In the End

Not strictly poetry, but this very short story caught my attention.

In the End
Neil Gaiman

In the end, the Lord gave Mankind the world. All the world was Man's, save for one garden. This is my garden, said the Lord, and here you shall not enter.

There was a man and a woman who came to the garden, and their names were Earth and Breath.

They had with them a small fruit which the Man carried, and when they arrived at the gate to the garden, the Man gave the fruit to the Woman, and the Woman gave the fruit to the Serpent with the flaming sword who guarded the Eastern Gate.

And the serpent took the fruit and placed it upon a tree in the center of the garden.

Then Earth and Breath knew their clothedness, and removed their garments, one by one, until they were naked; and when the Lord walked through the garden he saw the man and the woman, who no longer knew good from evil, but were satisfied, and He saw it was good.

Then the Lord opened the gates and gave Mankind the garden, and the Serpent raised up, and it walked away proudly on four strong legs; and where it went none but the Lord can say.

And after that there was nothing but silence in the Garden, save for the occasional sound of the man taking away its name from another animal.

Tourdion

More poetry from music. This is the text from a 14th Century Italian madrigal, recently performed by the Kensington Consort as part of their concert "Sacred and Profane." Obviously, this was from the profane part of the program...

Tourdion
attributed to Pierre Attaignant

When I drink light red wine, friend,
Everything goes round and round
So from now on I'll drink Anou or Arbois
Let's sing and drink and wage war on this bottle
Let's sing and drink, my friends, let's drink!

Good wine renders us merry, let's sing,
Forget our sorrows, let's sing!
While eating of a fat ham, on this bottle let us wage war!

Let us drink well, drink my friends, clink glasses,
Drink, merrily sing!
While eating of a fat ham, on this bottle let us wage war!