Ten Thousand Angels (and other short poems)

Sometimes a short poem delivers more poetry. After all, brevity is the soul of wit.

TEN THOUSAND ANGELS
 By John Russell Mccarthy

TEN thousand angels dance
    On the point of a needle.

Ten thousand angels, perhaps—
But one moccasin-flower,
Making a valley holy,
Tells more of God.

.................

GLIMPSES
By Harold Vinal

I SAW a star flame in the sky,
         I heard a wild bird sing
And down where all the forest stirred
  Another answering.

All suddenly I felt the gleam,
  That made my faith revive;
Ah God, it takes such simple things
To keep the soul alive.

................


HOW DOTH THE LITTLE CROCODILE
By Lewis Carroll

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!

..................

VITAE SUMMA BREVIS
By Ernest Dowson

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

....................

WITCHCRAFT HAS NOT A PEDIGREE
By Emily Dickinson

Witchcraft has not a pedigree,
‘Tis early as our breath,
And mourners meet it going out
The moment of our death.

....................

THE DUST OF SNOW
By Robert Frost

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

....................

FIRST FIG
By Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!

....................

LINES ON AN ANTIQUITY OF MICROBES (also known simply as Fleas)
By Strickland Gillilan

Adam
Had 'em.