Favorite/Good Lve Poems

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe, 1849

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

One of my favorites by Erich Fried

What It Is

It is madness
says reason
It is what it is
says love

It is unhappiness
says caution
It is nothing but pain
says fear
It has no future
says insight
It is what it is
says love

It is ridiculous
says pride
It is foolish
says caution
It is impossible
says experience
It is what it is
says love.

At first I fell in love
with the brightness of your eyes
with your laugh
with your joy in life

Now I love your weeping too
and your fear of life
and the helplessness
in your eyes

But I will help you
with your fear
for my joy in life
is still the brightness of your eyes

"It is the color of light,
The shape of sound, high in the evergreens.
It lies suspended in hills,
a blue line in a red sky
I am looking at sound.
I am hearing the brightness of high bluffs and almond trees.
I am tasting the wilderness of lakes, rivers, and streams
Caught in an angle of song.
I am remembering water that glows in the dawn,
the motion tumbled in earth, life hidden in mounds.
I am dancing on a bright beam of light...
I am remembering love."

by: Pinkie Gordon Lane

Oh my. Folks, Pablo Neruda. Learn his poems, bust them out at the right time, and you can pimp your way into any girl's heart.

I'll post two of my faves below.

But my favorite Neruda line is: "I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees."'

If you like these poems and are interested in getting into Neruda, pursue the W.S. Merwin translations, Stephen Mitchell translations. AVOID ANYTHING TRANSLATED BY BEN BELLITT--HE TAKES THE SOUL OUT OF POEMS.

"Tonight I Can Write"
By Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, "The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

CRAZY!!! Who could get away with writing something like that these days. Here is a great sonnet:

Sonnet XVII

I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

His sonnet is so incredibly beautiful. I've been a fan of Neruda's since highschool when I analyzed his "Brown and Agile Child" for an English paper - and I have a vague memory of that last line - but I have to admit I've missed this one somehow. Beautiful! Thanks - yeah - anyone who could express his love like that woud be pretty irresistable. Now it makes me want to read about his life, who he loved, etc. Thanks for posting it.

this is one of my favourite love songs- the lyrics are beautiful by Gulzar

it is actually in hindi but i found an english traslation (which will have to do):


You, only you, of the many-colored spirit...

The shadow on my heart is your many colors, your many-colored spirit... 

You're beautiful; why are you so distant?

When you are near, you are feeling itself, many-colored one.

Are you a dream, or a shadow? many colored one...

Tell me now, when will this wild wind fall still?

Love is an uncontrollable fire, o Ghalib! (Ghalib: Urdu poet. This is a shair, or verse, from one of his 'ghazals' -- a form of poetry in which the poet often finds a way to include his own name in the verse. The verse is brilliant because 'gaalib' means 'overcoming' or 'triumphant,' so the line could literally read, 'No one has control over love; it is a 'gaalib,' or triumphant, fire)
It cannot be started on a whim, and cannot be extinguished if you try
Love is an uncontrollable fire, o Ghalib!

Her eyes touched me like so - 

lightly, lightly, and I was infatuated;

it filled my heart. 

You, only you, you are all the sweetness of living!

You are my longing, my longing itself

The flame of your body

fires my breath; 

desire urges me onward.

My pain begins to understand its purpose:  

You, only you... You are all the sweetness of living.

You, only you... You are my longing, longing itself!

You touch me like a whisper,

your eyes softened by silence.

On the floor I make my prayers,

some conscious, some unconscious.

I am entangled in your ways,

entangled in your embrace.

Let me disentangle my wits;

I am snared by your desires!

I am possessed by living, possessed by dying; 

save this, there is no peace.

You, only you,

you, only you, of the many-colored spirit...

Love is an uncontrollable fire, o Ghalib!
It cannot be started on a whim, and cannot be extinguished if you try
Love is an uncontrollable fire, o Ghalib!

Let me sleep in the lap of death!

Let me drown my body in your soul,

you of the many colors, of the many-colored soul