Seventy-Four
You showed me
the door. Now
I am alone
in wilderness.
Ah! That then
was kindness.
Poesie sull''argomento: kindness
Poesie sull''argomento «kindness» su Poets.by.
Ninety-Three
The rough-spoken
dory-boatman
surprises himself —
offering a drink
to me.
Eighty-Three
I came to a shelter
able to walk
no farther in rain.
There I found,
with a note
"You will need these"
a pair of dry boots:
my size.
Emily
She had a garden full of herbs.
And many another pleasant thing.
Like pink round asters in the fall.
Blue flags, white flags a week in spring.
Housewives ran in each hour or so.
For sprigs of thyme, mint, parsley too;
For pans to borrow, or some meal;
She was the kindest thing they knew.
Tall, and half slender, slightly grey.
With gay, thin lips, eyes flower-clear.
She bragged her stock was Puritan;
Her usual mood was Cavalier.
Ample of deed; clipped, warm of speech.
Each day in some large-flowered gown.
She went the rounds to sad, to sick
Saint, humorist to the faded town.
Exit
For what we owe to other days,
Before we poisoned him with praise,
May we who shrank to find him weak
Remember that he cannot speak.
For envy that we may recall,
And for our faith before the fall,
May we who are alive be slow
To tell what we shall never know.
For penance he would not confess,
And for the fateful emptiness
Of early triumph undermined,
May we now venture to be kind.
Hannah Armstrong
I wrote him a letter asking him for old times’ sake
To discharge my sick boy from the army;
But maybe he couldn’t read it.
Then I went to town and had James Garber,
Who wrote beautifully, write him a letter.
But maybe that was lost in the mails.
So I traveled all the way to Washington.
I was more than an hour finding the White House.
And when I found it they turned me away,
Hiding their smiles.
Then I thought: “Oh, well, he ain’t the same as when I boarded him
And he and my husband worked together
And all of us called him Abe, there in Menard.”
As a last attempt I turned to a guard and said:
“Please say it’s old Aunt Hannah Armstrong
From Illinois, come to see him about her sick boy
For Pity
Men are brought low by blame.
So that they live with shame.
Kindness and love and praise
Are strong to heal and raise.