Today's poet

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Originally Posted by Alf

Lovely poem that freckle :cool: Did you finish 'Great Expectations' by the way?

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Ha ha ! there is no getting past you Alf is there? i nearly mentioned that this poem was inspired by Dickens....I haven't got very far but am enjoying it....i should in fact be reading it now but have been drawn away! :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

"and you can barely catch
your breath because you're thrilled and terrified."

Just like I felt doing the Kielder Borderer last weekend!

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You did it? well done you! I thought you were still nursing an injury...well I am off now to see what happens to Pip next...at this rate I will still be reading the book in a years time! na night!

That just made me laugh a lot!!! Cheers HHH.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

If you can keep your head,
When all about you are losing theirs,
Then why not treat yourself
To one of my exceedingly good cakes.

Kipling

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I really like this Freckle, its good to see some more of your poems here. I seem to have lost the creative streak right now (well, poetrywise anyway).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

Chaos theory

Imagine
On one selected day
You didn’t exchange those few words
There was a distinct lack of coincidence
No cognitions of “what if” and “but I shouldn’t”.

A moment gone
As the long chain of iron
Stretched on, retaining its grip
On a self oblivious to permutation
And only dimly aware
Of the wilting tulips.

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Gives me the shivers that one NB!
There's certain bits of forest/woodland that I hate passing through alone, but one especially that I WILL NOT pass through alone and that is up at Osmotherley, above Mount Grace Priory just before the TV/Radio station....do you know where I mean?
It really freaks me out up there!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nee Bother

Alone in the Woods

Under the trees
where no-one goes
a sound
a smell
you sense it there
as you stroll along

Among the leaves
where you can't see
a noise
a shape
you feel a shudder
and move quickly on

Somewhere back there
you'll never know
some thing
some one
was anything there
or my mind all along?

NB

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The Way Through the Woods


They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods. . . .
But there is no road through the woods.

Rudyard Kipling

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

Chaos theory

Imagine
On one selected day
You didn’t exchange those few words
There was a distinct lack of coincidence
No cognitions of “what if” and “but I shouldn’t”.

A moment gone
As the long chain of iron
Stretched on, retaining its grip
On a self oblivious to permutation
And only dimly aware
Of the wilting tulips.

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Like this :-) seems simple but very powerful

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Goatess

The Way Through the Woods


They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods. . . .
But there is no road through the woods.

Rudyard Kipling

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Nearly as good as mine!!!! :-)
Enjoyed reading that MG, also quite enjoying this thread.
Never read any poetry, (don't understand most of it) but enjoy writing a rhyme or ditty.
But some of the stuff on here is....how can i put it.... opening me up??
Keep posting chaps

There's a place near me called Cat Wood
Where it is too still and too quiet beneath the trees
And there is a single gravestone,
Dead centre

I like this very much, simple and effective...is it yours?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wormstone

There's a place near me called Cat Wood
Where it is too still and too quiet beneath the trees
And there is a single gravestone,
Dead centre

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Its far too long since we had some Anne Michaels on here. I don't think I've posted this for at least 6months :)

Flowers

There's another skin inside my skin
that gathers to your touch, a lake to the light;
that looses its memory, its lost language
into your tongue,
erasing me into newness.

Just when the body thinks it knows
the ways of knowing itself,
this second skin continues to answer.

In the street - café chairs abandoned
on terraces; market stalls emptied
of their solid light,
though pavement still breathes
summer grapes and peaches.
Like the light of anything that grows
from this newly-turned earth,
every tip of me gathers under your touch,
wind wrapping my dress around our legs,
your shirt twisting to flowers in my fists.

Anne Michaels

This is one of my all time favourite poems by Anne Michaels.

http://crookedshore.wordpress.com/20...anne-michaels/

That's really atmospheric. I like that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Goatess

The Way Through the Woods


They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods. . . .
But there is no road through the woods.

Rudyard Kipling

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Any time!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

That just made me laugh a lot!!! Cheers HHH.

