The Sea and the Man (from Anna Swir)

...The eternal sea

will never learn to laugh.

http://youtu.be/TU0MXN6tBwY

Seen from Above (from Wislawa Szymborska)

On a dirt road lies a dead beetle.
Three little pairs of legs carefully folded on his belly.
Instead of death's chaos- neatness and order.
The horror of this sight is mitigated,
the range strictly local, from witchgrass to spearmint.
Sadness is not contagious.
The sky is blue...

http://youtu.be/zlNDUnGNvfg

Daybreak (from Galway Kinnell)

On the tidal mud, just before sunset,
dozens of starfishes
were creeping.  It was
as though the mud were a sky
and enormous, imperfect stars

moved across it slowly...

http://youtu.be/_wUCJCDRpnA

Wild Geese (from Mary Oliver)

...You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves...

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

http://youtu.be/GEP-KgJkYnw

Dragonfly (from Gary Snyder)

Dragonfly
Dead on the snow
How did you come so high
Did you leave your seed child
In a mountain pool
Before you died

Living (from Denise Levertov)

The fire in leaf and grass
so green it seems
each summer the last summer.

The wind blowing, the leaves
shivering in the sun,
each day the last day.

A red salamander
so cold and so
easy to catch, dreamily

moves his delicate feet
and long tail.  I hold
my hand open for him to go.

Each minute the last minute.