What a field-day for the heat A thousand people in the street Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side.
—Stephen StillsWinter migrants gather In long black lines Along a silver sleek Heads held back, Throats Thrust toward An onshore rush.
—Tom PickardI raise up my voice — not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard . . . we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.
—Malala YousafzaiBe not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better. Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.
—Kenji MiyazawaToday we woke up to a revolution of snow, Its white flag waving over everything, The landscape vanished, Not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness.
—Billy CollinsWith a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, Without any doubting or quiddit, He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn’t be done, and he did it.
—Edgar GuestI heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
—Henry Wadsworth LongfellowOn the first day of winter, the earth awakens to the cold touch of itself. Snow knows no other recourse except This falling, this sudden letting go.
—Laura LushIt’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Ev’rywhere you go, There’s a tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well, It’s the sturdy kind that doesn’t mind the snow.
—Meredith WillsonI have been one acquainted with the night I have walked out in rain — and back in rain I have out-walked the furthest city light.
—Robert FrostThis morning I ask only The blessing of the crayfish, The beautitude of the birds; To wear the skin of the bear In my songs; To work like a man with my hands.
—Joseph BruchacTwisting, turning through the air Till all the trees stand stark and bare. Exhausted, drop to earth below To wait, like children, for the snow.
—Elsie N. BradyPressed between yellow leaves of a book that has never been opened. And the way up is the way down, the way forward is the way back.
—T. S. EliotElections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
—Abraham LincolnMornings crisp as carrot sticks With trees the tone of chimney-bricks; The sun sets, brilliant tangerine, As pumpkins grin for Halloween.
—Daniel WatersA dried leaf crumbles at a touch, But I have seen many Autumns With herons blowing like smoke Across the sky.
—Amy LowellEveryone of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal, pouring off every page like it was written in my soul from me to you.
—Bob DylanListen! The wind is rising, And the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, Now for October eves!
—Humbert WolfeWhite-fingered star, a little, childish thing, The busy needle of her light to bring, And stitch, and stitch, upon the dead day’s shroud.
—E.E. CummingsThere is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, Which through the summer is not heard or seen, As if it could not be, as if it had not been!
—Percy Bysshe Shelley