Short Poems

Softens the air so cold & rude
What can the heart do less?
If Earth puts off her savage mood,
We should learn gentleness.

I have an arrow that can find its mark,
A mastiff that will bite without a bark.

Health never did desire the grave for rest
Tis pain made hopeless waits that dark behest
& want with whom dark shadows ever run
Where wealth thrusts in & so claims all the sun

a shooting star—
in love with someone, not knowing
where it will lead me

Everything passes and vanishes;
Everything leaves its trace;
And often you see in a footstep
What you could not see in a face.

Riding on a horsie, never standing still,
Doun by St. Martins, and owre by Newmill,
In by Guildtown and round by Cargill,
Richt up Burstbane, and owre by Gallowhill,
Yont by the Harelaw, and doun to Wolfhill,
And that's the way to ride a horse and never stand still.

The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?

Raindrops are striking a mountain mulberry leaf.
A mountain dove is flying away.
An inchworm on a stump raises its head,
looks where the mountain dove is flying.

Little mouse:
Are you
some rat's little child?
I won't love you if you are.

The very acme of my woe,
The pivot of my pride,
My consolation, and my hope
Deferred, but not denied.
The substance of my every dream,
The riddle of my plight,
The very world epitomized
In turmoil and delight.