Sample poem

 

It Is Little More Than This

 

Mary had a little lamb

its fleece was white as snow

and everywhere that Mary went

the lamb was sure to go.

 

It is little more than this:

a bleat in the bliss,

soft-wool and feeding,

is calmed by my reading.

 

At night I fall into sleep,

the lambs lost of sense

have at the pretty fence;

they cripple as they leap.

 

What is it to live in a pasture?

to always pastoral seem

happy in your nature

(unhappily you dream).

 

Morning comes hard,

the grass heavy with dew,

mud is in my garden,

the sky blue.

 

It just goes on, you know,

the grass growing

and even sweet smelling;

I watch the mower mow.

 

Oh to be strong

as a man is to be strong.

Oh, and how might that be?

asks the garden of me.

 

I long to be hungry

to be red and hungry,

to quiver

as the hummingbird’s quiver.

 

Alone says the tree

is alone, as though

I didn’t already know;

I can see

 

the ground giving to the day

as the day falls away.

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