Wisdom

It is strange how often a heart must be broken before the years can make it wise.

--Sara Teasdale

So long ago

So long ago, and very far away,
You held me close to keep me safe and warm.
How strange that now, though Summer's in the wind,
I feel the chill that sought me on that day:
And suddenly I am cold again.

Farewell, be gone

"Farewell, be gone," I said to him
All on a Summer's day.
"Be on your way,
I love you not,"said I.
But when I spoke those words
I lied.
--Kindred Spirit

Weep no more

"Do flowers cry?," he asked the Rose,
Her cheeks all streaked with dew--
Or was it rain? "He knows," thought she.
How strange that he should ask,
In such a casual way!
It must be clear to him as day.

She bowed her head to hide her tears,
Which fell like Summer stars,
Each one like fire in her heart:
Those burning tears! And, since
He'd caused each one to flow,
She would not let them go.
--Kindred Spirit

Guitarra--Heartstrings

He plays the strings so softly,
his fingers touch my heart.
A long-forgotten pain
is remembered in the chords:
The trembling sound of hope--
I hear it once again.
Play on, my heartstrings cry;
play on!
--Kindred Spirit

Birds Migrate at Night

Over the glittering, rattled ladders of shale
the birds cross, tangential to the sea at night.
Hour upon hour you can sense the undulation of wings.
If you lift your cheek quite carefully
you can feel the kiss and the wisp of air
stirred by the inaudible glide.

--Jan Haag

from A WInter Night

It snowed and snowed, the whole world over,
Snow swept the world from end to end.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.
--Boris Pasternak