Valentine’s Day – Poetry Crisis Line

Poetry Crisis Valentines 2004

Poetry Crisis Valentines 2024

Gil Scott-Heron

Roses are red,
butterflies are free,
the revolution will not
be shown on TV

Robert Browning

Roses are red,
violets are blue.
If I strangle you now
will you always be true?

Coleridge (Kubla Khan)

Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I’ll build you a pleasurdome
in Xanadu.
I decree you are my valentine!

Shakespeare

Blue is the violet,
red is the rose,
which, by some other name,
would still please the nose.

Carl Sandburg

Roses are red
Sugar is sweet
The fog rolls in on
Little cat feet

Douglas Adams

Roses are red,
Violets are Blue,
The ulitimate answer
Is 42.

Tragic Shakespearean Valentine Cards

The Tragic Valentines of William Shakespeare:

Hamlet

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
To be? Not to be?
Which one should I do?

In thy orisons be all my sins remembered, valentine!

Cordelia

Daisies are pressed
Under a shoe,
Words can’t express
My love for you.

Lord M*****h

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Is this a dagger
That points me to you?

Shylock

Your blood is red,
My blood is too,
If you prick me, I bleed
Exactly like you.

The Weyard Sisters

Swamp grass is tall, toadstools are cute,
The recipe calls for more eye of newt.

I’ll meet you in thunder, lightning, or in rain, valentine!

Othello

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Trust you almost as much
As some guy on my crew.

Romeo

Roses are cut.
We have to set limits:
I’ll die for you, but
I won’t wait five minutes.

Poetry Crisis Valentines 2022

Alexander Pope
Violets are blue,
roses are red,
let us rush in
where angels won’t tread.

Jenny Joseph
Roses are red,
violets are blue.
When I’m an old woman
I’ll dress like that too.

Elizabeth Bishop
Roses are found
on vines interlacing.
It’s not hard to master
the art of misplacing.

Gregory Corso
Exlposives are deadly,
violence is loud.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Can I get you a shroud?

Mark Strand
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
air is an obstacle
that we walk through.

Alberto Rios
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
the border is what
separates me from you.

James W. Hall
Woses aww wed,
but what makes me blue
is I’m SPIDERMAN.
Aww you SPIDERMAN too?

Maya Angelou
Roses are red,
violets are blue,
still I rise. Can I get
a rise out of you?

Poetry Crisis Valentines 2021

This year’s Poetry Crisis Valentines:

ALLEN GINSBERG
Roses are red,
Mushrooms are crude.
I saw your great mind
starving, mad, nude.

ADRIENNE RICH
Roses are red,
violets are blue;
This is the oppressor’s language,
but I need it with you.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Some roses are red,
Some roses are pink;
We’re surrounded by water
With nothing to drink.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS
Roses are fed
by insects and worms.
Does Man love Art?
Man visits, but squirms.

WILLIAM BLAKE
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
I told not my Love
& how my Love grew!

Roses are dead,
Violets are through.
I told you my love.
I no longer love you.

ALEXANDER POPE
Roses are red,
Shakespear’s a hack.
The hair on your head
Is under attack!

AMANDA GORMAN
Roses are red,
violets are blue.
Competent leadership
should not seem so new!

Category: Valentine’s Day