Today's poet

[Hes]

Hurrah! Light at the end of the tunnel...it has been lovely to dip into all the great posts this evening whilst I was procrastinating...ooops I mean working! XRunner...that was a great poem about your run.

I have been concerned that the thread might dwindle and when I came back from India, it would be relegated to second page of the General Chat but I am certain now that that won't happen. Not with so many creative souls on here.

By the way Tri-Mind...if you read this later, Happy Birthday and I hope you did something special.

[freckle]

Thank you kind sir. I'm off now so see everyone soon.

x

na night x

[freckle]

LOVE SONG FOR EMILY(for Emily Dickenson)


You handed me
your eyes

so that I could see
as you saw.

I looking
in wonder

seeing you sew
the world together

in quick little stitches

a perfect embroidery
of knowing

drawing the thread through
& through

until nimble as a needle

I knew as you
knew.

Oh Emily
I was always

in love

with the beauty of your eyes

& how they saw
& said the world

the quick dashes
of your mind

like Braille
to my blindness

the Morse Code
of your thought

leading me through
the labyrinth of you

bound
in a nut
shell

until I arrived
at the beauty of your eyes

and you handed me
your seeing

and...I saw.

D Dempsey

I'm on my way to clean my teeth and just caught this...how utterly moving, its so personal and heartfelt.....sigh.....thanks mossy....hes you will be missed whilst in india but we will hold the fort! not long now eh? ...right the land of nod beckons, night all x

[freckle]

Morning all, quick cuppa then out into the cold for a run b4 work me thinks!

Love is a place

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds

ee cummings

[freckle]

Departure

It's little I care what path I take,
And where it leads it's little I care;
But out of this house, lest my heart break,
I must go, and off somewhere.

It's little I know what's in my heart,
What's in my mind it's little I know,
But there's that in me must up and start,
And it's little I care where my feet go.

I wish I could walk for a day and a night,
And find me at dawn in a desolate place
With never the rut of a road in sight,
Nor the roof of a house, nor the eyes of a face.

I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
And drop me, never to stir again,
On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.

But dump or dock, where the path I take
Brings up, it's little enough I care:
And it's little I'd mind the fuss they'll make,
Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.

'Is something the matter, dear,' she said,
'That you sit at your work so silently?'
'No, mother, no, 'twas a knot in my thread.
There goes the kettle, I'll make the tea.'

Edna St. Vincent Millay

[Hes]

Two wonderful morning choices Freckle! After my 3.30am bedtime, I woke to a gorgeous sunny frosty day and it has me seeking out wintery poems.

Winter Wood

So I have put away the books
and I watch the last apples fall
from the frosty trees

and I have seen also
acorns stretching red shoots
into the hard soil

and the white bark of the birches
was more to me than all the pages

and what I read there
bared my heart to the winter sun
and opened my brain to the wind

and suddenly
suddenly in the midst of that winter wood
I knew I had always been there

before the books
as after the books
there will be a winter wood

and my heart will be bare
and my brain open to the wind.

Kenneth White

[Hes]

I'm glad that you posted a bit of Edna, Freckle. I have a quest for fellow poetry lovers. Many years ago I saw a program on the tv which was to accompany an English Literature A'level syllabus (I think) and since then I have been seeking a poem which I think may be one of hers. A person read it out and it talked of losing a man that she loved and how he wasn't there anymore but everywhere she looked he was present due to associations. OK...bit vague I know but it had such an impact on me and I've never been able to find it since. I just know it was by a woman poet and it was about the loss of a man she loved. (I expect the discovery of it may lead to disappointment as in my mind it is the work of genius!).

[Hes]

i think we must be thinking about the same things today my friend as I have been contemplating posting this poem all day, i find it incredibly moving....

for an absent friend

Time does not bring relief you have all lied

TIME does not bring relief;
you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go,—so with his memory they brim!
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!


Ps i loved the winter wood poem Hes..stunning

Oh my god...that's it! That's it! I cannot believe it Freckle. Thank you so much. I have searched for that for probably about 20 years but had no idea who the author was or what it actually said. I just knew that when I listened to it, it made me weep and totally summed up how I felt. The impact of the words has stayed with me for all this time. Seems we are definitely on the same wavelength. Thank you again.

[southernsoftie]

What a sweet story of serendipity. Glad you've found what you were looking for, Hes. Was it worth the wait?

[Mossdog]

POETRY.

GOD to his untaught children sent

Law, order, knowledge, art, from high,
And ev'ry heav'nly favour lent,

The world's hard lot to qualify.
They knew not how they should behave,

For all from Heav'n stark-naked came;
But Poetry their garments gave,

And then not one had cause for shame.

Goethe 1816.

So perhaps that's why we can be a shameless lot on this thread?