Pluck not the petals of the daisy
If hope for love would be your lot—
For many men have thus gone crazy
Whose daisy said “She loves me... – by John W. May | 224 Views added 1 month ago
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A Ballad of Light
The moon tonight has roused from slumber
This my languid mind—
I paused, amazed, and wept with wonder
How I so long was blind.
Her sphere of beauty hovered lovely,
Silvering the... – by John W. May | 127 Views added 1 month ago
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Noa
Through bars of iron, soft she peers
With glimpse of hope from hazel eyes
As goblins 'round her rail and jeer
And rage in triumph at their prize.
In war-torched woods the fires rise
Above her village—gone her peers.
... – by John W. May | 251 Views added 2 months ago
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A Spider’s Web
I looked—and lo! a spider’s web,
Whose fragile silver cords were strung
Between the wall and wooden lamp,
And from it, there a spider hung.
But it is winter’s eve, and cold,
And it hangs gray upon the thread.
Should I... – by John W. May | 323 Views added 2 months ago
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City Naiad
She strolls the night along the lane
(A silhouette and barely seen)
Beneath the city-lights and rain
Where drizzle casts an amber sheen …
The homeless seem her closest kin,
Who sleep in boxes by the mall,
In alleys soaked in... – by John W. May | 59 Views added 3 months ago
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The New Martyr
On the saint the hammer no longer falls,
Nor on the judgement of prophets who rail …
Gone, gone the bustling newsrooms and halls
Where journalists spoke truth when truth was frail.
Eclipsed in the shadows of Martial Law,
... – by John W. May | 96 Views added 3 months ago
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Barcelona
We kissed—her lips departed tight.
Her hand around my waist was weak.
I leaned back in ('cause love would, right?)
And kissed her hazel cheek.
I whispered how I loved her so.
She mimicked softly what I said.
"My flight is here.... – by John W. May | 244 Views added 4 months ago
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Blame Her Not
Can I cast blame for what she eats,
Or that she strolls where sunlight sleeps;
Or blame her that her skin is pale,
Whose lips are glist'ning red as ale?
Am I to cast accusing stares
And judge her not of wheat, but tares;
Or... – by John W. May | 546 Views added 5 months ago
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The Crows
I hear their caws go to and fro
And cannot help but hate the crow—
That craggy, wretched song they sing
Decries my joys and lauds my woe.
To hate them?—yes, an awful thing,
But when they gather on the wing,
Their... – by John W. May | 137 Views added 5 months ago
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My Daughter’s Voice
What hundred times I must have heard
Her say to me that precious word;
And too how oft I’d daily count
And boast to all the day’s amount.
Ah, myriad a day I’d hear
That word which still provokes a tear—
So honest; and... – by John W. May | 80 Views added 9 months ago
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Storms over Paris
I tremble like a restless leaf
And quake beneath the looming clouds
That gather anger in their wake,
And all the earth with darkness shrouds.
That tempest pitch from Sparta comes
Convulsing the Ægean Sea
With ruthless... – by John W. May | 361 Views added 10 months ago
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To the Mosquito
How soft upon me you alight
To draw up nectar (scarlet meal)—
To siphon fluid from my frame
From whatsoever vein you will ...
Well who am I to hold a grudge?
Or who to shun your natural... – by John W. May | 97 Views added 10 months ago
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The Lilies
“What marvelous symbols there be
Of heaven and its Highest Jewel—
A living ode to God’s own rule
Inscribed on everything we see!
For Nature is a shadow cast:
A cloak, a shroud, a second light,—
A medium for inner sight,
Wherein... – by John W. May | 67 Views added 1 year ago
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The swing that breaks the hanging bag
Sends candy bouncing all around:
The children rush, and pushing fuss,
And knock each other to the ground.
No thoughts of others—only self—
Where skewed desires all abound:
They rush and push and even kick... – by John W. May | 158 Views added 1 year ago
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When sadness has my soul distraught
And twists my weary, weary bones,
And owns my bright blue days with gray
And manifests with moans:
I will not shrink, nor I repine,
Beneath the anguish running deep;
Nor sleep will I through all the... – by John W. May | 356 Views added 1 year ago
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Dear grandma,
I could see you were just as stunned as I
When drifting its Body traversed our sky:
Noiseless, Black, Slow, it moved right overhead
Without a rumble, a wave, or goodbye.
