Park Gardens Poetry Night

Greg and I had an impromptu poetry reading. Here are some of my favorites from the night.

One Perfect Rose


A single flow'r he send me, since we met.
All tenderly is messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
'My fragile leaves,' it said, 'his heart enclose.'
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

Dorthy Parker
(1893-1967)


This is Just to Say


I have just
asked you to
get out of my
apartment

even though
you never
thought
I would

Forgive me
you were
driving
me insane

Erica-Lynn Gambino
(for William Carlos Williams)


I Loved You


I loved you; and perhaps in love's dead embers,
Not quite extinguished, some few sparks remain.
Let it not fret you if your heart remembers:
I would not cause you grief or give you pain.
I loved you hopelessly, confession fleeing,
Now far to jealous, now too shy to tell.
With all my heart I loved you, all my being -
God grant another love you half so well!

Alexander Pushkin
(1799-1837)


Authorship

King David and King Solomon
Led merry, merry lives,
With many, many lady friends
And many, many wives,
But when old age crept over them,
With many, many qualms,
King Solomon wrote the Proverbs
And King David wrote the Psalms.

James B(all) Naylor


The Sailor

In my movie the boat goes under
And he alone survives the night in the cold ocean,
Swimming he hopes in s shoreward direction.
Daylight and he's still afloat, pawing the water
And doesn't yet know he's only fifty feet from shore.
He goes under for what will be the last time
But only a few feet down scrapes bottom.
He's suddenly a changed man and half hops, half swims
The remaining distance, hauls himself waterlogged
Partway up the beach before collapsing into sleep.
As he dreams the tide comes in
And rolls him back to sea.

Geof Hewitt