Hello all, it's been a while. A good friend inspired this poem which was once again written in the company of an overpriced latte. Expensive lark this poetry...
'Amateurs'
Kenny's in the garden, digging up the beds
He scorched the earth on Skiddaw, now he's chopping down my hedge
Billy's on the patio, measuring the slope
He's done his round in daylight, now he's doing me a quote
Joss is in the backyard, whistling a call
He's won another trial, now he's building me a wall
Helene's in the backroom, setting up her bed
She's tamed the Dragon's Back, now she's sorting out my legs
Paula's in America with all her backroom staff
I've got a job for her but she's got little time for that...
It's not a dig at anyone, just a tip of the hat to those greats that did this as an addition to grafting for a living.
Oh Freckle - come on now, where's the spirit of your dandelions poem? This is poignant verse but so sad (althoguh there's a glimmer in the last two lines). As I'm in a Paterson phase how about this to cheer you up and to meditate/contemplate on your losses:
Renku XX
For years I watched the blosson fall.
It didn't. I rose through it all.
Am Yisrael Chai
Thanks Mossy...I didn't mean to cause concern with this one was just trying to write something along a theme and drawing on life experience in the process! on reading it again i can see why people might think i was full of self pity which could be a bit grating!!! anyhoo, feeling quite chipper at the minute and hopefully something more light verse wise will result! :-) x
top of the morning to ya!
"You Walked Gently Towards Me"
Ben Okri
You walked gently towards me
In the evening light
And brought silence with you
Which fell off when
I touched your shoulder
And felt the rain on it.
We went through the city
Up the roaring streets
Full of many lights
And we sought a place
To be alone
And found none.
The evening was merciful
On your smile.
Your laughter touched
The hungry ghosts
Of passing years.
You moved smoothly
On the waters
Your shadow sounded of silk
You led me to places
Full of mellow darkness
Secret coves where they
Didn't let us in
And under the rain
You bid me kiss you with
Your silent and uncertain eyes.
We walked home
And the rain laughed around us
With its insistent benediction
And you hair was strung with
Diadems
Your face with glittering dreams
And my eyes were wet
With your luminous spirited joy.
"And the rest of the day to yourself"
Loved the Okri freckle, that last section was brilliant.
Keeping the shower theme:
A Summer Shower
Welcome, rain or tempest
From yon airy powers,
We have languished for them
Many sultry hours,
And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers.
What have they been doing
In the burning June?
Riding with the genii?
Visiting the moon?
Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon?
Bring they with them jewels
From the sunset lands?
What are these they scatter
With such lavish hands?
There are no brighter gems in Raolconda's sands.
Pattering on the gravel,
Dropping from the eaves,
Glancing in the grass, and
Tinkling on the leaves,
They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves.
Meanwhile, unreluctant,
Earth like Danae lies;
Listen! is it fancy,
That beneath us sighs,
As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?
Jove, it is, descendeth
In those crystal rills;
And this world-wide tremor
Is a pulse that thrills
To a god's life infused through veins of velvet hills.
Wait, thou jealous sunshine,
Break not on their bliss;
Earth will blush in roses
Many a day for this,
And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.
Henry Timrod
Now I am off to do the Turnslack Fell Race and we might just have the odd shower there![]()
Philip Le Barr by Spike Milligan
Philip Le Barr,
Was knock down by a car,
On the road to Mandalay.
He was knocked down again
By a dust cart in Spain
And again in Zanzibar.
So,
He traveled at night
In the pale moon light
Away from the traffic growl
But terrible luck
He was hit by a duck
Driven by an owl.