The Made to Order Smile

Related poetry:

1. I Came to buy a smile today I Came to buy a smile today But just a single smile The smallest one upon your face Will suit me just as well The one that no one else would miss It shone so very small I’m pleading at the “counter” sir Could you afford to sell I’ve Diamonds on my fingers You know […]...
2. The Idea Of Order At Key West She sang beyond the genius of the sea. The water never formed to mind or voice, Like a body wholly body, fluttering Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry, That was not ours although we understood, Inhuman, of the veritable ocean. The sea was not a mask. […]...
3. Mother’s Smile For my wife, Elizabeth Harris Burch, and my mother, Christine Ena Burch There never was a fonder smile Than mother’s smile, no softer touch Than mother’s touch. So sleep awhile And know she loves you more than “much. ” So more than “much, ” much more than “all. ” Though tender words, these do not […]...
4. You Smile Upon Your Friend To-Day You smile upon your friend to-day, To-day his ills are over; You hearken to the lover’s say, And happy is the lover. ‘Tis late to hearken, late to smile, But better late than never; I shall have lived a little while Before I die for ever....
5. The Gardener XL: An Unbelieving Smile An unbelieving smile flits on your Eyes when I come to you to take my Leave. I have done it so often that you Think I will soon return. To tell you the truth I have the Same doubt in my mind. For the spring days come again Time after time; the full moon takes […]...
6. Awake To Smile When I blink sunshine in my eyes And hail the amber morn, Before the rosy dew-drop dries With sparkle on the thorn; When boughs with robin rapture ring, And bees hum in the may, Then call me young, with heart of Spring, Though I be grey. But when no more I know the joy And […]...
7. Erin! The Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes Erin! the tear and the smile in thine eyes Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies, Shining through sorrow’s stream, Saddening through pleasure’s beam, Thy suns with doubtful gleam, Weep while they rise. Erin, thy silent tear never shall cease, Erin, thy languid smile ne’er shall increase, Till, like the rainbow’s light, Thy […]...
8. None is spared your handsome smile The mystery of a smile that glows within your eyes And is framed in an innocent countenance Passes not unheeded. Those transient’s hallway smiles and greetings offered through your door Are slyly seeking kisses you unwittingly bestow Each time you purse your lips And say hello. There is a bounty of pleasure in your pretty […]...
9. Without a smile Without a Throe Without a smile Without a Throe A Summer’s soft Assemblies go To their entrancing end Unknown for all the times we met Estranged, however intimate What a dissembling Friend...
10. Her smile was shaped like other smiles Her smile was shaped like other smiles The Dimples ran along And still it hurt you, as some Bird Did hoist herself, to sing, Then recollect a Ball, she got And hold upon the Twig, Convulsive, while the Music broke Like Beads among the Bog...
11. The Smile on the Face of a Kouros This boy, of course, was dead, whatever that Might mean. And nobly dead. I think we should feel He was nobly dead. He fell in battle, perhaps, And this carved stone remembers him Not as he may have looked, but as if to define The naked virtue the stone describes as his. One foot is […]...
12. Cappuccino smile Ah, the aromas of that conversation, The brimming, cappuccino smile Swirled in chocolate rich and cinnamoned, The gentle coffee curlicues interlaced In arabesques of creamy foam, redolent Upon your lips, lilted in the cup of your Countenance, glazed in syrup gilt. Your words were velvet plumes Of soothing, honeyed dews You tea-spooned in my mind, […]...
13. Smile, Smile, Smile Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned Yesterday’s Mail; the casualties (typed small) And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul. Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned; For, said the paper, “When this war is done The men’s first instinct will be making homes. Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes, It […]...
14. Short Order I took my girlfriend to your last poetry reading, She said. Yes, yes? I asked. She’s young and pretty, she said. And? I asked. She hated your Guts. Then she stretched out on the couch And pulled off her Boots. I don’t have very good legs, She said. All right, I thought, I don’t have […]...
15. Felixstowe, or The Last of Her Order With one consuming roar along the shingle The long wave claws and rakes the pebbles down To where its backwash and the next wave mingle, A mounting arch of water weedy-brown Against the tide the off-shore breezes blow. Oh wind and water, this is Felixstowe. In winter when the sea winds chill and shriller Than […]...
16. Smiles Smile a little, smile a little, As you go along, Not alone when life is pleasant, But when things go wrong. Care delights to see you frowning, Loves to hear you sigh; Turn a smiling face upon her – Quick the dame will fly. Smile a little, smile a little, All along the road; Every […]...
17. We May Roam Through This World We may roam through this world, like a child at a feast, Who but sips of a sweet, and then flies to the rest; And, when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east, We may order our wings and be off to the west: But if hearts that feel, and eyes that smile, Are […]...
18. The Score Because I’ve come to eighty odd, I must prepare to meet you, God. What should I do? I cannot pray, I have no pious words to say; And though the Bible I might read, Scriptures don’t meet my need. Please tell me God what can I do To be acceptable to you? I’ve put in […]...
19. Mummy's Curse Befriending an eccentric young woman The sole resident of a secluded Victorian mansion. She takes long walks in the evening rain, And so do I, with my hair full of dead leaves. In her former life, she was an opera singer. She remembers the rich Neapolitan pastries, Points to a bit of fresh whipped cream […]...
20. SMILE, YOU ARE ON CCTV Even the charity shops boast of the surveillance Mr Average is caught on camera a hundred times a day To provide unending footage for reality TV But in a decade where will we all be? Big Brother’s eye will see our every step, The blink of every eye, the tears we cry....
21. At a Certain Age We wanted to confess our sins but there were no takers. White clouds refused to accept them, and the wind Was too busy visiting sea after sea. We did not succeed in interesting the animals. Dogs, disappointed, expected an order, A cat, as always immoral, was falling asleep. A person seemingly very close Did not […]...
22. A Precise Woman A precise woman with a short haircut brings order To my thoughts and my dresser drawers, Moves feelings around like furniture Into a new arrangement. A woman whose body is cinched at the waist and firmly divided Into upper and lower, With weather-forecast eyes Of shatterproof glass. Even her cries of passion follow a certain […]...
23. Four Trees upon a solitary Acre Four Trees upon a solitary Acre Without Design Or Order, or Apparent Action Maintain The Sun upon a Morning meets them The Wind No nearer Neighbor have they But God The Acre gives them Place They Him Attention of Passer by Of Shadow, or of Squirrel, haply Or Boy What Deed is Theirs unto the […]...
24. Phenomenal Woman Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m […]...
25. 486. Song-Inconstancy in love LET not Woman e’er complain Of inconstancy in love; Let not Woman e’er complain Fickle Man is apt to rove: Look abroad thro’ Nature’s range, Nature’s mighty Law is change, Ladies, would it not seem strange Man should then a monster prove! Mark the winds, and mark the skies, Ocean’s ebb, and ocean’s flow, Sun […]...
26. Sometimes The Sky's Too Bright Sometimes the sky’s too bright, Or has too many clouds or birds, And far away’s too sharp a sun To nourish thinking of him. Why is my hand too blunt To cut in front of me My horrid images for me, Of over-fruitful smiles, The weightless touching of the lip I wish to know I […]...
27. Parable Of The Four-Poster Because she wants to touch him, She moves away. Because she wants to talk to him, She keeps silent. Because she wants to kiss him, She turns away & kisses a man she does not want to kiss. He watches Thinking she does not want him. He listens Hearing her silence. He turns away Thinking […]...
28. Oh! Think Not My Spirits Are Always As Light Oh! think not my spirits are always as light, And as free from a pang as they seem to you now, Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of to-night Will return with to-morrow to brighten my brow. No: life is a waste of wearisome hours, Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns; And the heart […]...
29. The Cautious Lovers Silvia, let’s from the Crowd retire; For, What to you and me (Who but each other do desire) Is all that here we see? Apart we’ll live, tho’ not alone; For, who alone can call Those, who in Desarts live with One, If in that One they’ve All? The World a vast Meander is, Where […]...
30. As plan for Noon and plan for Night As plan for Noon and plan for Night So differ Life and Death In positive Prospective The Foot upon the Earth At Distance, and Achievement, strains, The Foot upon the Grave Makes effort at conclusion Assisted faint of Love....
31. Ametas And Thestylis Making Hay-Ropes Ametas Think’st Thou that this Love can stand, Whilst Thou still dost say me nay? Love unpaid does soon disband: Love binds Love as Hay binds Hay. Thestylis Think’st Thou that this Rope would twine If we both should turn one way? Where both parties so combine, Neither Love will twist nor Hay. Ametas Thus […]...
32. The Ballade Of The Mistletoe Bough I am standing under the mistletoe, And I smile, but no answering smile replies For her haughty glance bids me plainly know That not for me is the thing I prize; Instead, from her coldly scornful eyes, Indifference looks on my barefaced guile; She knows, of course, what my act implies- But look at those […]...
33. Impotens If I were a woman of old, What prayers I would pray for you, dear; My pitiful tribute behold Not a prayer, but a tear. The pitiless order of things, Whose laws we may change not nor break, Alone I could face it it wrings My heart for your sake....
34. Handyman the two hands of me make inimical gestures That only long after betray the one tune Though they have the same taste in throats They go to their crime disgusted with kinship The right has to act as if crazy for order The left as a dawdler dangling by water On sundays they plan suicides […]...
35. Father My father knows the proper way The nation should be run; He tells us children every day Just what should now be done. He knows the way to fix the trusts, He has a simple plan; But if the furnace needs repairs, We have to hire a man. My father, in a day or two […]...
36. By Their Works Who cleaned up the Last Supper? These would be my people. Maybe hung over, wanting Desperately a better job, Standing with rags In hand as the window Beckons with hills Of yellow grass. In Da Vinci, The blue robed apostle Gesturing at Christ Is saying, give Him the check. What a mess they’ve made Of […]...
37. Story A woman’s taking her late-afternoon walk On Chestnut where no sidewalk exists And houses with gravel driveways Sit back among the pines. Only the house With the vicious dog is close to the road. An electric fence keeps him in check. When she comes to that house, the woman Always crosses to the other side. […]...
38. The Saint And The Hunchback Hunchback. Stand up and lift your hand and bless A man that finds great bitterness In thinking of his lost renown. A Roman Caesar is held down Under this hump. Saint. God tries each man According to a different plan. I shall not cease to bless because I lay about me with the taws That […]...
39. When A Woman Loves A Man When she says Margarita she means Daiquiri. When she says quixotic she means mercurial. And when she says, “I’ll never speak to you again,” She means, “Put your arms around me from behind As I stand disconsolate at the window.” He’s supposed to know that. When a man loves a woman he is in New […]...
40. My Vision Wherever my feet may wander Wherever I chance to be, There comes, with the coming of even’ time A vision sweet to me. I see my mother sitting In the old familiar place, And she rocks to the tune her needles sing, And thinks of an absent face. I can hear the roar of the […]...