Today's poet

Tonight's carefull selected quatrains from Omar Khayyam:

He who, in this world , possesses half a loaf, and can shelter himself in any nest;
He who is neither the master nor the slave of any man,
Tell him his lot is sweet, and he should live contented therein.

One drop of wine is worth a thousand kingdons.
The tile which covers the jar is worth a thousand lives.
The cloth with which we wipe lips moistened with wine is more precious than a thousand pieces.

There is no shield to save you from the stroke of destiny.
Glory, gold, silver, each avails not.
The more I ponder on this world and its way the more I am assured that to be good is all;
The rest avails not.

I pity the heart that is not prompted to abstinence, for it is the prey of poassions.
Only the heart that is free from care can be truly happy.
Aught in excess of that state is mere vexation.

He who has the wisdom to win a contented heart has lost no hour in sorrow.
He has either consoled himself by seeking the grace of God,
Or he has gained tranquility of soul over the laughin wine-cup.

That'll do donkey; that'll do.:)

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Originally Posted by Hes

Oh my god!!! I love Neruda and I can speak Spanish, albeit not always fluently and with correct grammer, but enough to roughly translate. Believe me, this is a very romantic poem.

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I'll see if my daughter can read it she doing Spanish at school.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by southernsoftie

The Coming of Grendel (Beowulf)

Now from the marshlands under the mist-mountains
Came Grendel prowling; branded with God's ire.
This murderous monster was minded to entrap
Some haples human in that high hall.
On he came under the clouds, until clearly
He could see that great golden feating place,
Glimmering wine-hal of men. Not his first
Raid was this on the homeplace of Hrothgar.
Never before though and never afterward
Did he encounter hardier defenders of a hall.

I have visions of last-orders/kicking-out-time at the end of XOTF!!:D

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absloutely BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! southern softie...i was going to post a bit of this poem but couldn't decide which and this is just perfect.....suitably impressed!!!!!!! :)

[QUOTE=southernsoftie;271863]Tonight's carefull selected quatrains from Omar Khayyam:

particularly liked.....

There is no shield to save you from the stroke of destiny.

:)

i am waking up to some amazing poetry this morn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harry H Howgill

Help! Freckle, Hes, DerbyTup and Mossdog. Come back soon!

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Al i loved it....just missed out on account of early night :)

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Originally Posted by Mossdog

Ok. Watershed have just been passed. Time for a few 'romantic' verses eh? (But no more Auden smut...please...)

How about this for starters:

Power in Silence

BY MICHAEL FIELD

I

Though I sing high, and chaunt above her,
Praising my girl,
It were not right
To reckon her the poorer lover;
She does not love me less
For her royal, jewelled speechlessness,
She is the sapphire, she the light,
The music in the pearl.

II

Not from pert birds we learn the spring-tide
From open sky.
What speaks to us
Closer than far distances that hide
In woods, what is more dear
Than a cherry-bough, bees feeding near
In the soft, proffered blooms? Lo, I
Am fed and honoured thus.

III

She has the star’s own pulse; its throbbing
Is a quick light.
She is a dove
My soul draws to its breast; her sobbing
Is for the warm dark there!
In the heat of her wings I would not care
My close-housed bird should take her flight
To magnify our love.


So many lovely lines here...but all is not what it seems with 'Michael Field' (Freckle to note:D)

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Ha ha!....the mystery unravels...or does it!....what a lovely poem moss dog, i had an early night last night and have come back to so much creativity, wonderful.....

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Originally Posted by XRunner

Freckles

Brilliant shafts of sunlight,
once shadowed by blackened thunderheads,
now burst through openings in emptied brokenness
streaking sky with gleaming, vertical hue

each beam,
each golden shard of flaming magnificence,
falls tenderly upon basking, fairest flesh below
with lingering blush,

and conjures flecks of melanin,
aroused,
like assemblies of browning worshipers,
enshrined in ivory temple

so that longing eyes,
nearly blinded
by the strength of sun's glorious brilliance,
can reverence heated memory
at each reflection
upon soft, speckled skin
and can remember. . .

having known passion.

(Anon -Ten thousand cicadas )

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X Runner....i am speechless.......i certainly did appreciate it how utterly lovely, thank you ;)

some of us may be trapped in offices this morn but let us think of the peace of wild things.....

The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

These are about a run I did in the Black Mountains a couple of weeks ago. I just tried to capture some of the moments that made an impression on me.

Cold and wet start I
Need the heat of the first climb
Crug Mawr beckons me

The path down is lost
But wait, a small pile of stones
Marks the faintest track

Panicked at my sight
Manes shake loose a crystal spray
Mountain horses flee

Brown water river
Fallen leaves hide the valley
Above: stones and wind

Everlasting clag
Pen Cerrig Calch towering
Tears the sky for me

Pinned to the trig point
Upright in the howling wind
Mountain sanctuary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stevie

These are about a run I did in the Black Mountains a couple of weeks ago. I just tried to capture some of the moments that made an impression on me.

Cold and wet start I
Need the heat of the first climb
Crug Mawr beckons me

The path down is lost
But wait, a small pile of stones
Marks the faintest track

Panicked at my sight
Manes shake loose a crystal spray
Mountain horses flee

Brown water river
Fallen leaves hide the valley
Above: stones and wind

Everlasting clag
Pen Cerrig Calch towering
Tears the sky for me

Pinned to the trig point
Upright in the howling wind
Mountain sanctuary

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Wow!
Reading that, I was all but there! Makes me want to go out and race....and compose.