Limpy• Show poetry

Some of my fave poems,

Mid-term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At ten o'clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying -
He had always taken funerals in his stride -
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrased
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble';
Whispers informed strangers that I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'closk the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple.
He lay in a four foot box, as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Seamus Heaney

   Seamus Heaney wrote this after the death of his four year old brother, Christopher who had been knocked down by a car while he was away at school. I had to study this poem for my school exams, and fell in love with it the first time I read it. (lucky for me!)


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 of snow:
I am the sunlight on ripened grain:
I am the gentle autumn's 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 star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there,
I did not die.

(Author Unknown) I believe this was found on a scrap piece of paper in the pocket of an unidentified soldier's pocket, after he had died during the war.


"Footprints"

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking
along the beach with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene, he noticed two sets
of footprints in the sand,
one belonging to him the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him
and he questioned the Lord about it.
Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you
most you would leave me.

The Lord replied,
My precious, precious child.
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you.

~Author unknown~