V OYAGE A PARIS:
 

What’s the sense
of going to Paris
if you’re not going to be
the Eiffel Tower? 

If Cleopatra
has had a breast 
removed, watch out!
but feel for yourself. 

I don’t love
The widespread rise on
precipitate winds,
my strut’s a thumb- 

Your-nose, my ribs? hah!
my feet  in a meadow of stars
hear spherical music.
none of your elevators!
I will climb the Science.
and the Nile. The world’s 
a baseball in your mitt,
in my fingers a ballon. 

O tour Eiffel, o clouds,
O Egypt, you’re not tired! 

                                                                                    Ann Arbor
 

T HERE’S NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL:
 

There’s nothing more beautiful
than knowing something is going
to be over 
  all day you act like
someone else and then, a t dusk,
you go down on someone for the first
time, a French horn goes down
on a man. It is the man he will
become, with tears for his lost
will-lessness and the anger of 
his former smile
   which was lecherous.
and why not? Eager for light,
for liquid, the breath of anticipation,
only acting for himself. When 
later he will have begun to die
at the moment he acts for others. 

                                                                                Frank O’hara

T ELL ME, DEAREST!

Tell me, dearest, what is love?
'Tis a lightning from above;
'Tis an arrow, 'tis a fire;
'Tis a boy they call desire; 

 'Tis a grave
 Grapes to have 

Those poor fools that long to prove. 

Tell me more, are women true?
Yes, some are, and some as you.
Some are willing, some are strange
Since you men first taught to change, 

 And till troth 
 Be in both
All shall Love to love a anew. 

Tell me more yet, can they grieve?
Yes, and sicken sore, but live.
And be wise too, and delay 
When you men are as wise as they. 

 Then I see 
 Faith will be
Never, till they both believe. 

                                                                               John Fletcher