Mr. Write's Page

All You Who Sleep Tonight

By Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth (B. 1952)

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above —

Know that you aren’t alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

———

A Very Short Song

By Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)

Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad —
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.

———

Underface

By Shel Silverstein

Sheldon Allan Silverstein (1930-1999)

Underneath my outside face
There’s a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,
But a whole lot more like me.

———

A Glimpse

By Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman, Jr. (1819-1892)

A glimpse through an interstice caught,

Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,

Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,

A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

———

A Love Song for Lucinda

By Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901-1967)

Love
Is a ripe plum
Growing on a purple tree.
Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.

Love
Is a bright star
Glowing in far Southern skies.
Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.

Love
Is a high mountain
Stark in a windy sky.
If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.