Charles Bukowski – close to greatness

at one stage in my life I met a man who claimed to have visited Pound at St. Elizabeth's. then I met a woman who not only claimed to have visited E.P. but also to have made love to him—she even showed me certain sections in the Cantos where Ezra was supposed to have mentioned her. so...

George Gordon Byron – The Tear

When Friendship or LoveOur sympathies move;When Truth, in a glance, should appear,The lips may beguile,With a dimple or smile,But the test of affection's a Tear:Too oft is a smileBut the hypocrite's wile,To mask detestation, or fear;Give me the soft sigh,Whilst the soultelling eyeIs...

Emily Dickinson – Much Madness is divinest Sense (Poem 620)

Much Madness is divinest Sense - To a discerning Eye - Much Sense - the starkest Madness - ’Tis the Majority In this, as all, prevail - Assent - and you are sane - Demur - you’re straightway dangerous - And handled with a Chain -...

Wilfred Owen – At a Calvary Near the Ancre

One ever hangs where shelled roads part. In this war He too lost a limb, But His disciples hide apart; And now the Soldiers bear with Him. Near Golgotha strolls many a priest, And in their faces there is pride That they were flesh-marked by the Beast By whom the gentle Christ's...

Wilfred Owen – Apologia Pro Poemate Meo

I, too, saw God through mud-- The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled. War brought more glory to their eyes than blood, And gave their laughs more glee than shakes a child. Merry it was to laugh there-- Where death becomes absurd and life absurder. For power was...