Author Topic: Poetry Page  (Read 755884 times)

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #440 on: June 10, 2009, 09:58:30 AM »
Let's Celebrate Summer
Welcome to our Poetry Page.
Our haven for those who listen to words
that open hearts, imagination, and who allow our feelings be known
about the poems we share - Please join us.

Summer time fills our mind-pictures with
long, lazy picnics by the river,
old-fashioned ice cream socials,
a day at the seaside,
parades, flags, fireworks and
burgers hot off the grill.  

Poetry can be part of life rather than a thing apart.
Share with us your:
Warm weather poems,
Summer recipes and entertainment that
Celebrate poets and poems,
Summer craft idea using poetry.


Promise to follow through using poetry in
a weekly outdoor happening and
make this summer the best it can be!


Discussion Leaders: BarbStAubrey & Fairanna




Well shoot, of course that is the song!  DUH!  I couldn't pull it up in my thoughts.  Thank you Babi, now I do believe I've got it!! 8)
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #441 on: June 10, 2009, 02:44:55 PM »
I love that passage from the bible. I even memorized some of the words in Hebrew:

Lah col, zmahn - to everything there is a season
Ve et le col chafetz tachat ha shamayim -- and a time for every purpose under heaven

(transliteration mine -- please excuse mistakes. I knew how to type in Hebrew letters on my old computer, but haven't tried it on the new one).

Here is the song, with Joan Collins and Pete Seiger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DejUPN4SksU&feature=PlayList&p=3B151BA8BE2D2FAE&index=0&playnext=1


Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #442 on: June 11, 2009, 08:53:14 AM »
How about one from our beloved Emily Dickinson.
 
A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer’s noon —
A depth — an Azure — a perfume —
Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see —

Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle — shimmering grace
Flutter too far for me —

The wizard fingers never rest —
The purple brook within the breast
Still chafes it narrow bed —

Still rears the East her amber Flag —
Guides still the sun along the Crag
His Caravan of Red —

So looking on — the night — the morn
Conclude the wonder gay —
And I meet, coming thro’ the dews
Another summer’s Day!
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #443 on: June 12, 2009, 12:08:09 AM »
Wow storms - rain and hail blowing in these mountains is a sight to behold - here is a poem fitting to the experience except we were caught in the car port that is 50 feet or so from the house - the wind blew the trees and the hail beat down - the rain was so hard on the metal roof I could only think of a full metal band orchestra.

Summer Storm
  
 The panther wind
Leaps out of the night,
The snake of lightning
Is twisting and white,
The lion of thunder
Roars -- and we
Sit still and content
Under a tree --
We have met fate together
And love and pain,
Why should we fear
The wrath of the rain!

Sarah Teasdale

 
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #444 on: June 12, 2009, 09:01:08 AM »
  I like that poem, BARB.  I hope y'all were in the car, out of the wind.  Hail is no joke; those things can hurt[/i]
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #445 on: June 12, 2009, 09:49:18 AM »
HAIL yes, stay inside.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #446 on: June 15, 2009, 02:05:38 PM »
Elizabeth Bishop - Sandpiper   
1.

The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.
 


The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.
 

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #447 on: June 16, 2009, 08:30:36 AM »
JoanK
Quote
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.
  How clever! I love it.

Here's one by James Henry Leigh Hunt. (I didn't know 'James Henry'. I thought
his name began with Leigh.)


A Night-Rain in Summer

Open the window, and let the air
Freshly blow upon face and hair,
And fill the room, as it fills the night,
With the breath of the rain's sweet might.
Hark! the burthen, swift and prone!
And how the odorous limes are blown!
Stormy Love's abroad, and keeps
Hopeful coil for gentle sleeps.

Not a blink shall burn to-night
In my chamber, of sordid light;
Nought will I have, not a window-pane,
'Twixt me and the air and the great good rain,
Which ever shall sing me sharp lullabies;
And God's own darkness shall close mine eyes;
And I will sleep, with all things blest,
In the pure earth-shadow of natural rest.
 
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #448 on: June 16, 2009, 08:35:24 AM »
That is beautiful Babi- thank you.
I know exactly how that poet feels.

