Weekend Poems

 April 6 Poem: 

The Giant Cactus of Arizona Harriet Monroe 1860 –1936

The cactus in the desert stands 

    Like time’s inviolate sentinel, 

Watching the sun-washed waste of sands

     Lest they their ancient secrets tell. 

And the lost lore of mournful lands

     It knows alone and guards too well. 

Wiser than Sphynx or pyramid, 

     It points a stark hand at the sky, 

And all the stars alight or hid 

     It counts as they go rolling by;

And mysteries the gods forbid

     Darken its heavy memory. 

I asked how old the world was—yea,

     And why yon ruddy mountain grew

Out of hell’s fire. By night nor day 

     It answered not, though all it knew, 

But lifted, as it stopped my way, 

     Its wrinkled fingers toward the blue 

Inscrutable and stern and still 

     It waits the everlasting doom. 

Races and years may do their will—

     Lo, it will rise above their tomb, 

Till the drugged earth has drunk her fill

     Of light, and falls asleep in gloom. 

Source: https://poets.org/poem/giant-cactus-arizona

Barron's word selection:

Our PAW:

April 7:

The Octoroon By Georgia Douglas Johnson 1880 –1966

One drop of midnight in the dawn of life’s pulsating stream

Marks her an alien from her kind, a shade amid its gleam.

Forevermore her step she bends, insular, strange, apart—

And none can read the riddle of her strangely warring heart.

The stormy current of her blood beats like a mighty sea

Against the man-wrought iron bars of her captivity.

For refuge, succor, peace, and rest, she seeks that humble fold

Whose every breath is kindliness, whose hearts are purest gold.

Source: https://poets.org/poem/octoroon

Barron's word selection:

Our Paw: