Short poems for writing practice

[caliken]

I think that short poems are great subjects for developing an alphabet or just practicing writing - they're not too long to become boring and not too short to be of little value. This is one of my favourites - we all know someone who would benefit from reading it!

Edited August 24, 2007 by caliken

[BrianTung]

Francis William Bourdillon, "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes":

 

The night has a thousand eyes,

And the day but one;

Yet the light of the bright world dies

With the dying sun.

 

The mind has a thousand eyes,

And the heart but one;

Yet the light of a whole life dies

When love is done.

[QM2]

 

why not compose your own?

 

good FPs actually help me write, they are my muses : )

 

QM2

[Elaine]

That was uplifting

[BrianTung]

That was uplifting

 

I'm trying to square what you said with your frowny. Which one is more sincere?

[BillTheEditor]

That was uplifting

Don't get your dobber down, Elaine. The poem says, "There is no indispensible MAN." Women are in a different category altogether ... poet wasn't talking about you.

[HDoug]

For those of us involved in the slow and incremental practice of improving our handwriting, perhaps this Haiku by Japanese Poet Issa:

 

Little snail

inch by inch

climb Mount Fuji!

 

[caliken]

That was uplifting

 

Sorry Elaine, I didn't mean to depress you!

caliken

 

[ajbw]

I too like using short poems for penmanship practice; usually I pop over to a site like poems.com (no affiliation ) and find a few I like.

[TrevorML]

L'Art 1910

Green arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth,

Crushed strawberries! Come, let us feast our eyes.

 

Ezra Pound

Edited May 23, 2007 by TrevorML

[Farace]

Here's one I composed a number of years ago:

 

Living in my belly button

I have a little sheep.

That is where the lint comes from

That I collect and keep.

 

I pluck it out and spin it up

And tie it in a knot.

Then sell it to the lady down

At the knitting shop.

 

The woman up the road then

Buys it by the skein

And knits it into booties

For the baby down the lane.

 

One day I'll kill the little sheep,

And then know what I'll do?

I'll boil it in a thimble

For a little mutton stew.