Conflict.

By Caroline Clive (1801–1873)

AS one whose country is distraught with war,   Where each must guard his own with watchful hand, Roams at the evening hour along the shore   And fain would seek beyond a calmer land;   So I, perplex’d on life’s tumultuous way,         5   Where evil pow’rs too oft my soul enslave, Along thy ocean, Death, all pensive stray,   And think of shores thy pensive billows lave.   And glad were I to hear the boatman’s cry,   Which to his shadowy bark my steps should call,         10 To woe and weakness heave my latest sigh,   And cease to combat where so oft I fall:   Or, happier, where some victory cheer’d my breast,   That hour to quit the anxious field would choose, And seek th’ eternal seal on virtue’s rest,         15   Oft won, oft lost, and O! too dear to lose!

Words by Florence PERCY.
Library of Congress

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight!
Make me a child again, just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart, as of yore.
Kiss from my forehead tho furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair..
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep..
Rock me to sleep, Mother, rock me to sleep!

CHORUS.
Clasped to your heart, in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never here-after to wake or to weep..
Rock me to sleep, Mother, rock me to sleep!
Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love, like mother-love, ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures,
Faithful, unselfish and patient, like yours.
None, like a mother, can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain;
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep..
Rock me to sleep, Mother, rock me to sleep!

Chorus: Clasped to your heart, &c.

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again, as of old;
Let it drop over my forehead to-night,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light..
For, with its sunny edged shadows, once more,
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore,
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows seep..
Rock me to sleep, Mother, rock me to sleep!

Chorus: Clasped to your heart, &c.

The Other Woman

 Poem by: Aisha K. Moore

  www.discoverkai.com

 

You wonder whether I am serious
doubting my intent
this ruthless inclination
the revengeful desire to destroy
what I cannot have

Sleeping on me would
be your fatal flaw
underestimating the seething rage
that swept through my being
erasing all rationale and calm
eradicating logic and reason

You think I won't shatter that thin shell
shaping and forming your world
expose your flawed spirit and selfish self

Yeah, I'll let her know that
every taste of you has a
lingering residue of me and
every technique you ever taught was
learned in my secret sanctuary

You want to back me into a corner with
ultimatums of loyalty and silence
coupled with monogamy or else
in exchange for lifestyle maintenance and
random rendezvous, offering up bits of you
cause I can't have the whole

My refusal sparks your goodbye after
my morals have been compromised
self esteem demolished and self worth measured
price tag attached, bartered and sold

Trust me, if you walk through that door
I have no problem
                        Making that call

>.

A POOR torn heart, a tattered heart.

 

 

Part One: Life

XLIX

Emily Dickinson (1830–86).
 

A POOR torn heart, a tattered heart,
That sat it down to rest,
Nor noticed that the ebbing day
Flowed silver to the west,
Nor noticed night did soft descend	5
Nor constellation burn,
Intent upon the vision
Of latitudes unknown.
The angels, happening that way,
This dusty heart espied;	10
Tenderly took it up from toil
And carried it to God.
There,—sandals for the barefoot;
There,—gathered from the gales,
Do the blue havens by the hand	15
Lead the wandering sails.

Natasha Trethewey To Second Term as U.S. Poet Laureate

From The Library of Congress

Library of Congress Appoints Natasha Trethewey To Second Term as U.S. Poet Laureate