It surprised me, too, that you showed no dread
As it... – by John W. May | 80 Views added 1 year ago
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“Poetry must have something in it that is
barbaric, vast and wild.” –Denis Diderot
The Falcon
In lovely light and lofty pose,
It perched an autumn limb.
Rebalancing, a wing arose
Revealing something grim ...
Though Nature's... – by John W. May | 448 Views added 1 year ago
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Colorado
The lark bunting trills with lovely refrain
In these soon-to-be, snow-laced, timbered hills.
I? I stroll with wonder through the terrain,
Enraptured with feelings a mystic feels.
My home, my heart from my earliest days,
Lies... – by John W. May | 81 Views added 1 year ago
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I slipped into a fatal sleep,
Alone the other day,
And waking found that I was reaped,
Like wheat that sickles slay …
The new realm was a threshing floor
That drew out inner grain—
My inner self, my inner core,
The ‘me’ that would... – by John W. May | 370 Views added 1 year ago
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There’s snow there now where once she lay
Alone that Autumn eve,
And though that day seems far away,
I still lamenting grieve …
For she—a daughter, mother, friend—
She pined, I’m sure, in grief:
For... – by John W. May | 62 Views added 1 year ago
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With joy he set upon the stone
Releasing from its marble tomb
The likeness of a lovely maid
Whose grandeur filled the humble room.
What hapless rock this used to be,
Half-figured now, she seemed a god:
The more his chisel carved her shape,
... – by John W. May | 205 Views added 1 year ago
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A thousand angels watched him sleep,
His slumbers, oh, so ever deep ...
And she, with gazing eyes as they,
Approaching softly where he lay,
Did ever silent keep.
She touched his cold and pallid clay,
And wiped her weary tears away:
And as... – by John W. May | 363 Views added 1 year ago
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I often wonder with a grin
What imagery my dreams might show:
I blanket deep, pull covers in,
And ponder how my dreams will go ...
For in the haunt of last night's tale
A dreadful cavern opened wide,
And in a frenzy dogs of hell
Were... – by John W. May | 393 Views added 1 year ago
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I.
I knew, before my birth to be,
The planet that I chose,
But angels who were prepping me
Induced a gentle doze:
They brought Amnesia's velvet soup
And I, with willing heart,
Drank down the broth... – by John W. May | 75 Views added 1 year ago
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Blood
Deep red
Rims a blade
Glinting silver.
"Is that the last of them", he echoes out.
His friend, peering down the cavern, shows doubt:
"I don't think so."
Both move in,
Cautious,
... – by John W. May | 37 Views added 1 year ago
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When times of desperation greet me
With tempest and with livid storm,
And violent winds wish to defeat me,
And swallow me within their swarm ...
I will remember where I'm rooted,
And there with courage will abide;
And though the winds my... – by John W. May | 393 Views added 1 year ago
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There came to view a gleaming lake
Which beckoned him to take a drink,
But beauty seized the thirsty lad
As there he bent above its brink ...
A stunning sight appeared to him
Who marveled at its dear design—
Behold! a face beheld him back,
... – by John W. May | 140 Views added 1 year ago
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How calm the sound of snow that's falling
Soft upon these lonely stones—
As if the north winds now were calling
Sleeping ghosts from restless bones.
Some think this yard of graves as eerie,
Filled with silence and with woes:
Where... – by John W. May | 22 Views added 1 year ago
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Beneath the skies of goddess Nuit
There lies my passion's sole pursuit—
It's her, whose soul is beauty's claim,
A Nubian of Pharaoh's name:
Beauteous Nefertiti, hail!
Arise, my love, leave crook and flail,
And let us from this palace flee,
... – by John W. May | 354 Views added 1 year ago
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"Love knows not its own depth until the hour
of separation." –Khalil Gibran
The orange moon ascends beyond the leaves
Like a child's balloon—upward it looms
Against nebulous night; upward it heaves
Its ancient amber light until it rooms
... – by John W. May | 137 Views added 1 year ago
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