Joan- I love this
The beach hisses like fat...

wonderful poetry.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #449 on: June 16, 2009, 01:48:46 PM »
Today my brain and leg muscles are hissing like fat - I am exhausted -

18 hours driving yesterday - went by way of I-10 - over to and then straight down from Atlanta to Mobile and then across - I knew I would do the last bit in the dark and I just did not want to put up with all those small towns on the way down from Shriveport to Round Rock on 79 - all those towns have increased in size and they now have traffic lights and ring roads -

I-10 is new from about Lafayette to Baton Rouge [that does not look like it has had any tax dollars spent on its road] Even the gas stations along 10 north of New Orleans are all new.  On the other side of the bridge in the industrial area of Lake Charles there is a pile of what I thought was a rusty sided office building - as I drove over the bridge it became clearer and it was a pile about 4 stories high and as large as a huge office building of flattened vehicles all turning to rust - I bet from Katrina.

Today I am dead on my feet - I get a bit done between long naps.

Here is one of many translations of a night poem
by TuFu 767A.D.

My Reflection by Night

 Some scattered grass. A shore breeze blowing light.
A giddy mast. A lonely boat at night.
The wide-flung stars o’erhang all vasty space.
The moonbeams with the Yangtze’s current race.
How by my pen can I to fame attain?
Worn out, from office better to refrain.
Drifting o’er life — and what in sooth am I?
A sea-gull floating twixt the Earth and Sky.

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #450 on: June 16, 2009, 02:44:58 PM »
Another year
How have I grown so old?
Bird disappearing among clouds.

Basho

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #451 on: June 16, 2009, 02:53:41 PM »
Barb, my husband and I have traveled extensively in the USA and I will say without a doubt that I 10 is the worst Interstate in our nation.  I hate that drive!!!!  Boring.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #452 on: June 17, 2009, 08:52:34 AM »
I endorse that sentiment, ALF.  I don't like I-10 either, but it is the straightest
route along the southern edge of the country.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #453 on: June 17, 2009, 02:31:41 PM »
Meadowlarks

In the silver light after a storm
  Under  dripping boughs of new gree,
I take the low path to hear the meadowlarks
  Alone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.

What have I to fear in life or death
  Who have known three things: the kiss in the night,
The white flying joy when a song is born,
  And meadowlarks whistling in silver light.

Sara Teasdale

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #454 on: June 17, 2009, 02:45:21 PM »
But for incredible scenery nothing beats I-10 between Sonora and El Paso - coming off one Sierra chain after the other across those magnificent flats it is as if you could see forever. What I also like is from Mobile west everyone drives 80 to 85 - no dawdling on this road and no one seems hesitant driving past an 18-wheeler as they are hesitant on I-20. We each have our favorites and I-10 is one of mine.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #455 on: June 17, 2009, 02:51:09 PM »
night driving

night driving along the Sacramento River,
top of the red cliffs on the east side—
we looked out upon the blanket of
tiny white lights
thrown across the northernmost tip
of the valley floor.

how warm those Redding summer nights,
all the windows down,
wind in our hair,
a.m. radio playing early 60's
folk and rock 'n roll.
we drove and drove,
talked and laughed,
sang along with Dylan, the Beatles,
the Beach Boys.

at the north end of Hilltop Drive
we would pull off, get out,
smell the dry summer hills
of grass, manzanita, redbud, oak, and pine.
leaning back against a warm fender,
we looked up at the
black and diamond night,
Altair, Deneb, and Vega herding the
summer star flocks across the
silent Redding skies.

how will it all turn out, we asked,
Kennedy shot down less than a year before,
and all this trouble in Viet Nam.
we wondered where we would be,
where our friends would be,
in ten, twenty, thirty years.
college called, we were ready to go,
our goals high as the night cliffs,
our questions running south with the river
out of town.

below us the glittering distant lights
of our childhoods,
the familiar, dark, swift currents
winding through this green, quiet town—
how could we know,
how could we tell,
that we would never really
come home again
after that summer.

