Today's poet

[Mossdog]

Oooophs! Just noticed this thread is perhaps getting a bit too heavy (where is Freckle when you need her?). So to add some 'upbeat'...

The Example

HERE'S an example from
A Butterfly;
That on a rough, hard rock
Happy can lie;
Friendless and all alone
On this unsweetened stone.
Now let my bed be hard
No care take I;
I'll make my joy like this
Small Butterfly;
Whose happy heart has power
To make a stone a flower.

W.H. Davies

I know Polly-Anna-ish but I'm trying (yeah really trying!!!!)

[Mossdog]

Hes, something that fits the 'alone not lonely' bill:

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have posessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

John Dryden Happy the Man

Good one DT. I felt like that on Saturday while running the Teesdale / Weardale ridge on hard, very runnable snow, bathed in sunlight for 4 plus hours and 25 miles of bliss, and not another soul in sight, and it lasted...well...certainly to Monday and the return to work

[Harry H Howgill]

Heavy is good now and again.

I'd never heard of WHD before this thread, and now he's one of my favourites.

Oooophs! Just noticed this thread is perhaps getting a bit too heavy (where is Freckle when you need her?). So to add some 'upbeat'...

The Example

HERE'S an example from
A Butterfly;
That on a rough, hard rock
Happy can lie;
Friendless and all alone
On this unsweetened stone.
Now let my bed be hard
No care take I;
I'll make my joy like this
Small Butterfly;
Whose happy heart has power
To make a stone a flower.

W.H. Davies

I know Polly-Anna-ish but I'm trying (yeah really trying!!!!)

[Derby Tup]

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips
possessive and faithful
as we are
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers
cling to your knife

I know I'm a couple of weeks early but I really like this

[freckle]

With this month bearing some unbearable date,
let's not too full enfold that state,
which makes a claim on many a heart,
that at first can seem to gleam so bright,
but leave us then in the coldest night.
So let's just be more circumspect,
and careful of the dreams we may erect,
and more measured in our affect.

Or as John put it more eloquently...

A Lecture upon the Shadow

STAND still, and I will read to thee
A lecture, love, in love's philosophy.
These three hours that we have spent,
Walking here, two shadows went
Along with us, which we ourselves produc'd.
But, now the sun is just above our head,
We do those shadows tread,
And to brave clearness all things are reduc'd.
So whilst our infant loves did grow,
Disguises did, and shadows, flow
From us, and our cares; but now 'tis not so.
That love has not attain'd the high'st degree,
Which is still diligent lest others see.
Except our loves at this noon stay,
We shall new shadows make the other way.
As the first were made to blind
Others, these which come behind
Will work upon ourselves, and blind our eyes.
If our loves faint, and westwardly decline,
To me thou, falsely, thine,
And I to thee mine actions shall disguise.
The morning shadows wear away,
But these grow longer all the day;
But oh, love's day is short, if love decay.
Love is a growing, or full constant light,
And his first minute, after noon, is night.

John Donne

Mossy you are clever ! i loved your poem and john's isn't half bad either!.....valentine's day ( a bit like christmas) can be a right pain in the proverbial.....and more "measure" would be useful i think!

on a different note i found this nice little poem...like the sentiment...

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Theodore Roethke

[freckle]

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips
possessive and faithful
as we are
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers
cling to your knife

I know I'm a couple of weeks early but I really like this

Ooooo i do like an onion with a fierce kiss!!!!!............... nice one DT!

[freckle]

Honesty ?.

How can i write honestly,
When all i am is a concoction of chemicals,
Put together by the medical fraternity,
Whatever was me left fleeing crying,
Into the vacuum that was called my heart,
Is my poetry the last sole soldier,
Fighting for my soul with all it's might,
Or is this just an induced action,
Created in a laboratory to make me good for society,
I don't know anymore it's too long gone,
So i say prayer and dig the grave,
Of the young boy that was once me,
At least for a fleeting moment,
Cover the casket with soil lay down the hyacinth,
And hope like hell one day he might return,
In all his youth and beauty,
Until then i wait within the prison of my mind.

By Matt Harmston.

beautiful and poignant x

[Harry H Howgill]

Ha ha. I had that one lines up for the day itself. I'll have to find another one now!



.

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.

It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips
possessive and faithful
as we are
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers
cling to your knife

I know I'm a couple of weeks early but I really like this

[Derby Tup]

Ha ha. I had that one lines up for the day itself. I'll have to find another one now!

I've got the Poem for the Day book One and its in there. Just seemed appropriate after Mossy's earlier post

[Harry H Howgill]

I've got the Poem for the Day book One and its in there. Just seemed appropriate after Mossy's earlier post

It is a good one, so no need to wait until then.