A Caricature

Daily Dose

From Collected Poems, by Gwendolyn Brooks

TO BE IN LOVE

To be in love 
Is to touch with a lighter hand. 
In yourself you stretch, you are well. 
You look at things 
Through his eyes. 
A cardinal is red. 
A sky is blue. 
Suddenly you know he knows too. 
He is not there but 
You know you are tasting together 
The winter, or a light spring weather. 
His hand to take your hand is overmuch. 
Too much to bear. 
You cannot look in his eyes 
Because your pulse must not say 
What must not be said. 
When he 
Shuts a door- 
Is not there_ 
Your arms are water. 
And you are free 
With a ghastly freedom. 
You are the beautiful half 
Of a golden hurt. 
You remember and covet his mouth 
To touch, to whisper on. 
Oh when to declare 
Is certain Death! 
Oh when to apprize 
Is to mesmerize, 
To see fall down, the Column of Gold, 
Into the commonest ash.

A Chicagoan Clerihew

GWENDOLYN BROOKS

Miss Gwendolyn Brooks
Wrote many good books,
Mostly poetry, but also prose
(Though less likely that you've heard of those.)

Daily Dose

From Selected Poems, by Gwendolyn Brooks

A BIRD

"A light and diplomatic bird
Is lenient in my window tree.
A quick dilemma of the leaves
Discloses twist and tact to me."

From The Womanhood