For catching passing ships, from poetryfoundation.org.
from Ships That Pass in the Night / by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
And catch the gleaming of a random light,
That tells me that the ship I seek is passing, passing.
20th-Century Poetry
DPF / Mistral
For Nobel Prize in Literature poet, Gabriela Mistral, from The Penguin Book of Women Poets.
from Slow Rain / Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957, Chile), translated by Gunda Kaiser and James Tipton
This water, sad and fearful,
like a child who suffers,
before touching the earth,
fades away.
DPF / Tollefsen
For visual artists, from The Penguin Book of Women Poets.
from Toulouse Lautrec / by Astrid Tollefsen (1897-1973, Norway)
the wine is red
the music loves itself its echo
DPF / Bødker
For silversmiths, from The Penguin Book of Women Poets (1978).
from Fury’s Field / by Cecil Bødker (b. 1927, Denmark), translated by Nadia Christensen
Where do you go with your fury,
child,
when the roads are blocked with words
DPF / Hippius (Gippius)
For division and birds, from The Penguin Book of Women Poets, edited by Carol Cosman, Joan Keefe, and Kathleen Weaver.
from A Grey Frock / by Zinaida Hippius (Gippius), Russia (1869-1945)
Girl in a grey frock . . .
Your braids seem cotton-spun
DPF / Blok
For years, from Selected Translations, by WS Merwin.
from To Zinaida Gippius / by Alexander Blok, Russia 1880-1921
Russia
gave birth to us in her years of anguish
and we can forget nothing.
DPF / Forsström
For babies and bees, from The Star By My Head, Poets from Sweden, edited and translated by Malena Mörling and Jonas Ellerström.
from Five months old, the summer / by Tua Forsström b. 1947
The summer sways in the breeze in tepid
shadows and light: she has already travelled
so far, she dreams dreams, she already has memories
DPF / Aragon
For cradles and birds, from The Poetry of Surrealism, An Anthology, edited by Michael Benedikt.
from Once and For All / by Louis Aragon (1897-1982)
What then is love?
–A gold ring around the clouds.
DPF / Toomer
For birth and its magic, from The Oxford Book of American Poetry, edited by David Lehman. Happy birthday, Baby Ezra!
from November Cotton Flower / by Jean Toomer (1894-1967)
Such was the season when the flower bloomed.
Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance.
DPF / Öijer
For stars and stardust, from The Star By My Head, Poets from Sweden, edited and translated by Malena Mörling and Jonas Ellerström.
from Eleven Hundred Eighty One / by Bruno K. Öijer, b. 1951
for your sake we should say
that you are standing on a cold, drafty castle courtyard
Daily Poetry Fragments {Semi-Daily} 