Poetry

“So I got up in anger,

And took a book I had,
And put a ribbon on my hair
To please a passing lad,
And, ‘One thing there’s no getting by—
I’ve been a wicked girl,’ said I:
’But if I can’t be sorry, why,
I might as well be glad!’”
— EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, THE PENITENT

“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
— MARY OLIVER, WILD GEESE

“When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”
— MAYA ANGELOU, PHENOMENAL WOMAN

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
MAYA ANGELOU

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Emily Dickinson