Hi DT, it is great to see you here. I'm glad that you are acclimatising a bit. Wild Swans is sat on my bookshelf beckoning to me...along with The God of Small Things. Never enough time in the day!
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Good morning beautiful dreamers!!!! have a lovely day......
Beautiful dreamer
Steven Foster
Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away!
Beautiful dreamer, queen of my song,
List while I woo thee with soft melody;
Gone are the cares of life's busy throng.
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
Beautiful dreamer, out on the sea,
Mermaids are chaunting the wild lorelie;
Over the streamlet vapors are borne,
Waiting to fade at the bright coming morn.
Beautiful dreamer, beam on my heart,
E'en as the morn on the streamlet and sea;
Then will all clouds of sorrow depart,
Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!
What if
One day running fails me?
The sidelong rain and leaves
Fail to dispel my fears
Daily strife steals a ride
On the body-bursting climb?
Focus fails on reckless descent
And “Brain off” is a command defied
By dark thoughts that
Chase down ghyll and screes?
Craggy wilderness no longer stirs?
The eerie raven croak met with disinterest
And I am no longer immersed in the wild –
Merely passing through?
On the summit cairns of Gable and Glaramara
The fist that wrings my guts
And crushes my spirit
Is there to greet me?
Where then can I hide?
Impressions from a week in China
Endless miles of arrow straight concrete-walled toll roads
A Fritz Lang neon night time sky
Little old ladies pedalling their rusty bicycles in the gutter
Belching industrial chimneys adding to an ocean of smog
A Sunday market in the city; like going back 500 years in time
The exquisite taste of chicken fried rice
That amazing nostalgic feeling you get when a song from home comes on the car stereo; in this case, Tears of a Clown
My utter inability to undersand a single spoken word
The softest hand shake you've ever experienced
A showroom-fresh BMW overtaking a man pushing a hand barrow
Seeing people eating breadrolls with chopsticks
Ice cold Tsing Tao beer
Your driver speaking into two mobile phones at once; whilst trying to answer a third
One thousand tiny porcelain thimble-sized cups of green tea a day
Customers passing you their business cards with two hands before you do the same, half bowing, nodding very gently
Friendly smiling faces :)
What a great way to remember your trip. It reminds me of a few months I had to stay in Burma about 10 years ago now. Some very familiar images.
I used to go out running after work, meeting people who I could only communicate with non verbally. I had guides round pagodas from monks and kids, played football with lads in the fields and although I loved it, I've never so longed for home.
Absolutely wonderful writing OW and everyone else. Even when i have nothing to offer myself i enjoy visiting the poem thread everyday.
I have always enjoyed the folk song tradition.
Here is a good parody verse from a classic Tom Paxton song:
Well I met this young girl at a folk club,
Like you do, like you do.
So I bought her a drink and we chatted,
Wouldn't you, wouldn't you.
And then after the show she invited me home,
And she said we were two of a kind,
Then she played me every record
That Tom Paxton ever made,
And you know that was the last thing on my mind.