1996 by Leslye Layne Russell
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #456 on: June 17, 2009, 03:01:13 PM »
Night Traveler
  
  I am a night traveler
Travel all through the night
And my bed is a sailing boat
I reach for my bed every night
And take a trip places far away
To see new things and people

I travel past the harbors
Full of anchored boats
I travel past the beaches
With swaying coconut trees

I watch the waves
Embracing the shore
I watch the kids playing
And reach out my arms

Then I touch my own bed
Here comes a flash
And my boat is back
And I am back in bed

My boat sails every night
And reach home with morning light
Never did it anchor once
Still traveling every day
Hoping to reach
That unknown destination

by Deepa Thomas

 
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #457 on: June 17, 2009, 03:03:13 PM »
 His poem reminds me of one I read often as a child.

My Bed is a Boat
  
  My bed is like a little boat;
Nurse helps me in when I embark;
She girds me in my sailor's coat
And starts me in the dark.

At night I go on board and say
Good-night to all my friends on shore;
I shut my eyes and sail away
And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take,
As prudent sailors have to do;
Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,
Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer;
But when the day returns at last,
Safe in my room beside the pier,
I find my vessel fast.

by Robert Louis Stevenson


 
 
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #458 on: June 18, 2009, 08:06:17 AM »
Quote
Alone and high-hearted as if I were a queen.
JoanK, I looked at that line and had to think that it was a pleasant
poetic license. No queen, poor soul, is ever allowed to go wandering
alone! 

Barb, it must be your liking for flat scenery that makes the difference.
To me, 'flat' simply means there is nothing to see. Like Ms.(?) Russell,
I like to see hills and trees. (I love trees!) And for me, a spectacular
sight is coming over a hill at night and seeing a shining panorama of
lights.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

bellemere

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #459 on: June 18, 2009, 11:51:32 AM »
These summer poems are the closest summer has come to me in Massachusetts.  One gray or rainy day after another.
Here is one by Gerard Manley Hopkins, that has  beautiful imagery but sounds like he didn't really finish it, and just gave up.
                                            A Windy Day in Summer

The vex'd elm-heads are pale with the view
Of a mastering heaven utterly blue;
Swoll'n is the wind that in argent billows
Rolls across the labouring willows;
The chestnut fans are loosely flirting,
Ahd bared is the aspen's silky skirting;
The sapphire pools are smit with white
And silver-shot with gusty light;
While the breeze by rank and measure
Paves the clouds on the swept azure.





BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #460 on: June 18, 2009, 01:11:50 PM »
We also have had rain and more rain, along with several hail storms - I met someone last night who keeps his boat out on the Lake - Austin is located either side of the Colorado which is dammed in 6 locations creating lakes - some are larger than others and some look just like the contained river that it is - http://www.highlandlakes.net/

About 20 minutes away is one of the larger lakes, Lake Travis and when the water is low, because of draught, little islands of land show along with the tops of long ago dead trees that were not felled before the dam was closed. Well with all this rain most of us were sure the Lakes were back up again - but NO! Travis is still 23 feet below normal and the water level on Lake Travis is decreasing by about a foot a week increasing the danger to boaters.

We have been in a draught for going on 3 years now - and it will take far more rain than we have had to fill up the water table in most areas of the country.

And so, we need to be wishing for Gray Skies and start thinking of how we can make a Gray Sky day meaningful to fill up our memory banks.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #461 on: June 18, 2009, 01:13:56 PM »
this one is for you Babi

Trees Against The Sky
   
 
  Pines against the sky,
Pluming the purple hill;
Pines . . . and I wonder why,
Heart, you quicken and thrill?
Wistful heart of a boy,
Fill with a strange sweet joy,
Lifting to Heaven nigh -
Pines against the sky.

Palms against the sky,
Failing the hot, hard blue;
Stark on the beach I lie,
Dreaming horizons new;
Heart of my youth elate,
Scorning a humdrum fate,
Keyed to adventure high -
Palms against the sky.

Oaks against the sky,
Ramparts of leaves high-hurled,
Staunch to stand and defy
All the winds of the world;
Stalwart and proud and free,
Firing the man in me
To try and again to try -
Oaks against the sky.

