José Martí - Simple Verses

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My poems please the brave:
My poems, short and sincere,
Have the force of steel
Which forges swords.

José Martí

I am an an honest man
From where the palm tree grows,
And I want, before I die,
to cast these verses from my soul.

José Martí

Once I reveled in a destiny
like no other joy I'd known:
when the warden — reading
my death sentence — wept.

José Martí

Wings I saw springing
from fair women's shoulders,
and from beneath rubble
I've seen butterflies flutter.

José Martí

My poems are like a dagger
Sprouting flowers from the hilt;
My poetry is like a fountain
Sprinkling streams of coral water.

José Martí

I come from all places
and to all places I go:
I am art among the arts
and mountain among mountains.

I know the strange names
of flowers and herbs
and of fatal deceptions
and magnificent griefs.

In night's darkness I've seen
raining down on my head
pure flames, flashing rays
of beauty divine.

José Martí

All is beautiful and unceasing,
all is music and reason,
and all, like diamond,
is carbon first, then light.

José Martí

I know that when the world
surrenders, pallid, to repose,
the murmur of a tranquil stream
through the deep silence flows.

José Martí