Poems & Selections

It Was Not Death, For I Stood Up

By Emily Dickinson
It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down;
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues, for noon.
It was not frost, for on my flesh I felt siroccos crawl,
– – Nor fire, for just my marble feet
Could keep a chancel cool.
And yet it tasted like them all;
The figures I have seen
Set orderly, for burial,
Reminded me of mine,
As if my life were shaven
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key;
And’t was like midnight, some,
When everything that ticked has stopped,
And space stares, all around,
Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,
Repeal the beating ground.
But most like chaos,– – stopless, cool,– –
Without a chance or spar,
– – Or even a report of land
To justify despair

To the Living, I am gone, To the sorrowful, I will never return; To the angry, I was cheated. But to the happy, I am at peace. To the faithful, I have never left. Talk to me, and I will hear, your prayers, they comfort me, your laughter makes me laugh, but don’t weep for […]
By Isla Paschal Richardson If I should ever leave you, Whom I love To go along the silent way…Grieve not. Nor speak of me with tears. But laugh and talk of me As if I were beside you there. (I’d come… I’d come, Could I but find a way! But would not tears and And […]
May God be with you and bless you, May you see your children’s children, May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple… With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on caviar and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up […]