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She really is a bit good isn't she? I love how it really takes off in the last 3 lines.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

Its far too long since we had some Anne Michaels on here. I don't think I've posted this for at least 6months :)

Flowers

There's another skin inside my skin
that gathers to your touch, a lake to the light;
that looses its memory, its lost language
into your tongue,
erasing me into newness.

Just when the body thinks it knows
the ways of knowing itself,
this second skin continues to answer.

In the street - café chairs abandoned
on terraces; market stalls emptied
of their solid light,
though pavement still breathes
summer grapes and peaches.
Like the light of anything that grows
from this newly-turned earth,
every tip of me gathers under your touch,
wind wrapping my dress around our legs,
your shirt twisting to flowers in my fists.

Anne Michaels

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Simon Armitage was on BBC4 last night doing a bit of a documentary on new technology. He was pretty good. So down to earth.

I can't remember when he said his Pennine Way Walk book was coming out. I have a feeling he said something like 18 months later, which would make it about Christmas. I do hope he puts in a good word about the Fell Poets. I'm now worried what he might say about us!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

This is one of my all time favourite poems by Anne Michaels.

http://crookedshore.wordpress.com/20...anne-michaels/

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Wow. That is amazing. So many emotions and a wonderful yet terrible story behind it.

Quote:

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I love you as if you’ll return
after years of absence.
As if we’d invented
moonlight.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nee Bother

Nearly as good as mine!!!! :-)
Enjoyed reading that MG, also quite enjoying this thread.
Never read any poetry, (don't understand most of it) but enjoy writing a rhyme or ditty.
But some of the stuff on here is....how can i put it.... opening me up??
Keep posting chaps

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Nearly NB. That Kipling needs to keep working a bit harder.

There was a lovely quote I heard on the radio the other day. I think they were refering to folk music, but it could equally apply to poetry...

"It get's everyone in the end."

I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Simon Armitage was on BBC4 last night doing a bit of a documentary on new technology. He was pretty good. So down to earth.

I can't remember when he said his Pennine Way Walk book was coming out. I have a feeling he said something like 18 months later, which would make it about Christmas. I do hope he puts in a good word about the Fell Poets. I'm now worried what he might say about us!

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Finally made it to Dufton today. Better late ...:rolleyes:

Did you see any more than we did? It was foggy that day!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

Finally made it to Dufton today. Better late ...:rolleyes:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Did you see any more than we did? It was foggy that day!

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Yep it was very clear today Harry and the low sun was in our eyes as we headed west from High Cup Nick.

Cue Winter Sun poem (though its not really about nature :rolleyes: )

There's a certain Slant of light

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –


Emily Dickinson

A few lines found in my sketchbook from 2003 while staying at Thorney How.

Easedale Farm

Never trust the Easedale kitten
Look away or you'll get bitten
Walk quickly through
But never run
Or the Easedale dog
Will bite yer bum.
NB

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nee Bother

A few lines found in my sketchbook from 2003 while staying at Thorney How.

Easedale Farm

Never trust the Easedale kitten
Look away or you'll get bitten
Walk quickly through
But never run
Or the Easedale dog
Will bite yer bum.
NB

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I liked this, were you at the Commondale Clart today? We had to drive through Easedale to get there and narrowly missed the start...I enjoyed the race and displayed the usual high level of athleticism one could expect from a time/training poor freckle! however i did enjoy the race and we seemed to have the best of todays weather for it!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alf

Yep it was very clear today Harry and the low sun was in our eyes as we headed west from High Cup Nick.

Cue Winter Sun poem (though its not really about nature :rolleyes: )

There's a certain Slant of light

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –


Emily Dickinson

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I am envious about High Cup Nick...such stunning scenery wish I could have been there! Sounds like you enjoyed it Alf...