Olives against the sky
Of evening, limpidly bright;
Tranquil and soft and shy,
Dreaming in amber light;
Breathing the peace of life,
Ease after toil and strife . . .
Hark to their silver sigh!
Olives against the sky.

Cypresses glooming the sky,
Stark at the end of the road;
Failing and faint am I,
Lief to be eased of my load;
There where the stones peer white
in the last of the silvery light,
Quiet and cold I'll lie -
Cypresses etching the sky.

Trees, trees against the sky -
O I have loved them well!
There are pleasures you cannot buy,
Treasurers you cannot sell,
And not the smallest of these
Is the gift and glory of trees. . . .
So I gaze and I know now why
It is good to live - and to die. . . .
Trees and the Infinite Sky.

Robert W. Service

 
 
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #462 on: June 18, 2009, 01:21:38 PM »
And Bellemere this is for  you - how far is it to Thoreau's hut in the woods from where you live?

The Summer Rain
   
  My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read,
'Twixt every page my thoughts go stray at large
Down in the meadow, where is richer feed,
And will not mind to hit their proper targe.

Plutarch was good, and so was Homer too,
Our Shakespeare's life were rich to live again,
What Plutarch read, that was not good nor true,
Nor Shakespeare's books, unless his books were men.

Here while I lie beneath this walnut bough,
What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,
If juster battles are enacted now
Between the ants upon this hummock's crown?

Bid Homer wait till I the issue learn,
If red or black the gods will favor most,
Or yonder Ajax will the phalanx turn,
Struggling to heave some rock against the host.

Tell Shakespeare to attend some leisure hour,
For now I've business with this drop of dew,
And see you not, the clouds prepare a shower--
I'll meet him shortly when the sky is blue.

This bed of herd's grass and wild oats was spread
Last year with nicer skill than monarchs use.
A clover tuft is pillow for my head,
And violets quite overtop my shoes.

And now the cordial clouds have shut all in,
And gently swells the wind to say all's well;
The scattered drops are falling fast and thin,
Some in the pool, some in the flower-bell.

I am well drenched upon my bed of oats;
But see that globe come rolling down its stem,
Now like a lonely planet there it floats,
And now it sinks into my garment's hem.

Drip drip the trees for all the country round,
And richness rare distills from every bough;
The wind alone it is makes every sound,
Shaking down crystals on the leaves below.

For shame the sun will never show himself,
Who could not with his beams e'er melt me so;
My dripping locks--they would become an elf,
Who in a beaded coat does gayly go.

Henry David Thoreau

 
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #463 on: June 18, 2009, 02:23:33 PM »
Wonderful poems. The ones about a bed being a ship reminds me of the autobiography of Christopher Reeves, written after the accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He wrote that during the day he was imprisoned in his bed, but at night, he was free -- in his dreams he would fly all over the world, and go wherever he wanted.

BARB: for beauty, I'll match you with the place where I was yesterday: Point Vincente in Palos Verdes California. This is the place where PatH took the picture of the California poppy that shows up in the heading often. It is a cliff, overlooking the sea, next to a lighthouse. The sea reflects the color of the sky and yesterday it was the deepest blue I've ever seen it. The poppies were almost gone, but red tailed hawks were gliding in the thermals, as were pelicans and gulls. There were seals on the rocks and, far off, a mother blue whale and her cub were spouting.

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #464 on: June 19, 2009, 08:30:49 AM »
 Thank you most kindly, Barb. Not only trees, but good old Robert Service, too, for the gift and glory of trees. . . .

I never knew Thoreau wrote poetry! This is one that draws you in to share the
the wonders of the day.

Oh, Joan..I wish I could have been with you! 
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

bellemere

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #465 on: June 19, 2009, 10:10:42 AM »
thanks for the Thoreau poem.  I grew up about a half hour ride from Concord and Walden Pond , as well as Orchard House (the Alcotts) and the homes of Emerson and Hawthorne. Not to mention "the rude bridge that arched the flood" where the embattled farmers "fired the shot heard round the world" .  Now it would take me longer, but a daugher lives in the town next to Concord/
But Emily Dickinson's house is now close by to the north, and Herman Melville's and Edith Wharton's to the west.
So much history so close, one reason I love New England.


Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #466 on: June 20, 2009, 09:09:08 AM »
Bellemere, New England is a wonderful place to visit...right up to -50 deg.   ;)

This is a long poem, but I like it very much.

 
 
by William Blake (from Songs of Experience, 1794)
 
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn, --
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay, --

How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

MarjV

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #467 on: June 23, 2009, 11:39:22 AM »
Super great summer posies!   They are all so good.

Especially want to remark on the tomato poem - golly, what a description .

And I love to watch sand pipers scurry along the beach and hear the small swishes of the water as it goes in and out.  So that poem really brought mind pics.


BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #468 on: June 23, 2009, 01:16:46 PM »
Tried to find a poem with all your imagery Joan but no luck...

My Lighthouses
By Helen Hunt Jackson

At westward window of a palace gray,
Which its own secret still so safely keeps
That no man now its builder's name can say,
I lie and idly sun myself to-day,
Dreaming awake far more than one who sleeps,
Serenely glad, although my gladness weeps.

I look across the harbor's misty blue,
And find and lose that magic shifting line
Where sky one shade less blue meets sea, and through
The air I catch one flush as if it knew
Some secret of that meeting, which no sign
Can show to eyes so far and dim as mine.

More ships than I can count build mast by mast
Gay lattice-work with waving green and red
Across my window-panes. The voyage past,
They crowd to anchorage so glad, so fast,
Gliding like ghosts, with noiseless breath and tread,
Mooring like ghosts, with noiseless iron and lead.

O ships and patient men who fare by sea,
I stretch my hands and vainly questioning cry,
Sailed ye from west? How many nights could ye
Tell by the lights just where my dear and free
And lovely land lay sleeping? Passed ye by
Some danger safe, because her fires were nigh?

Ah me! my selfish yearning thoughts forget
How darkness but a hand's-breadth from the coast
With danger in an evil league is set!
Ah! helpless ships and men more helpless yet,
Who trust the land-lights' short and empty boast;
The lights ye bear aloft and prayers avail ye most.

But I - ah, patient men who fare by sea,
Ye would but smile to hear this empty speech, --
I have such beacon-lights to burn for me,
In that dear west so lovely, new, and free,
That evil league by day, by night, can teach
No spell whose harm my little bark can reach.

No towers of stone uphold those beacon-lights;
No distance hides them, and no storm can shake;
In valleys they light up the darkest nights,
They outshine sunny days on sunny heights;
They blaze from every house where sleep or wake
My own who love me for my own poor sake.

Each thought they think of me lights road of flame
Across the seas; no travel on it tires
My heart. I go if they but speak my name;
From Heaven I should come and go the same,
And find this glow forestalling my desires.
My darlings, do you hear me? Trim the fires!


“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #469 on: June 23, 2009, 01:20:58 PM »
  The Pelican Chorus
by Edward Lear

King and Queen of the Pelicans we;
No other Birds so grand we see!
None but we have feet like fins!
With lovely leathery throats and chins!
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican Jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still

We live on the Nile. The Nile we love.
By night we sleep on the cliffs above;
By day we fish, and at eve we stand
On long bare islands of yellow sand.
And when the sun sinks slowly down,
And the great rock walls grow dark and brown,

Where the purple river rolls fast and dim
And the Ivory Ibis starlike skim,
Wing to wing we dance around,
Stamping our feet with a flumpy sound,
Opening our mouths as Pelicans ought;
And this is the song we nightly snort,--
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

Last year came out our Daughter Dell,
And all the Birds received her well.
To do her honor a feast we made
For every bird that can swim or wade,--
Herons and Gulls, and Cormorants black,
Cranes, and Flamingoes with scarlet back,
Plovers and Storks, and Geese in clouds,
Swans and Dilberry Ducks in crowds:
Thousands of Birds in wondrous flight!
They ate and drank and danced all night,
And echoing back from the rocks you heard
Multitude-echoes from Bird and Bird,--
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

Yes, they came; and among the rest
The King of the Cranes all grandly dressed.
Such a lovely tail! Its feathers float
Between the ends of his blue dress-coat;
With pea-green trowsers all so neat,
And a delicate frill to hide his feet
(For though no one speaks of it, every one knows
He has got no webs between his toes).

