Reflections on Ice-Breaking 

Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.

— Ogden Nash

Intimates 

Don’t you care for my love? she said bitterly.

I handed her the mirror, and said:
Please address these questions to the proper person!
Please make all requests to head-quarters!
In all matters of emotional importance
please approach the supreme authority direct! 

So I handed her the mirror.
And she would have broken it over my head,
but she caught sight of her own reflection
and that held her spellbound for two seconds
while I fled. 

– David Herbert Lawrence

Only Until This Cigarette Is Ended 

Only until this cigarette is ended,
A little moment at the end of all,
While on the floor the quiet ashes fall,
And in the firelight to a lance extended,
Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended,
The broken shadow dances on the wall,
I will permit my memory to recall
The vision of you, by all my dreams attended.
And then adieu,—farewell!—the dream is done.
Yours is a face of which I can forget
The color and the features, every one,
The words not ever, and the smiles not yet;
But in your day this moment is the sun
Upon a hill, after the sun has set.

– Edna St. Vincent Millay

To a Young Girl 

My dear, my dear, I know
More than another
What makes your heart beat so;
Not even your own mother
Can know it as I know,
Who broke my heart for her
When the wild thought,
That she denies
And has forgot,
Set all her blood astir
And glittered in her eyes. 

— W. B. Yeats

Phenomenal Woman  

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms, the span of my hips,
the stride of my step, the curl of my lips.
I’m a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.
I walk into a room just as cool as you please,
and to a man, the fellows stand or fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me, a hive of honey bees. I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes, and the flash of my teeth,
the swing in my waist, and the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.
Men themselves have wondered what they see in me.
They try so much but they can’t touch my inner mystery.
When I try to show them they say they still can’t see. I say,
It’s in the arch of my back, the sun of my smile,
the ride of my breasts, the grace of my style.
I’m a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.
Now you understand just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud.
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 of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.

– Maya Angelou

Sonnet 130 

My mistres​s’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses s​ee I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

— W. Shakespeare

The Laughter Of Women  

The laughter of women sets fire 
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness

It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out

The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again

Prisoners held in underground cells
imagine that they see daylight
when they remember the laughter of women

It runs across water that divides,
and reconciles two unfriendly shores
like flares that signal the news to each other
What a language it is, the laughter of women,
high-flying and subversive.
Long before law and scripture
we heard the laughter, we understood freedom.

– Lisel Mueller

Nothing Gold Can Stay 

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

– Robert Frost

Thy Form Is Lovely 

Thy form is lovely and thine eyes are honeyed,
O’er thy face the pale
Clear light of love lies like a veil.
Bidding thee rise,
With outstretched hands,
Before thee Aphrodite stands.

– Sappho

Ode on a Grecian Urn (excerpt) 

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

– John Keats

? 

If you had the choice of two women to wed,
(Though of course the idea is quite absurd)

And the first from her heels to her dainty head
Was charming in every sense of the word:
And yet in the past (I grieve to state),
She never had been exactly “straight”.

And the second – she was beyond all cavil,
A model of virtue, I must confess;
And yet, alas! she was dull as the devil,
And rather a dowd in the way of dress;
Though what she was lacking in wit and beauty,
She more than made up for in “sense of duty”.

Now, suppose you must wed, and make no blunder,
And either would love you, and let you win her –
Which of the two would you choose, I wonder,
The stolid saint or the sparkling sinner?

– Robert William Service

Homage to my hips 

these hips are big hips.
they need space to move around in.
they don’t fit into little petty places.
these hips are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top. 

– Lucille Clifton

Inventory 

Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

– Dorothy Parker

Figs (excerpt)  

When Eve once knew in her mind that she was naked
She quickly sewed fig-leaves, and sewed the same for the man.
She’d been naked all her days before,
But till then, till that apple of knowledge, she hadn’t had the fact on her mind.

She got the fact on her mind, and quickly sewed fig-leaves.
And women have been sewing ever since.
But now they stitch to adorn the bursten fig, not to cover it.
They have their nakedness more than ever on their mind,
And they won’t let us forget it.

Now, the secret
Becomes an affirmation through moist, scarlet lips
That laugh at the Lord’s indignation.

What then, good Lord ! cry the women. 
We have kept our secret long enough. 
We are a ripe fig. 
Let us burst into affirmation. 

They forget, ripe figs won’t keep.
Ripe figs won’t keep.

– DH Lawrence

Unfortunate Coincidence 

By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying,
Lady, make a note of this —
One of you is lying.

– Dorothy Parker

Her Bum 

 ‘Does my bum look big in this? ’ She glared.
I gulped and stared upon the floor.
I must escape; the bedroom door
Was open. ‘Run! ’ my senses cried.
But I was numb – nerves were fried!‘

Well? ’ She scowled. I sought a subterfuge.
‘It’s absolutely huge! ’ I thought –
But how to tell her that–? A short
And blighted life she’d wreak on me.
And so to Wife, on bended knee

I prayed ‘Oh please release me from this hell! ’
She gave a yell: ‘So is it big? ’
I looked again – a mammoth rig
Was hanging down – but how to say?
An honest man would surely pay!

I stuttered ‘Err… well, yes it’s nice.’
Her voice was ice: ‘But in this? ’
I tried diversion with a kiss.
‘I love you’ also burbled out – but
I was heading for a rout.I drew a breath. ‘Be a man! ’ I growled
Inside this howling, quaking head.
‘Well actually love, ’ and now I’m dead,
‘It’s colossal – a real whopper… ’
The bedroom shook; I couldn’t stop her.I daren’t publish anymore…

– Mark R Slaughter 

Carpe Diem  

Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,
whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,
futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,
whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,
one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.
Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short:
limit that far-reaching hope.
The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:
Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can. 

– Horace

Julie Bowen’s Ass 

Once desire moved me.
Now lust suffices,
Fed by a lazy imagination.

Any request is answered.
“Julie Bowen, Modern Family MILF:
Might I see her ass please?”

With a shrug the Cloud delivers.
Spectacular ass! Allure and satisfaction!
Or so it seems for a moment.

– Erasmus Blue

In my life 

There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I’ve loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I’ll often stop and think about them
In my life I love you more
In my life I love you more

– John Lennon & Paul McCartney 

Hot and Cold 

A woman who my mother knows
Came in and took off all her clothes.

Said I, not being very old,
‘By golly gosh, you must be cold!

’‘No, no!’ she cried. ‘Indeed I’m not!
I’m feeling devilishly hot!’

– Roald Dahl

Georgia Totto O’Keeffe 

A girl who would be different, in habit, style, and dress;
A girl who doesn’t give a cent for men – and boys even less.

– School yearbook inscription

Politics 

How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has both read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!

– William Butler Yeats

Carpe Diem 

O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear! your true-love’s coming
That can sing both high and low;
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey’s end in lovers’ meeting—
Every wise man’s son doth know.
What is love? ‘tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty,—
Then come kiss me,
Sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

 – William Shakespeare

Helpful Suggestions 

She’d spent the day scattering criticisms
like seeds upon the wind,
trusting each one would find its mark
and flourish into improvement.
 
Now, he too sought a course correction.
From her present vantage,
she could no longer deny
that somewhere between caring and correcting,
she may have pushed too hard.
 
They’d been married long enough
for her to know exactly how she got there.  

 – Pretrained Transformer