10 Favorite Poems

This week's post is a collection of my ten favorite poems!

They're a mix of funny, sunny, beautiful, and profound... I promise you they're worth a read!

There's no better way to relieve your stress ;)

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1.

FYI: Haikus are Japanese poems of seventeen syllables, in lines of five, seven and five.

2.

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3.

Far away a trill.

The nightingale does not know

That she consoles you.

–Jorge Luis Borges

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4.

Class Reunion

by Jim C. Carpenter

I read an ad in the paper one day In the Dallas Morning News All about my class reunion in A town near Santa Cruz I tried to decide if I should go To meet my friends and peers And see how classmates from the past Had aged in all these years I finally resolved that I should go And see what I could see And meet my friends from the senior class Of nineteen fifty-three I rented a tux and a black toupee Then brushed my shoes and hair I trimmed my mustache and my beard And changed my under wear I emptied the bottle of after shave And rented a limousine I brushed my teeth with Ultra-Bright Then gargled some listerine I soon arrived in splendid form With a flower on my chest Sporting a rented diamond ring And smelling my very best Now I was dressed in the finest garb Like a monarch at a feast When I discovered that no one there Seemed familiar in the least Well not a soul remembered me And my heart dropped to the floor When I remembered that I was in The class of fifty-four

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5.

Who Is She?

by Virginia Gronow

Her eyes are like diamonds that are shiny and bright Her hair is so soft and black as the night Her legs are long and her body is slender When you hold her close she is warm and tender Hiding amongst the shadows so tall Looking much closer she's not there at all Always in trouble with her curious way She stays out all night and sleeps in all day Creeps into your room and sits up on your bed Gives gentle kisses on your nose and your head Always expects you to open the door There isn't a sound as she walks on the floor She will not come over when you call Walks straight past as if you're not there at all If you want to work she wants to play Doesn't care if you forget her birthday Is she your wife or is she your lover Is she a friend or is she your mother She is none of those things I can tell you that This beautiful creature is only the cat

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6.

Going to My Happy Place

By Kelly Roper

When I feel the stress building, I go to my happy place. I close my eyes, lean back, and imagine the sun on my face.

I listen the birds sweetly chirping in the trees. To relax myself even more, I imagine a gentle breeze.

Once I feel the awful tension begin to slip away, I open my eyes and stretch, ready to restart my day.

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7.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

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8.

I Will Be Here

by Steven Curtis Chapman

If in the morning when you wake, If the sun does not appear, I will be here. If in the dark we lose sight of love, Hold my hand and have no fear, I will be here. I will be here, When you feel like being quiet, When you need to speak your mind I will listen. Through the winning, losing, and trying we'll be together, And I will be here. If in the morning when you wake, If the future is unclear, I will be here. As sure as seasons were made for change, Our lifetimes were made for years, I will be here. I will be here, And you can cry on my shoulder, When the mirror tells us we're older. I will hold you, to watch you grow in beauty, And tell you all the things you are to me. We'll be together and I will be here. I will be true to the promises I've made, To you and to the one who gave you to me. I will be here.

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9.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

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10.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

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Sources:

https://worldwideinterweb.com/funny-haiku-poems-gallery/

http://www.faena.com/aleph/articles/7-haikus-by-jorge-luis-borges/

https://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_098.htm

https://www.ellenbailey.com/poems/ellen_339.htm

https://stress.lovetoknow.com/Poems_About_Stress_Management

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314

http://www.beautiful-love-quotes.com/love-poems.html

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/nothing-gold-can-stay