I demand Poetry!

In honor of National Poetry month, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite poems. If I can find them, I'll also post a few from my high school days written by some friends of mine. Jenni Walton-Cragun (as I like to think of her) came up with a few gems when we were learning masculine and feminine rhyme scheme during AP English. I'll see what I can find, but until then, you'll have to be satisfied with these poems by a somewhat more well-known crowd.

"Credo" by Jack London

I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out

in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom

of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.

"Cow Poetry" by Gary Larsen

"Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I've eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there's no getting off.