Today's poet

[Harry H Howgill]

Hey !!!!!!! don't go!!! I just got back from that really long cold shower and i ain't drunk like the rest of you all!...found a great atwood poem regarding poets which i will take the time to write up (not avialable on web)...soon....where is HHH?

It was way past my bedtime!

[freckle]

It was way past my bedtime!

Glad to see you back...

[Harry H Howgill]

That is brilliant, and so so funny. Nice choice.

The Poets Hang On
Margaret Atwood

The poet's hang on.
It's hard to get rid of them,
though lord knows its been tried.
We pass them on the road
standing there with their begging bowls,
an ancient custom.
Nothing in those now
but dried flies and bad pennies.
They stare straight ahead.
Are they dead, or what?
Yet, they have an irritating look
of those who know more than we do.

More of what?
What is it they claim to know?
Spit it out, we hiss at them.
Say it plain!
If you try for a simple answer,
that's when they pretend to be crazy,
or else drunk, or else poor.
They put those costumes on
some time ago,
those black sweaters, those tatters;
now they can't get them off.
And they're having trouble with their teeth
That's one of the their burdens.
They could use some dental work.

They're having trouble with their wings, as well.
We're not getting much from them
in the flight department these days.
No more soaring, no radiance,
no skylarking.
What the hell are they paid for?
(Suppose they are paid)
They can't get off the ground,
them and their muddy feathers.
If they fly, its downwards,
and into the damp grey earth.

Go away, we say-
and take your boring sadness.
Your not wanted here.
Your forgotten how to tell us
how sublime we are.
How love is the answer:
we always liked that one.
You have forgotten how to kiss up.
Your not wise any more.
You've lost your splendour.

But the poets hang on.
They're nothing if not tenacious.

[freckle]

Thanks HHH...i particularly like the last line!!!!....:-)

[Harry H Howgill]

Thanks HHH...i particularly like the last line!!!!....:-)

Tenacity I like!

[Harry H Howgill]

That is lovely. With your encyclopedic knowledge (or is is just lots of books!) you should start a website: "a poem for every occasion" service and hunt out relevant ones on request. I'm sure there'll be a market!

looks like i am on my todd then!...unless i can bank on you X runner?...oh well...here is another lovely bit of poetry by charlotte ansell a contemporary poet (ie not available on web)...

For Annie

I haven't yet found
the poem in me,
that is you.
I haven't yet learnt how to
say thank you
did you awaken me again?

I was coming up for air,
finding I can breathe
knowing you have saved me
loved me back to belief.
You call me beautiful,
you say you will love me,
regardless of whether I love you.
The strange thing is.
I know you will.
The strange thing is,
no one ever loved me like that before.

I don't know how
to let myself
be cared for.
More,
so much more frightening
than pain.
But you will
and you do
and I am speechless
with acknowledgement
and with gratitude
I haven't yet found
the poem in me,
that is you.
But I think,
I am beginning to.

[Mossdog]

I know nothing about poetry or lyrical composition but isn't that where the 70's Swedish supergroup got their name?

Got tomorrow off to go sightseeing! Going to see famous viewpoint on a 'mountain'

Snigger - I missed that one

[Harry H Howgill]

Brilliant Mossy,

I too can sadly say that I have fell under the spell of the little temptresses too. I was known at a previous employment as having a desk constantly littered with post it notes and satsumas.

That is really funny.

So here I am, sat in my kitchen, nursing a poorly leg and feeling sorry for myself, when I suddenly realise, I have absently minded consumed the best part of two bags of co-op tangerines (2 for the price of 1 and 100% extra free!). My God, how could I have been so reckless, I've massively exceeded the Daily Recommended Dose. How could this have happened? For it could not be I that was at fault! No, the source of my gluttony must lay with those little minx, the fruit themselves. So take heed my fellow running poets, I have penned these words by way of warning. (All rhyming ineptness and poetry crassness is the responsibility of Vitamin C overdose - for that too could not be I).


The Hussy Tangerine

Choose me! Choose me! I hear her cry
This wanton fruit amongst God's fields of citrus delight,
Shuns all bushels that threaten to mask her light,
This juicious bundle calls out from a high.

Of her attire, brazen atomic hue,
So favoured by manly mountain rescue teams,
And gangs of lusty limbed highway men sporting bollardy themes,
A bright badge of questionable fidelity, it's true.

"I am no coquettish orange tease", she beams,
"My dazzily cloak falls away with such light touch and so alluring ease,
No struggle to satisfy the worldly wise or puritan alike, I wish to please",
"Ooooh Sir! Why I do declare!" She innocently interjects, it seems.

And once this little strumpet stands unabashed and wholly denuded,
Her joys unfold for all to so readily cleave,
And when so pleasured, to up, and take their leave.
But hark! Choose me! Choose me! Her sisters proclaim once more, so ruded!

So be warned my fellow formites, of these pocket temptresses,
Whose gawdy pleasures at this festive time sell themselves as so a-peeling,
Be not beguiled for it is Satan's little sisters that you are dealing,
So cultivate restraint and heighten our natural British resolve and stiff represses.

[Harry H Howgill]

Hi DT

I am enjoying your poetic reports on your trip. Keep up the good work and hope you are back soon. It seemed funny at first that there might be Kestrels in China. My next thought was that I need to get out more !

Time goes slowly by
Sat in the back of a speeding car
Vehicles pass on both sides
Wheels turning on slick concrete
Endless toll gates interupt our journeys
Roadside banana leaves flutter in the breeze
And occasionally a Kestrel hovers
The sun shines through tinted glass
As we cross river after river
A temple can be seen on the horizon
Before I snooze, then wake
Lost momentarily in time

[Hes]

Oh here so briefly....but I'll be back! Just wanted to say that Mossdog's warning about tangerines/satsumas was really funny.

cold water seeping
leathers not so waterproof
my bum is all wet

Off to dry out and throw down some tea before the cinema...The Men that Stared at Goats...see you later.x