There have been some great choices on here over the past couple of days, I really liked wormstones poem, it had a real sense of foreboding about it and was really quite slick, nice one!

and after a close shave up above Easedale beck

Belles Knott Grade 2**

I climbed it quickly
the slippy crag
Another peak
in the bag
Looking back
way down the slope
Perhaps I should
have rought a rope
I never think
and act so cool
Some call me
The climbing fool
I hurtle down
being brave
Oops....
I've slipped
To an early grave.
NB

You're a bit of a dark horse! You really are quite a poet! :thumbup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nee Bother

and after a close shave up above Easedale beck

Belles Knott Grade 2**

I climbed it quickly
the slippy crag
Another peak
in the bag
Looking back
way down the slope
Perhaps I should
have rought a rope
I never think
and act so cool
Some call me
The climbing fool
I hurtle down
being brave
Oops....
I've slipped
To an early grave.
NB

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by freckle

I liked this, were you at the Commondale Clart today? We had to drive through Easedale to get there and narrowly missed the start...I enjoyed the race and displayed the usual high level of athleticism one could expect from a time/training poor freckle! however i did enjoy the race and we seemed to have the best of todays weather for it!

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Thanks, didn't do any racing today, tried a XC yesterday but was suffering from real ale thread!! Never done Clart before although know Commondale quite well, whats the race like?
(the Easedale I mentioned is the one in Lakes)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nee Bother

Thanks, didn't do any racing today, tried a XC yesterday but was suffering from real ale thread!! Never done Clart before although know Commondale quite well, whats the race like?
(the Easedale I mentioned is the one in Lakes)

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Oh perhaps I am getting mixed up...its quite possible! I liked the race it was fairly short (6 miles) with only 600 ft ascent which for a woos like me is a nice change, although it was, like I say v boggy! ....I agree with MG you are quite the poet, keep it up as we are enjoying your offerings!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mountain Goatess

You're a bit of a dark horse! You really are quite a poet! :thumbup:

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Cheers MG

a silly one before bed

Purple Hedgehog Fungi
hiding under the bush.
Beware, not to touch it,
it will make you blush.
And if you ever ate it
your innards would
turn to mush.
NB

There are some weird and wonderfully obscure poetry sites out there on the high seas of the internet, and while surfing my eye was caught by one that seems to be particularly...er...,irreverent, as it's title suggests it's devoted to the F-word. Intrigued, but also resigned to the likelihood of hasty disappointment at a possibly neanderthal and banal anthology, I ventured in closer......And actually I found it's first offering quite uplifting and thought provoking. Anyway, see what you think, (sadly this forum's automated 'taste-police' has somewhat ****ed with the text, but let me assure you it isn't called the four asterisks !)


By Kim Addonizio She says, "My poem '****' was inspired by Tony Hoagland's 'Dickhead.' That poem closes – if memory serves – 'I made a word my friend.' **** and I have been close for lo these many years. At my funeral, I hope someone will stand up and say I was a great ****ing poet. And if not, that at least I was a great ****. The future of the '**** you' poem? Look for it under your bootsoles."



****

There are people who will tell you
that using the word **** in a poem
indicates a serious lapse
of taste, or imagination,

or both. It's vulgar,
indecorous, an obscenity
that crashes down like an anvil
falling through a skylight

to land on a restaurant table,
on the white linen, the cut-glass vase of lilacs.
But if you were sitting
over coffee when the metal

hit your saucer like a missile,
wouldn't that be the first thing
you'd say? Wouldn't you leap back
shouting, or at least thinking it,

over and over, bell-note riotously clanging
in the church of your brain
while the solicitous waiter
led you away, wouldn't you prop

your shaking elbows on the bar
and order your first drink in months,
telling yourself you were lucky
to be alive? And if you wouldn't

say anything but Mercy or Oh my
or Land sakes, well then
I don't want to know you anyway
and I don't give a **** what you think

of my poem. The world is divided
into those whose opinions matter
and those who will never have
a clue, and if you knew

which one you were I could talk
to you, and tell you that sometimes
there's only one word that means
what you need it to mean, the way

there's only one person
when you first fall in love,
or one infant's cry that calls forth
the burning milk, one name

that you pray to when prayer
is what's left to you. I'm saying
in the beginning was the word
and it was good, it meant one human

entering another and it's still
what I love, the word made
flesh. **** me, I say to the one
whose lovely body I want close,

and as we **** I know it's holy,
a psalm, a hymn, a hammer
ringing down on an anvil,
forging a whole new world.

