Locals share some favorite poems.

“Echolalia”
Dreaming at night he saw the stars become drunk
on the moon, then pass out—he snored, mumbled,
without her light.

Echoes of himself searched for an afterlife,
and his soul receded from his body like a mist.
Outside in the sun, trudging

high up on the snowy mountain, he mingled
with the clouds—then his dream,
echoing him,
billowed and drifted forever.
—J.E. Bennett

“Keep A Poem In Your Pocket”
Keep a poem in your pocket
And a picture in your head
And you’ll never feel lonely
At night when you’re in bed.
 
The little poem will sing to you
The little picture bring to you
A dozen dreams to dance to you
At night when you’re in bed.
 
So—
Keep a picture in your pocket
And a poem in your head
And you’ll never feel lonely
At night when you’re in bed.
—Beatrice De Regniers

“The Peace Of Wild Things”
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with
forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
—Wendell Berry

“Purple Cow”
I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.
—Gelett Burgess

On Robert Frost: “Robert Frost writes in really simple English. There is such deep meaning in that simplicity.”

Judge Maldonado has memorized many poems, including this one by Frost, which he recited for us:

“The Trial By Existence” (an excerpt)
Even the bravest that are slain
Shall not dissemble their surprise
On waking to find valor reign,
Even as on earth, in paradise;
Nor is there wanting in the press
Some spirit to stand simply forth,
Heroic in its nakedness,
Against the uttermost of earth.
The tale of earth’s unhonored things
Sounds nobler there than ‘neath the sun;
And the mind whirls and the heart sings,
And a shout greets the daring one.
But always God speaks at the end:
‘One thought in agony of strife
The bravest would have by for friend,
The memory that he chose the life.’
—Robert Frost

“Tiger, Tiger”
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
—William Blake

“In The Desert”
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
—Stephen Crane