Quotes about leaf, page 24
Fern
This feathered leaf must have fallen from the hand
of the woman who turned around to see
if her child had strayed too close to the slope
of the fuming mountain or the hunting birds,
and left her footprint in ash that hardened
to rock. A spray of seeds released that noon
remains in the thick air, and this gift:
a leaf trapped between layers of mud
that volcanic fire baked into stone:
drained of light and green, long spasm,
breath dusted with pollen, a net
of veins splayed on an altar
where the river turns in its sleep
and an old woman lights a lamp.
poem by Ranjit Hoskote
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Sonnets 08: And You As Well Must Die, Beloved Dust
And you as well must die, beloved dust,
And all your beauty stand you in no stead;
This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head,
This body of flame and steel, before the gust
Of Death, or under his autumnal frost,
Shall be as any leaf, be no less dead
Than the first leaf that fell,--this wonder fled.
Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.
Nor shall my love avail you in your hour.
In spite of all my love, you will arise
Upon that day and wander down the air
Obscurely as the unattended flower,
It mattering not how beautiful you were,
Or how beloved above all else that dies.
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Friend to Friend
Listen closely my friend
For I have something to tell you-
Life's a butterfly's persistence
It began its struggle
Grasping edges leaf to leaf
But my inner buckle
Strapped me in from any grief
This persistent endurance
Began awakening a spark
I started seeing signs
Even in the darkest dark
Once in an event occurred
Causing a balance loss
Being that I had conquered
A cocoon formed from the toss
It emerged and flew away
To another point
When renewing that past day
I appreciate my standpoint
[...] Read more
poem by Charlie Murphy
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Last Spring
THIS morning at the door
I heard the Spring.
Quickly I set it wide
And, welcoming,
'Come in, sweet Spring,' I cried,
'The winter ash, long dried,
Waits but your breath to rise
On phantom wing.'
A brown leaf shivered by,
A soulless thing--
My heart in quick dismay
Forgot to sing--
Twisted and grim it lay,
Kin to the ghost-ash gray,
Dead, dead--strange herald this
Of jocund Spring!
I spurned it from the door.
I longed that Spring
[...] Read more
poem by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
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A Leaf, A Twig, A Little Bird
Adam, am i,
i got this only fig
leaf to
cover my
insufficiency,
this deficiency
of the
centerfold
in me.
Adam am i,
i have this little twig,
attached to
my upper leg,
and Adam am i,
i have this little bird,
so coy like a turtle dove,
yet so fierce
and shrewd
[...] Read more
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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And you as well must die, belovèd dust
And you as well must die, belovèd dust,
And all your beauty stand you in no stead;
This flawless, vital hand, this perfect head,
This body of flame and steel, before the gust
Of Death, or under his autumnal frost,
Shall be as any leaf, be no less dead
Than the first leaf that fell,this wonder fled,
Altered, estranged, disintegrated, lost.
Nor shall my love avail you in your hour.
In spite of all my love, you will arise
Upon that day and wander down the air
Obscurely as the unattended flower,
It mattering not how beautiful you were,
Or how belovèd above all else that dies.
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
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Up In The Tree
What would you see, if I took you up
My little aerie-stair?
You would see the sky like a clear blue cup
Turned upside down in the air.
What would you do, up my aerie-stair
In my little nest on the tree?
With cry upon cry you would ripple the air
To get at what you would see.
And what would you reach in the top of the tree
To still your grasping grief?
Not a star would you clutch of all you would see,
You would gather just one green leaf.
But when you had lost your greedy grief,
Content to see from afar,
Your hand it would hold a withering leaf,
But your heart a shining star.
poem by George MacDonald
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When Acorns Fall
When acorns fall and swallows troop for flight,
And hope matured slow mellows to regret,
And Autumn, pressed by Winter for his debt,
Drops leaf on leaf till she be beggared quite;
Should then the crescent moon's unselfish light
Gleam up the sky, just as the sun doth set,
Her brightening gaze, though day and dark have met,
Prolongs the gloaming and retards the night.
So, fair young life, new risen upon mine
Just as it owns the edict of decay
And Fancy's fires should pale and pass away,
My menaced glory takes a glow from thine,
And, in the deepening sundown of my day,
Thou with thy dawn delayest my decline.
poem by Alfred Austin
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Wash of Cold River
Wash of cold river
in a glacial land,
Ionian water,
chill, snow-ribbed sand,
drift of rare flowers,
clear, with delicate shell-
like leaf enclosing
frozen lily-leaf,
camellia texture,
colder than a rose;
wind-flower
that keeps the breath
of the north-wind --
these and none other;
intimate thoughts and kind
reach out to share
the treasure of my mind,
intimate hands and dear
[...] Read more
poem by Hilda Doolittle
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The Drifting Soul
O! For that leaf in the mighty boundless sea!
In a world larger than its soul will ever be
On that deep, wild, and silence sea
The soul so lonely drift aimlessly free!
O! .for that youth from mortal breath plucked.
In the bowel of the earth untimely locked
The world is a lonely place, the grave lonely still
The soul grieves but tell no one will
Does it roam every earth's dusty way
Or remain where its lifeless form doth lay?
Does it drift with the wind endlessly free
Like that leaf in the mighty turbulant sea
Or perharps it journeys through time and space
Until it finds a perfect resting place!
poem by Okonkwo Osamedua. Allen
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