As soon as he saw our Daughter Dell,
In violent love that Crane King fell,--
On seeing her waddling form so fair,
With a wreath of shrimps in her short white hair.
And before the end of the next long day
Our Dell had given her heart away;
For the King of the Cranes had won that heart
With a Crocodile's egg and a large fish-tart.
She vowed to marry the King of the Cranes,
Leaving the Nile for stranger plains;
And away they flew in a gathering crowd
Of endless birds in a lengthening cloud.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

And far away in the twilight sky
We heard them singing a lessening cry,--
Farther and farther, till out of sight,
And we stood alone in the silent night!
Often since, in the nights of June,
We sit on the sand and watch the moon,--

She has gone to the great Gromboolian Plain,
And we probably never shall meet again!
Oft, in the long still nights of June,
We sit on the rocks and watch the moon,--
She dwells by the streams of the Chankly Bore.
And we probably never shall see her more.
Ploffskin, Pluffskin, Pelican jee!
We think no Birds so happy as we!
Plumpskin, Ploshkin, Pelican jill!
We think so then, and we thought so still!

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #470 on: June 24, 2009, 08:19:54 AM »
Oh, Barb, I loved both of those poems, each so different. I found myself wondering, with a smile, if there truly is a Dilberry Duck. Naturally, I'll have to go see.

Here is a very short that contains a lot in its short lines:

Summer in the Mountains by Li Po

Gently I stir a white feather fan
With open shirt sitting in a green wood.
I take off my cap and hang it on a jutting stone;
A wind from the pine-tree trickles on my bare head.
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

bellemere

  • Posts: 862
Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #471 on: June 24, 2009, 08:30:06 AM »
Barb, loved the Edward Lear poem.  A real example of a soaring imagination, isn't it? I love to watch the pelicans dive=bombing for fish, and the little bunch of terns staying right with them, hoping to catch what they drop.

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #472 on: June 24, 2009, 08:39:28 AM »
These are all wonderful poems.  I was sitting on my daughter's front porch last night just smelling summer in the air; a gentle breeze was blowing as it cooled and twilight approached. 

The summer breeze and rain of summer in New York are much different than in the state of Florida.  I love to sit and watch it rain here.

I wish I had thought to come inside and print out some of these summer poems to enjoy with the drops.
Thank you Barb and Babi.

Well bella, bella, there you are.   Kick back I won't pick on you here in this discussion. :D
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

JoanK

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #473 on: June 24, 2009, 01:51:37 PM »
loved the Lear poem. I also love to watch the pelicans.

And the li po. I love Eastern poetry: so consise, saying so much.

MarjV

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #474 on: June 24, 2009, 05:30:30 PM »
How about the images in this poem!!!


POEM Midsummerby Louise Glück

On nights like this we used to swim in the quarry,
the boys making up games requiring them to tear off  the girls’ clothes
and the girls cooperating, because they had new bodies since last summer
and they wanted to exhibit them, the brave ones
leaping off  the high rocks — bodies crowding the water.

The nights were humid, still. The stone was cool and wet,
marble for  graveyards, for buildings that we never saw,
buildings in cities far away.

On cloudy nights, you were blind. Those nights the rocks were dangerous,
but in another way it was all dangerous, that was what we were after.
The summer started. Then the boys and girls began to pair off
but always there were a few left at the end — sometimes they’d keep watch,
sometimes they’d pretend to go off  with each other like the rest,
but what could they do there, in the woods? No one wanted to be them.
But they’d show up anyway, as though some night their luck would change,
fate would be a different fate.

At the beginning and at the end, though, we were all together.
After the evening chores, after the smaller children were in bed,
then we were free. Nobody said anything, but we knew the nights we’d meet
and the nights we wouldn’t. Once or twice, at the end of summer,
we could see a baby was going to come out of all that kissing.

