Today's poet

[Mossdog]

Mossy...i love this line and wish I had wrote it....

in your hand I feel
spring burn in the bud.

nice one

me too, but I often lament at my own lack of talent in comparison to the poems posted on this forum, or those written by fellow threadateers!

[Harry H Howgill]

That is stunning. So many wonderful images from just one run. I love the thought of the farmer listening to the violins. You couldn't make it up.

Running to Discover

My bruised mind,
battered by the chaos of India,
finds solace in the stillness of home.
Running through the dimming light
the fog hides and transforms
the once familiar trees and hedges.
An air pregnant with possibility
gives birth to startling sounds.
The squawk of a disgruntled guinea fowl
as my bouncing torch beam
picks out its sleeping form.
A low mournful bellow,
milk-swollen and patient,
the cows await their master.
Sulphurous light spills from the barn
where the strains of a violin
drift away in the mist.
The sullen farmer’s melancholic choice,
surprising and beautiful,
makes me wonder.
My ears ring with the sounds of the wind
and my heartbeat as I ascend.
Gritty, muddy footfalls splashing up the hill.
A clattering in the branches
as a pheasant takes fright.
Below the bridge a torrent rages
the stream now a river,
gorged by the thaw.
Nearing home and
the unfamiliar shape ahead turns
revealing a winter-weary mare
She lowers her head
as we both discover
Who I am.

[Derby Tup]

........I often lament at my own lack of talent in comparison to the poems posted on this forum, or those written by fellow threadateers!

I was just thinking the same Mossy, especially the wonderful verse you find regularly

[freckle]

I agree. What a beautifully written and 'strong' poem TM. But raises the question......

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

From Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27

I watched a German subtitled dvd of the film 'North Face' last night. In a final scene, one of the characters reflected that "to have loved is to have lived, and I have lived..."

Any thoughts on this issues, poems to challenge/support this proposition?

Hi again Mossy

Your question brought to mind this little chinese poem by Hu Shih

A trifle

I too have wished not to love
That I might escape love's agony,
But now after much appraisement,
I willingly accept love's agony.

That pretty much sums it up for me!.............................

[Harry H Howgill]

Hi again Mossy

Your question brought to mind this little chinese poem by Hu Shih

A trifle

I too have wished not to love
That I might escape love's agony,
But now after much appraisement,
I willingly accept love's agony.

That pretty much sums it up for me!.............................

Hu Shih? Who she?

Like the sentiment though.

[Hes]

Evening all! Thanks for your lovely comments about my poem...I am really glad you liked it. It is always a bit unnerving posting long stuff as it isn't my forte but I just felt like it. It was an ethereal run, with all that fog and odd little scenarios, but I feel so much more myself after it.

Tri, your poem was really wonderful, very moving.

I loved the Kama Sutra of Kindness, MossDog. Absolutely brilliant! I am copying and pasting it into my slowly growing folder of favourites from this thread (saves trawling back at a later stage).

[Mossdog]

Hi again Mossy

Your question brought to mind this little chinese poem by Hu Shih

A trifle

I too have wished not to love
That I might escape love's agony,
But now after much appraisement,
I willingly accept love's agony.

That pretty much sums it up for me!.............................

Yes, it seems to me that most poets side with the "it's better to have..." perspective, but personally I'm still undecided. It's straying a little but Emily Dickinson wrote:

My life closed twice before its close

My life closed twice before its close--
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

I can't tell whether the events she referred to were 'luuuuuvvvvvve' related, nor can I ascertain from the last two lines whether she considered these to be heaven or hell (or both), so I'm putting Emily down, like me, as an 'undecided' re the proposition (and doesn't her poem give you the shivers? It does me).

[freckle]

Yes, it seems to me that most poets side with the "it's better to have..." perspective, but personally I'm still undecided. It's straying a little but Emily Dickinson wrote:

My life closed twice before its close

My life closed twice before its close--
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

I can't tell whether the events she referred to were 'luuuuuvvvvvve' related, nor can I ascertain from the last two lines whether she considered these to be heaven or hell (or both), so I'm putting Emily down, like me, as an 'undecided' re the proposition (and doesn't her poem give you the shivers? It does me).

i love that poem.... i guess what your question is pertaining to is the risk associated with falling in love with someone, and one of the major risks is losing them and the associated pain...that made me think about the following poem which has been posted before...i find it very moving.....

Time does not bring relief

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.


Edna St Vincent Millay (1892 -1950)

[freckle]

another one pertaining to the the pain associated with the loss of a loved one....gets me every time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_a-eXIoyYA

[Hes]

i love that poem.... i guess what your question is pertaining to is the risk associated with falling in love with someone, and one of the major risks is losing them and the associated pain...that made me think about the following poem which has been posted before...i find it very moving.....

Time does not bring relief

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.


Edna St Vincent Millay (1892 -1950)

Nice one Freckle! I was just thinking about the very same poem. I am of the belief that it is better to have loved and lost...at least you feel that you have experienced a profound part of being human. Then again, I am an incurable romantic and have lost loves so I don't have much choice, thinking positively is infinitely preferable to wishing it all never happened!