Public Relations
A letter from the general:
my duty is to kill; my power, to write;
my mission, to proclaim with great praise.
Under the story of the king is the king.
He calls me a very knowing man.
Cheerful poems
Cheerful poems — a collection of the best works on PoemShip.
Ratted Out
After dinner come several lush lutes.
While we were at play, my wife went to hunt,
and brought her bow here
to the hole of a fleet rat
at the bottom of a bed.
Of Ships and Bottles
A bottle in a ship in a boat:
what arms and flags?
Silk clothes, a rich
noise of fiddlers.
What will be the entertainment?
Jurates of the town
and the vice-admiral.
Where to drink?
In the lost ship,
in bed in my cabin,
where I gave the bottle
a merry good night.
Dreaming in Church
At sermon, I doze.
I remember a large man of small mien
who told me my convulsions gave
great contentment to the Lord.
I look over my accounts
and find a sea in my purse.
On the Contrary
The land troubles me,
and I am against the sea.
I cry out at the sight of a ship,
and hear bullets go hissing overhead
in a transport of joy.
I perceive unknown letters
in familiar words.
Strange things please me.
I put great confidence in the thoughts
of a thick-skulled fool.
Ordinary business must be
not served but feared.
The Radish Gospel
A breakfast of radishes:
the happiest act of oblivion
in the Church of No.
I disclaim any other government but fire
and in the body, joy.
No money or credit, I spend time, play music.
I came to bring this news
and a bottle of wine.
Drunk-think
The day being very pleasant,
I drank like a drunk, very pleasant,
and puzzled about finding out
the meaning of the holes
and merry spigot
in my head.
Plenty of Nothing
To play
and gain
and own
no money
exceeding
merry
I sing
Soirée
Let the meeting of yes
and never, bear and bottle,
stone and noon
be merry with wine
and wholly underwater,
laughing at a bass.
Bibliophile
I had an oyster busy as a rose,
a pleasant room bigger
than a broke-open safe:
a great large book.
Paradoxen
I had in my cabin
that dun cow, paradox:
that the sea was good at ninepins.
That we hear for our instruments—
locks singing to the blacksmith.
Imposter
The barber put my clothes on
and they look upon him as a cook.
All ate a great deal of nothing.
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