****ing love it Mossy!!

I really like the forthrightness and truth of the poem and it made me laugh as I was aware on Sunday's fell race that I may have offended the guy behind me's sensibilities when I exclaimed **** on a near twisted ankle. I think there is an earthiness about the word that no alternative can match and said in the height of passion or as a request...well, those last two verses say it all! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

There are some weird and wonderfully obscure poetry sites out there on the high seas of the internet, and while surfing my eye was caught by one that seems to be particularly...er...,irreverent, as it's title suggests it's devoted to the F-word. Intrigued, but also resigned to the likelihood of hasty disappointment at a possibly neanderthal and banal anthology, I ventured in closer......And actually I found it's first offering quite uplifting and thought provoking. Anyway, see what you think, (sadly this forum's automated 'taste-police' has somewhat ****ed with the text, but let me assure you it isn't called the four asterisks !)
.

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To all you Fell poets.... Radio 4 this saturday coming 6.05am......Ramblings, Stuart Maconie walks with poet Simon Armitage. I think the prog is repeated sometime during the week, for those of you that are'nt early birds.

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Originally Posted by Masham Man

To all you Fell poets.... Radio 4 this saturday coming 6.05am......Ramblings, Stuart Maconie walks with poet Simon Armitage. I think the prog is repeated sometime during the week, for those of you that are'nt early birds.

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Thanks MM and theres also Roger McGough as well http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp7q

Saw a couple of Hares chasing each other on the the way home from work tonight, so here is my first offering to .........today's poet

In the black furrow of a field
I saw an old witch-hare this night;
And she cocked a lissome ear,
And she eyed the moon so bright,
And nibbled of the green;
And I whispered 'Whsst! witch-hare,'
Away like a ghostie o'er the field
She fled, and left the moonlight there.

Walter de la Mare

Masham, North Yorkshire
home to real ale breweries
and lovers of hares

My first haikhu for a very long time. I've noticed a few hares whilst out and about the last few days; what fabulous creatures! :cool:

Emm we just love the BEER. Did you know every house in Masham has beer piped straight to the cold tap.

Hic

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Masham Man

Emm we just love the BEER. Did you know every house in Masham has beer piped straight to the cold tap.

Hic

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Ha ha.....on me way!!!!

Liked the poem too.....appealed to me and simple enough for me to understand.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Masham Man

Emm we just love the BEER. Did you know every house in Masham has beer piped straight to the cold tap.

Hic

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My best friends took me on a Black Sheep brewery tour for my birthday five or six years ago. We had a fabulous day in the sunshine as it coincided with the folk(?) festival. We were out for 11hours iirc. A wonderful do it was

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hes

****ing love it Mossy!!

I really like the forthrightness and truth of the poem and it made me laugh as I was aware on Sunday's fell race that I may have offended the guy behind me's sensibilities when I exclaimed **** on a near twisted ankle. I think there is an earthiness about the word that no alternative can match and said in the height of passion or as a request...well, those last two verses say it all! :)

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Sickening language. Those were MY sensibilities!! No wonder there are some who use ipods during races (see another thread). The 'Ban Everything' Brigade have not taken into account these devices as sensibility protectors.

Running through the Commondale muck....(you can see where this is going!)
A fell poet ran out of luck
When twisting an ankle
With a pain that did rankle
Cried out to the world the word 'Ouch'


or something to that effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Derby Tup

My best friends took me on a Black Sheep brewery tour for my birthday five or six years ago. We had a fabulous day in the sunshine as it coincided with the folk(?) festival. We were out for 11hours iirc. A wonderful do it was

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We did the tour while at the Steam Rally many many years back....I then drove a vintage tractor on a parade through the village, great memories.