Radigan Neuhalfen - Recommended

Radigan Neuhalfen

The End of the World

1892-1982 American

Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb
Quite unexpectedly, the top blew off:

And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing -- nothing at all.

Jenny Kissed Me

Leigh Hunt

1784-1859 English

Jenny kiss'd me when we met,

Jumping from the chair she sat in;

Time, you thief, who love to get

Sweets into your list, put that in!

Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,

Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,

Say I'm growing old, but add,

Jenny kiss'd me.

God said, “I made a man”

Jose Garcia Villa

1908-1997 Filipino

God said, “I made a man

Out of clay—

But so bright he, he spun

Himself to brightest Day

Till he was all shining gold,

And oh,

He was lovely to behold!

But in his hands held he a bow

Aimed at me who created

Him. And I said,

‘Wouldst murder me

Who am thy Fountainhead!’

Then spoke he the man of gold:

‘I will not

Murder thee! I do but

Measure thee. Hold

Thy peace!’ And this I did.

But I was curious

Of this so regal head.

‘Give thy name!’—‘Sir! Genius.’”

Acquainted With the Night

Robert Frost

1874-1938 American

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

William Butler Yeats

1865-1939 Irish

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.