Trethewey Will Launch Project as Part of the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed Natasha Trethewey to serve a second term as U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.
"The Library and the country are fortunate Natasha Trethewey will continue her work as Poet Laureate," said Billington. "Natasha’s first term was a resounding success, and we could not be more thrilled with her plans for the coming year."
Trethewey’s second term will begin in September. She will follow previous multiyear laureates—such as Kay Ryan, Ted Kooser, and Billy Collins—and undertake a signature project: a regular feature on the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series. Trethewey will join NewsHour Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown for a series of on-location reports in various cities across the United States to explore several large societal issues, through a focused lens offered by poetry and her own coming-to-the-art.
The Poetry Series, featured on the PBS NewsHour, engages a broad audience through thoughtful, in-depth reports on contemporary poets and poetry. Online, the NewsHour features weekly poems on its Art Beat blog as well as on a special page dedicated to poetry.
Ms. Trethewey’s first term as the 19th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry was noteworthy for her "Office Hours," during which she met with the general public in the Library’s Poetry Room—harkening back to a tradition established by her predecessors in the post from 1937 to 1986. For her second year, Trethewey will move beyond the capital to seek out the many ways poetry lives in communities across the country and addresses issues and concerns of Americans.
In that pursuit, she will draw on her own life experiences as a guide—visiting places she feels a personal connection to, such as a domestic violence center, an inner-city school, a prison or juvenile detention center, a nursing home, or places that have suffered natural or man-made disasters. The specific locations will be determined closer to the start of the Poet Laureate’s second term. In her travels to cities and towns for the series, Trethewey also intends to hold "Office Hours on the Road"—meeting with members of the general public as she did in the Library.
Trethewey is the author of four poetry collections, including her newest, "Thrall" (2012). Her other collections are "Native Guard" (2006), winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; "Bellocq’s Ophelia" (2002); and "Domestic Work" (2000). She is also the author the nonfiction book "Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast" (2010).
Trethewey is also serving as the Poet Laureate of Mississippi, which holds a four-year term, and will continue in both positions next year. Her other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is the four-time recipient of the Book Prize from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and has twice received the Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She is also the recipient of the 2008 Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named the 2008 Georgia Woman of the Year.
Born in Gulfport, Miss., in 1966, Trethewey earned a bachelor’s in English from the University of Georgia, a master’s in poetry from Hollins University, and a master of fine arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 2005-2006, she was named the Lehman Brady Joint Chair Professor of Documentary and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. In 2009-2010, she was the James Weldon Johnson Fellow in African American Studies at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. At Emory University, Trethewey is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing and director of the Creative Writing Program.
The Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center fosters and enhances the public's appreciation of literature. To this end, the center administers the endowed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry position, coordinates an annual season of readings, performances, lectures, conferences, and symposia, and sponsors high-profile prizes and fellowships for literary writers. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/poetry/.
PBS NewsHour is seen by more than one million viewers nightly on more than 300 public television stations. It is also available online, via public radio in select markets and via podcast. The program is produced in association with WETA Washington, D.C. Major funding for the PBS NewsHour is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers; funding for the NewsHour Poetry Series is provided by the Poetry Foundation, the publisher of Poetry magazine and an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. For more information, visit www.pbs.org/newshour/(external link) and www.poetryfoundation.org(external link).

TO A BROTHER FIGHTING FOR THE UNION

By Mary Josephine HIGGINS.
Library of Congress

There came to Columbia a young Son of Erin;
He was brave, he was noble, and like him how few!
In Columbia's ranks he is now a young soldier,
To fight for the Union, I know, he'll prove true;
His home and his parents are all left behind him,
He's gone to the battle, a patriot true;
May Heaven protect him, when wildly war wages,
To stand by the Banner of Red, White and Blue!

How sad 'tis to part from those we love dearly!
Joseph, dear brother, farewell now to thee!
Remember the day we left our own Country,
Erin, dear Erin, Acushla Machree!
Oh! may you return with victory-crowned laurel,
A brave Irish Soldier, like your forefathers true!
They fought 'neath the Shamrock, the Emblem of Erin;
Do you do the same 'neath the Red, White and Blue.

Farewell! my dear brother, may Heaven protect thee,
Far from thy Country, thy kindred and all!
I know you are true to the Land you came to;
You'll conquer for Freedom, or gloriously fall!
Then go, my dear Joseph, tho' sadly we'll miss thee,
And often will think of thy last fond Adieu.
Oh! may you return to me, my dear brother,
When conquered the Foe of the Red, White and Blue!

Yes, I would the war were over,

WORDS AND MUSIC BY ALICE HAWTHORNE.
The Music for this popular Song, is published by
WINNER & Co, No. 833 Spring Garden Street, below Tenth, Philadelphia.
Library of Congress

Yes, I would the war were over,
Would the cruel work were done;
With my country undivided,
And the battle fought and won.
Let the contest now before us,
Be decided by the sword,
For the war cannot be ended
Till the Union is restored.

CHORUS.
Yes, I would the war were over,
Would the cruel work were done,
With my Country still united,
And the many States in one.
Dead upon the field of battle,
Husbands, sons and brothers lie;
Friends are waiting--wives and mothers,
Looking for them by and by.
Far away from home forever,
Many a noble boy lies slain;
Look not for thy child, fond mother,
Thou shalt see him not again.

CHORUS--Yes, I would the war were over, &c.

Yes, I would the war were ended,
And the cruel struggle o'er,
But our flag must be defended,
And our country as before.
Peace indeed, is Heaven's blessing
Though its joys are easy lost,
Still we'll battle for our nation,
Whatsoe'er it yet may cost.

CHORUS--Yes, I would the war were over, &c.