Today's poet

[Hes]

This is a great thread. I have so enjoyed everyone's choices of poetry and some are really moving.

I want to recommend 'Ice House' by Anne Michaels. It is written from the perspective of Kathleen Scott, a sculptor and the wife of Robert Falcon Scott and inspired by the journals that they kept for each other whilst he was in Antarctica. His was discovered after his death and in it he had written 'give this to my wife' and then crossed out wife and put 'widow'. I think it is beautiful and you can read it here http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/d...9&view=excerpt

[freckle]

This is a great thread. I have so enjoyed everyone's choices of poetry and some are really moving.

I want to recommend 'Ice House' by Anne Michaels. It is written from the perspective of Kathleen Scott, a sculptor and the wife of Robert Falcon Scott and inspired by the journals that they kept for each other whilst he was in Antarctica. His was discovered after his death and in it he had written 'give this to my wife' and then crossed out wife and put 'widow'. I think it is beautiful and you can read it here http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/d...9&view=excerpt

i wish i had more adjectives to use this time in the morning but excess puter use has rather addled my brain! ....anyhow just wanted to say how absolutely beautiful and moving this poem is! Love the last paragraph in particular

[deborah]

I long to hold some lady
For my love is far away,
And will not come tomorrow
And was not here today.

There is no flesh so perfect
As on my lady's bone,
And yet it seems so distant
When I am all alone:

As though she were a masterpiece
In some castled town,
That pilgrims come to visit
And priests to copy down.

Alas, I cannot travel
To a love I have so deep
Or sleep too close beside
A love I want to keep.

But I long to hold some lady,
For flesh is warm and sweet.
Cold skeletons go marching
Each night beside my feet.

L. Cohen

[Hes]

Can't beat a bit of Leonard! Great.

I found this is a free paper in the Outer Hebrides:

Rook

She rises, cutting a hole in the blue
her beak, a sharp pincer,
that can pull stars out of the sky.

Failing to find a tree
she circles the flat stone ledge
with blue nylon, barbed wire and rabbit bones.

In the evening she watches
the moon grow over the sea
golden and round as an egg-hunter's lamp

Anna Davis

[freckle]

this one's a bit dark...but i like it....

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/671.html

[Mossdog]

I think ol' Willie Blake got it right about life when he wrote...



‘He who bends to himself a Joy

Doth the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses the Joy as it flies

Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.'



Yeap, that about wraps it up for me and says it all.

PS This is a great thread. Poetry and fell running have much in common except that my own verses are a bit halting!

[Grouse]

There's a great big mystery, and it sure is worrying me
This Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means
The little girl about four feet four, come on papa and give me some more,
of your Diddie Wa Diddie, your Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means
I went around and walked around, somebody yelled, said, "Look who's in town"
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means
Went to church, put my hand on the seat, lady sat on it said, "Daddy, you sure is sweet"
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means
I said, "Sister, I'll soon be gone, just gimme that thing you sitting on"
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means
Then I got put out of church, 'cause I talk about Diddie Wa Diddie too much
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
Mister Diddie Wa Diddie
I wish somebody would tell me what Diddie Wa Diddie means


Blind Blake

[Grouse]

I think I know how he went blind.

[XRunner]

I think I know how...

Oh little grouse don't fly from me
I would not harm one feather.
For you have been good company
In foul and stormy weather.

On weary runs, cross misty moor
I've seen your rain drenched plumes,
And hear your cry, as oft before,
On winter afternoons.

And as I sit snug in the house,
While the winds outside they shriek.
I think about you little grouse
Alone on that dark peak.

I pray that you keep safe, outdoors
In all that wind and rain,
And god be with you on the moors
Until we meet again.

[freckle]

Oh little grouse don't fly from me
I would not harm one feather.
For you have been good company
In foul and stormy weather.

On weary runs, cross misty moor
I've seen your rain drenched plumes,
And hear your cry, as oft before,
On winter afternoons.

And as I sit snug in the house,
While the winds outside they shriek.
I think about you little grouse
Alone on that dark peak.

I pray that you keep safe, outdoors
In all that wind and rain,
And god be with you on the moors
Until we meet again.

and the author?