Ex Libris NC (aka Lynn Roundtree)

SLEEPING IN THE FOREST I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens & seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me & the white fire of the stars but my thoughts... #Poetry #Poems #MaryOliver

My Love, Tonight Fionnuala is your nurse. You’ll hear her voice sing-song around the ward lifting a wing at the shore of your darkness. I heard that, in another life, she too journeyed through a storm, a kind of curse, with the ocean rising darkly around her... onbeing.org/poetry/leavi... #Poetry

LOVE AFTER LOVE The time will come when with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. poets.org/poem/love-af... #Poetry #Poems #Love #Self

It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. #Poetry #Poems #Journey #WendellBerry

W. S. Merwin, A SINGLE AUTUMN The year my parents died one that summer one that fall I moved into the house where they had lived their last years it had never been theirs and was still theirs in that way for a while echoes in every room without a sound merwinconservancy.org/poems/ #Poetry #Poems

Louise Glück, "The Night Migrations" This is the moment when you see again the red berries of the mountain ash and in the dark sky the birds’ night migrations. It grieves me to think the dead won’t see them— these things we depend on, they disappear... voetica.com/poem/9606 #Poetry #Poems #Death

I was welcomed here—clear gold of late summer, of opening autumn, the dawn eagle sunning himself on the highest tree, the mountain revealing herself unclouded, her snow tinted apricot as she looked west, Tolerant, in her steadfastness, of the restless sun... voetica.com/poem/13410 #Poetry #Poems

All I wanted was to say a few things clearly: the way a river listens, the green of a door in the evening, the way we carry our absences like a winter coat loaded with stones. I tried. I did my small work. At the end, let me become the wind I loved... #Poetry #Poems #Life #JosephFasano

"Ars Poetica," by Jorge Luis Borges (W. S. Merwin, trans.) To look at the river made of time and water And remember that time is another river, To know that we are lost like the river And that faces dissolve like water... sevengoodthings.com/the-art-of-p... #Poetry #Poems #Time #Life #Art

I found it in my pocket / it was a roadmap I knew not where it led but I followed it anyway in aimless wanderlust with all my nostalgias in hand it was an atlas of the soul / of consciousness of what I have committed & what awaits me... www.themarginalian.org/2026/10/17/b... #Poems #Poetry #Life

#Vote #Vote2026 #NC #Durham #Democracy

Wendell Berry, "To My Mother" I was your rebellious son, do you remember? Sometimes I wonder if you do remember, so complete has your forgiveness been. So complete has your forgiveness been I wonder sometimes if it did not precede my wrong... voetica.com/poets/844?2 #Poetry #Poems #Forgiveness

"Entering," by Rainer Maria Rilke Whoever you may be: step into the evening. Step out of the room where everything is known. Whoever you are, your house is the last before the far-off... yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/2010/12/ente... #Poetry #Poems #Eingang

Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts. Nor the woman in the ambulance Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly - A gift, a love gift Utterly unasked for By a sky Palely and flamily Igniting its carbon monoxides... voetica.com/poem/234 #Poetry #Poems #Plath

The Ides of March are no different than of October just seven months older and, perhaps, a little bit colder. And had Caesar only stayed away from the Curia of Pompey that day he might have lived, perhaps, a little bit longer. (Copyright 2015 by John Loftquis.) #Poetry #Poems #October #Caesar

"When Death Comes," by Mary Oliver When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn when death comes & takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me, and snaps his purse shut; when death comes like the measle-pox... voetica.com/poem/963 #Poetry #Poems #Death #Life

"Fou-rire," by Frank O'Hara It really is amusing that for all the centuries of mankind the problem has been how to kill enough people and now it is how not to kill them all #Poetry #Poems #NuclearWar #MAD

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! #Thanksgiving #Canada

"Low Fields and Light," by W. S. Merwin I think it is in Virginia, that place That lies across the eye of my mind now Like a gray blade set to the moon’s roundness, Like a plain of glass touching all there is... www.newyorker.com/magazine/195... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #Memory

I sit by the window all morning watching the planes on final approach. Each of them gathers & steadies itself like a horse clearing a jump. I look up to see them pass, so close I can see the rivets on their bellies, under their wings At first I feel ashamed, as if I had looked up a woman’s skirt...

“We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you & I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome in God's family.” (Desmond Tutu) #Welcome #Family

"October 10," by Wendell Berry Now constantly there is the sound, quieter than rain, of the leaves falling. Under their loosening bright gold, the sycamore limbs bleach whiter... www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2013/10/wend... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn

A bird flashed by as if mistaken then it starts. We do not think speed of life. We do not think why hate Jezebel? We think who’s that throwing trees against the house? Jezebel was a Phoenician. Phoenician thunderstorms are dry & frightening... poets.org/poem/thunder... #Poetry #Poems #AnneCarson

Isaiah awoke angry. Lapping at Isaiah’s ears black birdsong no it was anger. God had filled Isaiah’s ears with stingers. Once God and Isaiah were friends. God and Isaiah used to converse nightly, Isaiah would rush into the garden... www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48635/... #Poetry #Poems #Nobel

"Some October," by Barbara Crooker Some October, when the leaves turn gold, ask me if I've done enough to deserve this life I've been given. A pile of sorrows, yes, but joy enough to unbalance the equation... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2014/10/barb...

Wrong answers only. My bet: thanks for all the fish.

