Today's poet

[Derby Tup]

Intense is a good way to describe Slumdog Harry. Moving and disturbing; very bittersweet!

[Harry H Howgill]

Evening Freckle! I think it might be unrequited love...the person was a blooming rose and then love struck and ate away at them because it could not be...they are languishing, sighing and swooning away (got to use the correct terminology for these matters), their petals wilting and their colour fading....

I think I prefer your analysis better than the actual poem!

[Hes]

Evening Hes!.........

v good analysis...i think you should become an english lit teacher in your spare time...i can picture it now, a 100% increase in the uptake of young lads choosing to study english lit !!!

ha ha ha...that made me chuckle. Not sure I fancy teaching a bunch of hormonal young lads with smelly socks...oh, that describes a fair proportion of the fell running fraternity hee hee!

[freckle]

Can anyone else remember those "Love is...." cards of circa 1980's?


Love is.....

a little boat named “the idler”
and a boy scampering down Byker steps
with a bounce befitting tigger.

[Hes]

Wise words spoken there. I wish everyone happiness whatever their situation.

Good luck for tomorrow's race. It should be a lovely day.

I'm watching Slumdog Millionaire tonight and I'm finding it quite intense. Before having kids I could have watched it quite happily, but I'm finding it a bit upsetting to be honest. It takes me back to seeing kids begging on the street in Burma and Eritrea.

I don't have kids but have worked wth them in Cambodia, Peru and here in Blighty and even if I hadn't, I'd still have found the film very upsetting but that is a very good thing. Those things are happening for real. We all should get upset. Its a great film.

[Harry H Howgill]

ha ha ha...that made me chuckle. Not sure I fancy teaching a bunch of hormonal young lads with smelly socks...oh, that describes a fair proportion of the fell running fraternity hee hee!

ha ha. Many a true word spoken in jest.

[freckle]

Attachment 2905

yer know...this kind of thing....

[Harry H Howgill]

I don't have kids but have worked wth them in Cambodia, Peru and here in Blighty and even if I hadn't, I'd still have found the film very upsetting but that is a very good thing. Those things are happening for real. We all should get upset. Its a great film.

I think you are right. It is important not to forget that these things are going on in the world right now. I'm getting upset about watching a film, which is no reason at all compared to the lives that are lived on the edge of existance every single day. I live a very cosy existance compared to the majority of the world, and I forget sometimes when I'm feeling sorry for myself.

[Brock]

oops! - posted this in the wrong place earlier.

straight from the badger's heart


Conrad Aiken

The Quarrel



Suddenly, after the quarrel, while we waited,
Disheartened, silent, with downcast looks, nor stirred
Eyelid nor finger, hopeless both, yet hoping
Against all hope to unsay the sundering word:

While all the room's stillness deepened, deepened about us
And each of us crept his thought's way to discover
How, with as little sound as the fall of a leaf,
The shadow had fallen, and lover quarreled with lover;

And while, in the quiet, I marveled–alas, alas–
At your deep beauty, your tragic beauty, torn
As the pale flower is torn by the wanton sparrow–
This beauty, pitied and loved, and now forsworn;

It was then, when the instant darkened to its darkest,–
When faith was lost with hope, and the rain conspired
To strike its gray arpeggios against our heartstrings,–
When love no longer dared, and scarcely desired:

It was then that suddenly, in the neighbor's room,
The music started: that brave quartette of strings
Breaking out of the stillness, as out of our stillness,
Like the indomitable heart of life that sings

When all is lost; and startled from our sorrow,
Tranced from our grief by that diviner grief,
We raised remembering eyes, each looked at other,
Blinded with tears of joy; and another leaf

Fell silently as that first; and in the instant
The shadow had gone, our quarrel became absurd;
And we rose, to the angelic voices of the music,
And I touched your hand, and we kissed, without a word.




Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems, 1916-1970, Oxford University Press, 1970.
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[freckle]

oops! - posted this in the wrong place earlier.

straight from the badger's heart


Conrad Aiken

The Quarrel



Suddenly, after the quarrel, while we waited,
Disheartened, silent, with downcast looks, nor stirred
Eyelid nor finger, hopeless both, yet hoping
Against all hope to unsay the sundering word:

While all the room's stillness deepened, deepened about us
And each of us crept his thought's way to discover
How, with as little sound as the fall of a leaf,
The shadow had fallen, and lover quarreled with lover;

And while, in the quiet, I marveled–alas, alas–
At your deep beauty, your tragic beauty, torn
As the pale flower is torn by the wanton sparrow–
This beauty, pitied and loved, and now forsworn;

It was then, when the instant darkened to its darkest,–
When faith was lost with hope, and the rain conspired
To strike its gray arpeggios against our heartstrings,–
When love no longer dared, and scarcely desired:

It was then that suddenly, in the neighbor's room,
The music started: that brave quartette of strings
Breaking out of the stillness, as out of our stillness,
Like the indomitable heart of life that sings

When all is lost; and startled from our sorrow,
Tranced from our grief by that diviner grief,
We raised remembering eyes, each looked at other,
Blinded with tears of joy; and another leaf

Fell silently as that first; and in the instant
The shadow had gone, our quarrel became absurd;
And we rose, to the angelic voices of the music,
And I touched your hand, and we kissed, without a word.




Conrad Aiken, Collected Poems, 1916-1970, Oxford University Press, 1970.
__________________

Gosh............................what an awesome poem thank you