The Poet And His Songs by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

   The Poet And His Songs

As the birds come in the Spring,
   We know not from where;
As the stars come at evening
   From depths of the air; 

As the rain comes from the cloud,
   And the brook from the ground;
As suddenly, low or loud,
   Out of silence a sound; 

As the grape comes to the vine,
   The fruit to the tree;
As the wind comes to the pine,
   And the tide to the sea; 

As come the white sails of ships
   O’er the ocean’s verge;
As comes the smile to the lips,
   The foam to the surge; 

So come to the Poet his songs,
   All hitherward blow
From the misty realm, that belongs
   To the vast Unknown. 

His, and not his, are the lays
   He sings; and their fame
Is his, and not his; and the praise
   And the pride of a name. 

For voices pursue him by day,
   And haunt him by night,
And he listens, and needs must obey,
   When the Angel says, “Write!”

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Three Miscellaneous Haiku by Dennis Lange

Color Paradox

A brown cow
Turns the lush green grass
To white milk.

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Hello?

One lone tree
Waiting for shoutout
‘Cross whiteout.

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Saline Sorrow

Salt tears shed
Slide to salty sea
Sad waves wash.

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Paradox – photo by Michal Zacharzewski at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mhilVMW/A+brown+cow

Help – photo by Jay Simmons at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mMfvJUg/winter

Sorrow – photo by Sanj Gjenero at http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/nl9j5Ro/crying+by+the+sea

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* The haiku I write are lines of 3-5-3 syllables instead of 5-7-5.

See Haiku article here for explanation, if needed: https://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/haiku/

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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2013.

 

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Sea-Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

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