Your favorite poem

So I thought to lighten this place... Let's post here our favorite poems by known writers. In one post only one poem.

My favorite is:

Still I Rise
-Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

This piece by Maya Angelou is one of my favorites, adore this woman!!

My all time favorite of hers is "Caged Bird"

I love the above poem SO much, and I also love Caged Bird too!

--

This is on my favorites, actually I have two favorite poems..kind of a tie :P

Invictus
BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

---

If You Forget Me
-Pablo Neruda

If you forget me
I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine

^^^^^^^^^^^
<3 i was so glad Nana bought "Invictus" to my attention, that is an Epic poem!!

I have so many, today these come to mind....

Shipwreck my soul - Craig Charles

I want a cold pebble beach,
I want sea in your hair,
I want salt and sand in your skin,
I want to bathe my hands in the waves of your hair,
And bathe your body all tight and trim
And shipwreck my soul in your eyes.

I want to see you dressed real minimalist,
In lycra and lace
The cool damp cotton towel
Can wipe mascara from your face
And I will shipwreck my soul in your eyes.

'Cause your pretty in lace and satin and silk
You're mine.
That's not to say own you,
Just a time share holding.

She's pretty, she's pale, she's soft, she's warm, she's clean,
She's the computer rash in my machine
Affecting mind and motion, thought and deed,
And wherewithal,
My love.
Where, with all my love.

And....

"LOVE YOU " by Paul Eluard
translator: unknown

I love you for all the women I haven't known
I love you for all the time in which I haven't lived
For the scent of immeasurable space and the smell of warm bread
For the snow that melts and for the first flowers
For the innocent animals which haven't been frighten by man
I love you for love! For all the women I don't love

Who would reflect me if not you yourself ?_ for I see myself so little

Without you I see nothing but an empty space
Between those other times and today.
There have been all those death that I have crossed on straw
I have not been able to break through the walls of my own mirror
I have to learn life word by word
The way one would forget

I love you for all the wisdom, which is not mine
I love you for health
I love you against everything which is only illusion
For that immortal heart over which I don't recognize
You think that you are a doubt but you are nothing but reason
You are the triumphant sun that penetrate to my head

Incredible! ^

Gala, was a real muse to influence Paul Eluard and most of his poetry was translated very well.

This is very touching piece by Mary Elizabeth Frye, a friend recommended it few years ago.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

Ohhh... I love 'do not stand at my grave and weep'...
Or is such a touching poem and so true too.

I wouldn't at all want people crying when I die, and well who knows nobody other than my parents will cry.