Poetry Solace: Of distance, interior and inventory

Works of an American poet, Dorothy Parker.. more playful and witty..

Distance

Were you to cross the world, my dear,

To work or love or fight,

I could be calm and wistful here,

And close my eyes at night.

It were a sweet and gallant pain

To be a sea apart;

But, oh, to have you down the lane

Is bitter to my heart.

Interior

Her mind lives in a quiet room,

A narrow room, and tall,

With pretty lamps to quench the gloom

And mottoes on the wall.

There all the things are waxen neat

And set in decorous lines;

And there are posies, round and sweet,

And little, straightened vines.

Her mind lives tidily, apart

From cold and noise and pain,

And bolts the door against her heart,

Out wailing in the rain.

Inventory

Four be the things I am wiser to know:

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:

Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:

Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:

Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.


Have a great weekend!!