And for those two, it was terrible, as terrible as being alone.
The game was over. We’d sit on the rocks smoking cigarettes,
worrying about the ones who weren’t there.

And then finally walk home through the fields,
because there was always work the next day.
And the next day, we were kids again, sitting on the front steps in the morning,
eating a peach.  Just that, but it seemed an honor to have a mouth.
And then going to work, which meant helping out in the fields.
One boy worked for an old lady, building shelves.
The house was very old, maybe built when the mountain was built.

And then the day faded. We were dreaming, waiting for night.
Standing at the front door at twilight, watching the shadows lengthen.
And a voice in the kitchen was always complaining about the heat,
wanting the heat to break.

Then the heat broke, the night was clear.
And you thought of  the boy or girl you’d be meeting later.
And you thought of  walking into the woods and lying down,
practicing all those things you were learning in the water.
And though sometimes you couldn’t see the person you were with,
there was no substitute for that person.

The summer night glowed; in the field, fireflies were glinting.
And for those who understood such things, the stars were sending messages:
You will leave the village where you were born
and in another country you’ll become very rich, very powerful,
but always you will mourn something you left behind, even though
you can’t say what it was,
and eventually you will return to seek it.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=181087


BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #475 on: June 25, 2009, 12:49:37 PM »
Wow - that one really ends with a punch - yes, looking for what we left behind - only yesterday I was thinking I live in a foreign land because most every landmark I knew from 20 and 30 years ago is gone - the land marks were just symbolic of a life and value system that is all but a memory. It is the changed value system that I have been railing over as if it was temporarily tucked in a closet and I along with others just need to open the door and let it back out - but really is is tucked away in our attic and like all antiques it takes a certain few to cherish them and want to escape to a house filled with antiques. And so like teen years, we  may yearn for a return however, a value system from 20 and 30 years has been left behind.
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

fairanna

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #476 on: June 25, 2009, 02:17:29 PM »
Forgive me for not posting I seem to be somewhere else ...or perhaps just wish I were but I do read the posts and the poems being shared...Could I pick  a favorite ? no way there is something in each one that speaks to me..of yesterday and yesterday and yesterday ..of years that have flown ...why did they move so slow, sort of meandering along life's path and now I feel I am rocketing through each  One day it is New Years Day and the next Christmas is over and a new year has its foot in the door...it is hard to savor each day when they move so fast...I was thinking this am the summer solstice is past and I can feel the days getting shorter and tomorrow will be autumn and winter will bring nights too long...I am not trying to hurry them I savor each day but still I know this is an express line ...and the ride will soon be over...the best thing though I can truthfully say It was a great ride....

BarbStAubrey

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #477 on: June 25, 2009, 03:39:47 PM »
your post Anna reminds me of this poem

Salthouse

When we walked up the hill above Salthouse
and saw, looking down where we’d been,

ourselves on the beach waving,
we were there and here and no-place,

coming and going at once, perceiving
the speckled clouds as sleeping seals,

as we dipped our toes in the breeze
and watched from the hill’s shoreline

a kestrel come in with the tide
and hold his stillness open

over the ship weathervane
of the famous drowned church,

his shadow on the ground below him
the anchor that kept him aloft.


I think like the town of Salthouse we can look at our life as Salthouse - we look back and the kestrel comes in unplanned like the  unplanned events in our lives that caste a shadow that is our anchor that keeps us moving through life.

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~ Goethe

Babi

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #478 on: June 26, 2009, 08:18:48 AM »
 Strange, but tho' I can look back and see many happy periods in my life, I
don't feel the desire to repeat any of them.  I think this is just me...I never
like to retrace my steps, or go back for something I forgot unless it is absolutely necessary.  I have no idea why.
 
"I go to books and to nature as a bee goes to the flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey."  John Burroughs

ALF43

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Re: Poetry Page
« Reply #479 on: June 27, 2009, 05:51:21 PM »
Oh Babi, what truth there is in that statement. 
Nope, not me either, I would never wish to RELIVE a single thing in my life.  Why would anyone?
Move on, try something different, pick an alternative path- but never redo the past.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell