Today's poet

[freckle]

Green

green, cream
cider-apple clean

curled with a kitten
(she called him mine)

cool, smoothing linen
on her drowsing young arms

black-limbed night-vision
angels scooped her, nursed her

sinking down to sleep just like
a pebble in a forest lake

plop.

she was never schooled in give and take
how to dream all night of lifelong ageing

or to dream all day
of sleep, fear and forgetting

she was too busy seeing
to care or name

whether Betelgeuse occluded Mars
or maybe vice-versa

as four new words came down for love
while eighteen words came down for lies

and stars became words, too,
showering and comet-tailing

whooshing oh so fast into the safe
soft target of her mind

some Upper-case pet-names
swallowed yours and mine

as soft apple-sweet sense
turned to harder-bitten

while words made sight
a command-decision

so if the mirror and the bed
both begin to bite back hard

and if the lake grows dimensions
like a heavy-metal glove

and if sleep stifles its own dreams
like unaffordable children

stop.

don't let the stars go out
while your eyes are still open

Paul Ingram

Ooooo this is nice....in particular those last two lines....thanks for posting Hes :-) x

[freckle]

I have posted this one before back in the early days of the thread, but I really like it....

I Held You in the Square (Ben Okri, 1986)


I held you in the square
And felt the evening
Re-order itself around
Your smile.

The dreams I could never touch
Felt like your body.
Your gentleness made the
Night soft.

And even if we didn't know
Where we were going,
Nor what street to take
Or what bench to sit on
What chambers awaited
That would deliver us our
Naked joy,
I could feel in your spirit
The restlessness for a journey
Whose beauty lies
In the arriving moment
Of each desire.

Holding you in the evening square,
I sealed a dream
With your smile as the secret pact.

[Mossdog]

Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine, Love

Tie your heart at night to mine, love,
and both will defeat the darkness
like twin drums beating in the forest
against the heavy wall of wet leaves.

Night crossing: black coal of dream
that cuts the thread of earthly orbs
with the punctuality of a headlong train
that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly.

Love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement,
to the grip on life that beats in your breast,
with the wings of a submerged swan,

So that our dream might reply
to the sky's questioning stars
with one key, one door closed to shadow.

Pablo Neruda

That's fantastic DT and a new PN for me. Now then! What's happened to our daily liturgy DT Haiku?

To get the ball rolling again, here's one inspired by this evenings outing:

Raven Hills trig point
sees red kites soaring ahead
Hey! purple ling stirs

[Derby Tup]

Bob Graham fever
grips haiku fixated Tup
trapped between attempts

[freckle]

Bob Graham fever
grips haiku fixated Tup
trapped between attempts

Good luck with your next one DT ! may the force be with you :-)

[Derby Tup]

Good luck with your next one DT ! may the force be with you :-)

Thanks freckle

[Mossdog]

Bob Graham fever
grips haiku fixated Tup
trapped between attempts

Well done that Tup - now all's rite with the world

Ahem...And for tonight's offering I present (cue roll of drums) for your delectation...:w00t:

Ode To The Joys of Fell Running

Running the fells can be great joy and delight
especially when horizonal rain blurs the sight
When there's nowt on the telly and t' pubs are closed
it's run headlong up that hill and follow ya nose

I adore that sense of sweat on my face
the burning sinews as I quicken the pace
the salt shadows left around forehead and eyes
and multitude of chasing blue-bottled flies

Ignoring the dip that my the spirits betray
when a big bugger of a hill rears up in my way
when I'm well lost on route and a walker appears
I smile and look cheery and bury my fears

Jumping through heather and skipping the bog
it rite brillaint when God turns on the flippin fog
And to return to the car all covered in fell shite
to discover the keys are are nowhere in sight....

Please feel free to continue

[freckle]

Well done that Tup - now all's rite with the world

Ahem...And for tonight's offering I present (cue roll of drums) for your delectation...:w00t:

Ode To The Joys of Fell Running

Running the fells can be great joy and delight
especially when horizonal rain blurs the sight
When there's nowt on the telly and t' pubs are closed
it's run headlong up that hill and follow ya nose

I adore that sense of sweat on my face
the burning sinews as I quicken the pace
the salt shadows left around forehead and eyes
and multitude of chasing blue-bottled flies

Ignoring the dip that my the spirits betray
when a big bugger of a hill rears up in my way
when I'm well lost on route and a walker appears
I smile and look cheery and bury my fears

Jumping through heather and skipping the bog
it rite brillaint when God turns on the flippin fog
And to return to the car all covered in fell shite
to discover the keys are are nowhere in sight....

Please feel free to continue

And the best bit of fell running
for me, has to be....
the pleasantly aching legs afterwards
Oh...and a nice cup of tea!


(or snecklifter!)


Nice one Mossy! just the kind of inspiration one needs to get out for a run early doors......:0) x

[Alf]

Well done that Tup - now all's rite with the world

Ahem...And for tonight's offering I present (cue roll of drums) for your delectation...:w00t:

Ode To The Joys of Fell Running

Running the fells can be great joy and delight
especially when horizonal rain blurs the sight
When there's nowt on the telly and t' pubs are closed
it's run headlong up that hill and follow ya nose

I adore that sense of sweat on my face
the burning sinews as I quicken the pace
the salt shadows left around forehead and eyes
and multitude of chasing blue-bottled flies

Ignoring the dip that my the spirits betray
when a big bugger of a hill rears up in my way
when I'm well lost on route and a walker appears
I smile and look cheery and bury my fears

Jumping through heather and skipping the bog
it rite brillaint when God turns on the flippin fog
And to return to the car all covered in fell shite
to discover the keys are are nowhere in sight....

Please feel free to continue

I think you might have started a "group poetry" subthread here Mossy

.....
Tripping over tussocks and plodding through peat
Desperately trying to stay on two feet
Bowing my head to the local god on the climb
While trying to remember its all in the mind.
.....

[Guick Dotto]

Horbury Junction

“Tha c’n see ‘wind.”
“Tha can nivver!
...Wheer?”
“On ‘towpath for a start...
A lad, blackbright,
Wi air cat’s-fur-leet.
Bare legs, brambled-dragged,
Awthorn, blackthorn, dog-rose-ripped.
Gooin too fast i tummles ower ‘n trips
Clips,
Whips,
Strips ‘black ‘watter off ‘Broad Cut,
And,
Bi ‘viaduct
A lock gate shudders.”