Today's poet

[Harry H Howgill]

I was stood by a railway last week (No! not trainspotting before you ask!) and a train pulled up alongside and stopped. It was named after Bertolt Brecht. So it just goes to show that poetry is all around us! Even in the most unglamorous of settings. I don't think we've had much BB before.

I never loved you more - Bertolt Brecht

I never loved you more, ma soeur
Than as I walked away from you that evening.
The forest swallowed me, the blue forest, ma soeur
The blue forest and above it pale stars in the west.

I did not laugh, not one little bit, ma soeur
As I playfully walked towards a dark fate –
While the faces behind me
Slowly paled in the evening of the blue forest.

Everything was grand that one night, ma soeur
Never thereafter and never before –
I admit it: I was left with nothing but the big birds
And their hungry cries in the dark evening sky.

[Harry H Howgill]

He also co-wrote this!!!!, which I never knew. Did any of you?

Mack the Knife

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.

When the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread.
Fancy gloves, though, wears Macheath, dear
So there's not a trace of red.

On the side-walk Sunday morning
Lies a body oozing life;
Someone's sneaking 'round the corner.
Is that someone Mack the Knife?

From a tugboat by the river
A cement bag's dropping down;
The cement's just for the weight, dear.
Bet you Mackie's back in town.

Louie Miller disappeared, dear
After drawing out his cash;
And Macheath spends like a sailor.
Did our boy do something rash?

Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver,
Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mackie's back in town.

Bertolt Brecht

[Harry H Howgill]

Parting

We embrace.
Rich cloth under my fingers
While yours touch poor fabric.
A quick embrace
You were invited for dinner
While the minions of law are after me.
We talk about the weather and our
Lasting friendship. Anything else
Would be too bitter.

Bertolt Brecht

[Harry H Howgill]

Send me a leaf

Send me a leaf, but from a bush
That grows at least one half hour
Away from your house, then
You must go and will be strong, and I
Thank you for the pretty leaf.

Bertolt Brecht

[Nathaniel Lee]

Thanks Harrry for your input.Quiet again tonight.

[Mud]

To a little radio

A little box I carried in my flight
So as not to break the radio tubes inside me
From house to boat, from boat to train held tight
So that my enemies could still address me

Right where I slept and much to my dismay
Last thing each night and first thing every day
About their victories, defeats for me
Oh please do not fall silent suddenly

Berthold Brecht

[stevefoster]

Frommelles.

Boys thrown into war,
Trenches waterlogged disease and lice,
The enemy firing day and night,
Scared but proud to serve the king,
Advancing through hell on earth,
One by one killed by hot german lead,
Collected up together dumped in mass grave,
Dignity lost names lost families grieve,
Decades come and go they are discovered,
Fathers,sons and brothers now can be named,
Families peace of mind restored,
Pay respect to these heroes who now can be named,
The honour of a proper burial is the least they deserve,
Be proud and remember they gave their lives for you.

By Matt Harmston.

War is Hell, brave men gave their lives so we could have a tomorrow, nice one Matt, love it

[Mud]

brave men gave their lives so we could have a tomorrow

and an empire. Which is always handy.

[Hes]

I was stood by a railway last week (No! not trainspotting before you ask!) and a train pulled up alongside and stopped. It was named after Bertolt Brecht. So it just goes to show that poetry is all around us! Even in the most unglamorous of settings. I don't think we've had much BB before.

I never loved you more - Bertolt Brecht

I never loved you more, ma soeur
Than as I walked away from you that evening.
The forest swallowed me, the blue forest, ma soeur
The blue forest and above it pale stars in the west.

I did not laugh, not one little bit, ma soeur
As I playfully walked towards a dark fate –
While the faces behind me
Slowly paled in the evening of the blue forest.

Everything was grand that one night, ma soeur
Never thereafter and never before –
I admit it: I was left with nothing but the big birds
And their hungry cries in the dark evening sky.

I haven't really read many Brecht poems HHH and it has been brilliant to read them. Some great choices, thanks.

[Hes]

Heres a poem I wrote after a run on the canal

Things, some not unexpected
lie across the shards of icy trails
Like badly fractured glass left
Behind the barges passing by.

Ripped up roots of trees, twigs and
Branches, traffic cones, empty
Beer cans; discarded, flung from
low pack horse bridges, beneath that semi
fractured pain there possibly
could be fridges.

But all alone, upright on one
continuos side, rolled, but
not from that far had it come
from trailer, bike or car

Its potential for movement
ceased, cemented in a
solitary track. Restricted like
an invisble finger held it back

Slowly through the days
it will slip without pressure or force.
The final minutes of a ships captain,
gliding into the icy steel, saluting his own pride.

And there it will hide beneath
the brwon murk until some near
or distant summer it will be lured
from its bed of silt and bicycle frames.
By a line and a hook and beyond the
refracted world an angler
will curse his luck to a stranger
passing by and then sling it in
brambles or ditch.
And so it turns and starts again.

Welcome back Neil. This is a powerful piece of writing!