Today's poet

[freckle]

Thanks Harry you are kind...

here is another bit of Armitage I found earlier written for his wife I believe, sometimes it is hard to articulate the depth of one's love for another person but I think he does it so well here.....

from The Book of Matches
Reading the Banns

Let me put it this way:
if you came to lay

your sleeping head
against my arm or sleeve,

and if my arm went dead,
or if I had to take my leave

at midnight, I should rather
cleave it from the joint or seam

than make a scene
or bring you round.

There,
how does that sound?

happy birthday for tomorrow OW ! x

[Derby Tup]

few remaining swifts
parade gunmetal Dales skies
eternal wheel turns

[freckle]

few remaining swifts
parade gunmetal Dales skies
eternal wheel turns

beautiful.... a welcome return to haiku from the master! :-)

[shadbolt]

A poem incorporating bollock scratching, now there is a thought!

Loudon Wainwright III - Something for Nothing

You can pull one of my songs right out of thin air
Go ahead and download me, see if I care
In love, war and cyberspace, everything's fair
And it's okay to steal 'cause it's so nice to share

You're in luck 'cause last night, it happened again
I was feeling creative about twenty to 10
So I sharpened a pencil and I wore down its end
And now soon you'll have something to share with your friends

It took twenty minutes to write down this song
The tune's public domain so I didn't do wrong
I chewed up the pencil and the eraser's all gone
Scratched my head and my balls, but it didn't take long

Songwriting's not so hard, it's well-understood
Anyone can do it and everyone should
I'm sure you could write and sing something as good
With some balls and a pencil, I'm sure that you would

A PC's like a crowbar, it's only a tool
And music flows like water from a big public pool
But I wanna get paid for my work, but I'm a fool
Because trading and sharing's so awesome and cool

I don't mean to be flip, I don't want to be pat
Those Metallica guy are all getting too fat.
Free information, yeah, what's wrong with that?
Something for nothing, that's where it's at

And those moguls run labels and you call them all crooks
Because they crunch the numbers and they cook the books
But I signed that contract and I got my hand shook
Shaking hands with the devil, it's not as bad as it looks

You can pull one of my songs right out of thin air
Bootleg and download me, see if I care
In love, war and cyberspace, everything's fair
And it's okay to steal 'cause it's so nice to share

[Harry H Howgill]

LW III is an absolute star. His lyrics often stand on their own without the music. His Lad Rufus Wainwright is another great songwriter too.

"And it's okay to steal 'cause it's so nice to share" is such a great line.

[Derby Tup]

Gargrave Sheepdog Trial
ruddy-faced Dalesmen struggle
with frisky Swaledale ewes

[Sunbeam Alpine]

This is my first post - I hope it works ................

Swallows at Chenonceau by John Fuller:

Their building is never finished
Nor their life in the blue air.

Their looping trajectories
Capture invisibility

And return with easy accuracy
To breeding slits and crannies

Clustered beneath the eyebrows
Of these long-suffering turrets

Stone bleached by the sun,
Capped by tented slate.

A tail is seen just for a moment
Before disappearing inside.

No intrigue as patent
In such eager soaring and hovering

Nothing so guileless,
Nothing so anonymous
No calmness nor order of gardens
Could redeem this profusion

Nor effort of history,
Nor stone's severity.

Memory not conditional,
But continual.

[Derby Tup]

Welcome to the forum and the fell poets' thread SA

Nice post

[freckle]

Welcome to the forum and the fell poets' thread SA

Nice post

Indeed welcome to the thread and forum SA!....I may have to dig out a poem about the sea given your seafaring links!

Shadbolt thanks for responding to my request!

[freckle]

Break, Break, Break

Alfred Tennyson

Break, break, break
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman's boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.