"Please don't break my heart of glass" - Donovan, from Sutras

"I sit in long contentment in his house
Wrapped in fire heat and sun heat
The trees break the sun into long lines
Which cross the floor
To meet the steady warmth of the coals
I lie on the sofa
A rug tucked around me by his gentle hands
Was never lover's bed so surely warm
I see him pass the window -- bowed, slow, sure
Carrying plants, seeds, weeds
All these he can still attend
But when he comes into the kitchen
He puts his hand on my head and says
"The beasties are looking fine"
"Tomorrow," I say "Tomorrow I'll come look"
Though I know he sold them all
A dozen years ago.
- Jean Mackie - from A Little Piece of Earth copyrighted 1983, as done by Jean Redpath on A Woman of Her Time

Sobbed my eyes out the first time I heard it and it still gets to me everytime. Jean's delivery and inflections are perfect.

From "THe Pattern" by Kim McKee, about a pattern of family names which were knit into sailor's sweaters:

"And this man shall not be nameless
When the claim him from the swell
There is so much more to this man"s life...
That the partten does not tell.

and,

"Of the loving nights with tallow lights
the laughter and the tears
It speaks his name but does not sing
the songs of all our years.