Thread of Poetry
Well, I tried to start a poetry thread and posted The Jumblies. Clearly not a 3FC type of poem as it did not come up! So I shall post some Gerard Manley Hopkins instead. Cant go wrong with GMH.
God’s Grandeur The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Whey do men then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smidge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs – Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. Gerard Manley Hopkins |
Good that worked. How about some Carol Ann Duffy? She is very fabulous. This is
Frau Freud (by Carol Ann Duffy) Ladies, for argument’s sake, let us say that I’ve seen my fair share of ding-a-ling, member and jock, of todger and nudger and percy and cock, of tackle, of three for a bob, of willy and winky; in fact, you could say, I’m as au fait with Hunt the Salami as Ms M Lewinsky – equally sick up to here with the beef bayonet, the pork sword, the saveloy, love-muscle, night-crawler, dong, the dick, prick dipstick and wick, the rammer, the slammer, the Rupert, the shlong. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve no axe to grind with the snake in the trousers, the wife’s best friend the weapon, the python – I suppose what I mean is, ladies, dear ladies, the average penis – not pretty…. the squint of its envious solitary eye….one’s feeling of pity…… |
and another by her, because she is great....
Mrs Icarus I’m not the first or the last to stand on a hillock watching the man she married prove to the world he’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock. Carol Ann Duffy |
And how about this....
from A Song of Life My body is not this little parcel of flesh, This bundle of nerves and tissues, these chalky bones; My body is a wide and blossoming meadow, My body is a mountain with wild torrents and rainbright stones. My hair is not this little tuft of fur, My hair is the leaves of the forests, green, golden and red; My blood is not these few poor drops in my veins, My blood is the wine of the world from a million vineyards shed. I do not only look form these two dim windows, I look from the countless eyes of heaven, the crowded stars; And the risen sun is my great and glowing Eye, And the setting sun that beholds the world through crimson bars V S de Pinto |
Oh, go on then.....one more....then lights out.
I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, To make me less afraid, more accessible, To loosen my heart Until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; To live so that which came to me as seed goes to the next as blossom And that which came to me as blossom Goes on as fruit. Dawna Markova |
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I was in danger of turning into a one-dimensional character who could only read weight loss material and discuss permitted foods and cheats. There is no cheating when feeding the mind and soul, huh? Thanks again. |
Thank you, Clovey! I'll post some, too...
"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for..........." John Keating |
THE FOOL
Since the wise men have not spoken, I speak that am only a fool; A fool that hath loved his folly, Yea, more than the wise men their books or their counting houses, or their quiet homes, Or their fame in men’s mouths; A fool that in all his days hath done never a prudent thing, Never hath counted the cost, nor recked if another reaped The fruit of his mighty sowing, content to scatter the seed; A fool that is unrepentant, and that soon at the end of all Shall laugh in his lonely heart as the ripe ears fall to the reaping hooks And the poor are filled that were empty, Tho’ he go hungry. ...... I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord God gave to my youth In attempting impossible things, deeming them alone worth the toil. Was it folly or grace? Not men shall judge me, but God. ......... I have squandered the splendid years: Lord, if I had the years I would squander them over again, Aye, fling them from me! For this I have heard in my heart, that a man shall scatter, not hoard, Shall do the deed of to-day, nor take thought of to-morrow’s teen, Shall not bargain or huxter with God; or was it a jest of Christ’s And is this my sin before men, to have taken Him at his word? ....... The lawyers have sat in council, the men with the keen, long faces, And said, ‘This man is a fool,’ and others have said, 'He blasphemeth;’ And the wise have pitied the fool that hath striven to give a life In the world of time and space among the bulks of actual things, To a dream that was dreamed in the heart, And that only the heart could hold. ......... O wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true? What if the dream come true? And if millions unborn shall dwell In the house that I shaped in my heart, the noble house of my thought? Lord, I have staked my soul, I have staked the lives of my kin On the truth of Thy dreadful word. Do not remember my failures, But remember this my faith. ....... And so I speak. Yes, ere my hot youth pass, I speak to my people and say: Ye shall be foolish as I; ye shall scatter, not save; Ye shall venture your all, lest ye lose what is more than all; Ye shall call for a miracle, taking Christ at His word. And for this I will answer, O people, answer here and hereafter, O people that I have loved shall we not answer together? Patrick Henry Pearse |
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic remember the limitations of being human. It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.” It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments. © Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Invitation published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 |
Oh, Ellis, I loved that last one! Wonderful! And Clovey, what a miraculous thread! Thank you! I'll have to bring a couple of favorites to work to share with everyone. Poetry is such a balm to the soul, and a joy...especially the hilarious ones you shared, Clovey!
:bravo: Here's an old standard and a favorite of mine: "Phenomenal Woman" Maya Angelou Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them They say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. |
My favorite poet, Robert Frost:
Reluctance by Robert Frost Out through the fields and the woods And over the walls I have wended; I have climbed the hills of view And looked at the world, and descended; I have come by the highway home, And lo, it is ended. The leaves are all dead on the ground, Save those that the oak is keeping To ravel them one by one And let them go scraping and creeping Out over the crusted snow, When others are sleeping. And the dead leaves lie huddled and still, No longer blown hither and thither; The last lone aster is gone; The flowers of the witch hazel wither; The heart is still aching to seek, But the feet question "Whither?" Ah, when to the heart of man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things, To yield with a grace to reason, And bow and accept the end Of a love or a season? |
This is fantastic fun! Lovely poems! I am feeling much renewed!
Here is another from Carol Ann Duffy. She has written a book called 'The World's Wife' and these are from that book. Anne Hathaway 'Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed...' (from Shakespeare's will) The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where he would dive for pearls. My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme to his, now echo, assonance; his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun. Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste. In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose. My living laughing love I hold him in the casket of my widow's head as he held me upon that next best bed. |
Here's one I keep on my bulletin board... :chin:
MYSELF I have to live with myself, and so I want to be fit for myself to know, I want to be able, as days go by, Always to look myself straight in the eye; I don't want to stand, with the setting sun, And hate myself for things I have done. I don't want to keep on a closet shelf A lot of secrets about myself, And fool myself, as I come and go, Into thinking that nobody else will know The kind of a man I really am; I don't want to dress up myself in sham. I want to go out with my head erect, I want to deserve all men's respect; But here in the struggle for fame and pelf I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show. I can never hide myself from me; I see what others may never see; I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself, and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self-respecting and conscience free. by Edward Albert Guest |
Clovey, that's wonderful! Where do you find them all? Any good suggestions for poets to read? (am I opening up Pandora's box? ;) )
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http://www.plagiarist.com/
Laurie, check that out... |
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