"Cold Quilt," by Michael McFee Our clear-eyed guide said it is the slick cotton that makes quilts cold. I wonder if it isn't the enduring dowry of bitterness stitched into them that makes us shiver... www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/michae... #Poetry #Poems #Quilts #Grief

W. S. Merwin, "Into October" These must be the colors of returning the leaves darkened by now but staying on into the bronzed morning among the seed heads and the dry stems and the umbers of October the secret season that appears on its own... merwinconservancy.org/poems/ #Poetry #Poems #Autumn

"Our age needs men and women who have the courage to do good even when it comes at a cost. Draw close to those who are alone, support those who are weary, and seek out those who have drifted away. Have the courage to forgive, to begin again, and to engage in dialogue." (Pope Leo XIV)

A PRAYER FOR THE MOUNTAINS Let these peaks have happened The hawk-haunted knobs & hollers The blind coves dense as meditation The white rock-face, the laurel hells The terraced pasture ridge With its broom sedge combed back by wind: Let these have taken place, let them be place... #Poetry #Poems

Male-throated under the shallow sea-fog Moaned a ship’s horn quivering the shorelong granite. Coyotes toward the valley made answer, Their little wolf-pads in the dead grass by the stream Wet with the young season’s first rain... poets.org/poem/october... #Poetry #Poems #October #RobinsonJeffers

FROM OUR SHADOWS There are so many words for sadness and for joy so few maybe none that can tell the sound of that secret spring welling up from before words though when its voice rises within us we want to be able to tell someone about it merwinconservancy.org/poems/ #Poetry #Poems #Sadness #Joy

The tobacco's long put in. Whiffs of it curing Are a memory that rustles the sweet gums. Pete and Joe paid out, maybe two weeks ago. The way their hard hands hook a bottle of Pepsi Cola, It always makes me lonesome for something more... oxfordamerican.org/web-only/thi... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #NC

OCTOBER Books litter the bed, leaves the lawn. It lightly rains. Fall has come: unpatterned, in the shedding leaves. The maples ripen. Apples come home crisp in bags. This pear tastes good. It rains lightly on the random leaf patterns. www.poemhunter.com/poem/october... #Poetry #Poems #Schuyler

I love to go out in late September among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries to eat blackberries for breakfast, the stalks very prickly, a penalty they earn for knowing the black art of blackberry-making... poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-mo... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #September #Kinnell

"Sonnet 73," by William Shakespeare That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang... poets.org/poem/time-ye... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn #Love #Cropsey

Kenneth C. Steven, KNOWLEDGE Sometimes everything is not wrong & the autumn morning blues into all that was ever meant the trees coppered by the water, the geese ragged in the low sky. There is no need to fear for time stands still & mirrored in the loch’s clear sheen x.com/arealmofwond... #Poems

Eavan Boland, NOCTURNE After a friend has gone I like the feel of it: The house at night. Everyone asleep. The way it draws in like atmosphere or evening. One-o-clock. A floral tea pot and a raisin scone. A tray waits to be taken down... www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3... #Poetry #Poems #Cats

Primo Levi, "After R. M. Rilke" Lord, it’s time; the wine is already fermenting. The time has come to have a home, Or to remain for a long time without one. The time has come not to be alone, Or else we will stay alone for a long time... syntaxfree.org/poem-after-r... #Poetry #Poems #Autumn

Shel Silverstein, "Pancake Poem" Who wants a pancake, Sweet and piping hot? Good little Grace looks up and says, "I'll take the one on top." Who else wants a pancake, Fresh off the griddle? Terrible Teresa smiles and says, "I'll take the one in the middle." #Pancake #Poetry #Poems #PancakeDay

In our souls everything moves guided by a mysterious hand. We know nothing of our own souls that are ununderstandable and say nothing. The deepest words of the wise man teach us the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows or the sound of the water when it is flowing. #Poetry #Poems #Machado

"Whim Wood," by Katharine Towers into the coppery halls of beech and intricate oak to be close to the trees as they whisper together let fall their leaves, and we die for the winter #Poetry #Poems #Autumn www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...

Go ahead, Lord, break our harp. We have thousands upon thousands of harps. We’ve fallen into Love’s arms. We’re torn by Love’s claws. We’re carried by Love’s music. Who cares if we lose a harp or flute? poets.org/poem/go-ahea... #Poetry #Poems #Heartbreak #Love #Heart #Rumi

"September" Then the flowers became very wild because it was early September and they had nothing to lose they tossed their colors every which way over the garden wall splattering the lawn shoving their wild orange red rain-disheveled faces into my window without shame #Poetry #Poems #GracePaley

“...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” -Vincent Willem van Gogh #PoetryLovers #poems #poetry #PoetryCommunity

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush I hear the level bee: A jar across the flowers goes, Their velvet masonry Withstands until the sweet assault Their chivalry consumes, While he, victorious, tilts away To vanquish other blooms... www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/172857... #Poetry #Poems #Bees

Clumsy at first, fitting together the years we have been apart, and the ways. But as the night passed and the day came, the first fine morning of April, it came clear: the world that has tried us and showed us its joy... poets.org/poem/kentuck... #Poetry #Poems #Friends #WendellBerry

It is a willow when summer is over, a willow by the river from which no leaf has fallen nor bitten by the sun turned orange or crimson. The leaves cling and grow paler, swing and grow paler over the swirling waters of the river as if loath to let go... poets.org/poem/willow-... #Poetry #Poems

“I confess there are several parts of this Constitution which I don't at present approve, but I'm not sure I shall never approve them. Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects."

"Working Together," by David Whyte We shape our self to fit this world and by the world are shaped again. The visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous... onbeing.org/poetry/worki... #Poetry #Poems #Flight