Today's poet

[Alf]

I liked the Kamala Das poem a lot and the Haiku/tongue twister that Hes posted


Something a little less racy today from me.

Modern Love

It is summer, and we are in a house
That is not ours, sitting at a table
Enjoying minutes of a rented silence,
The upstairs people gone. The pigeons lull
To sleep the under-tens and invalids,
The tree shakes out its shadows to the grass,
The roses rove through the wilds of my neglect.
Our lives flap, and we have no hope of better
Happiness than this, not much to show for love
Than how we are, and how this evening is,
Unpeopled, silent, and where we are alive
In a domestic love, seemingly alone,
All other lives worn down to trees and sunlight,
Looking forward to a visit from the cat.

Douglas Dunn

It's 14 lines so has the length of a Sonnet but not the usual rhyming constructs you associate with a Sonnet. However like any other Sonnet the final line is a killer

[Sunbeam Alpine]

Hello - subjects have moved on again since last time. Douglas Dunn is a good way to finish the day - but Robert Macfarlane ( fine natural history writer) shapes up an essay on R 3 at 11 pm - but my mind slides away that late. Love is a fine subject but maybe because it has no definite meaning or logic - which is good in a way - but makes it elusive.
Here's something from Judith Wright from Australia - who is maybe famous for her environmental work / poems - written I believe towards the end of her life !

The Company Of Lovers

We meet and part now over all the world;
we, the lost company,
take hands together in the night, forget
the night in our brief happiness, silently.
We, who sought many things, throw all away
for this one thing, one only,
remembering that in the narrow grave
we shall be lonely.

Death marshalls up his armies round us now.
Their footsteps crowd too near.
Lock your warm hand above the chilling heart
and for a time I live without my fear.
Grope in the night to find me and embrace,
for the dark preludes of the drums begin,
and round us round the company of lovers,
death draws his cordons in.

[Sunbeam Alpine]

I've always liked the word 'sloe' - as in Hes's poem.

Anyway to finish - here is a favourite from Judith Wright just to remind me to get up early for a sea swim tomorrow - but swell is low !

:

The Surfer

He thrust his joy against the weight of the sea;
climbed through, slid under those long banks of
foam--
(hawthorn hedges in spring, thorns in the face stinging).
How his brown strength drove through the hollow and coil
of green-through weirs of water!
Muscle of arm thrust down long muscle of water;
and swimming so, went out of sight
where mortal, masterful, frail, the gulls went wheeling
in air as he in water, with delight.

Turn home, the sun goes down; swimmer, turn home.
Last leaf of gold vanishes from the sea-curve.
Take the big roller’s shoulder, speed and serve;
come to the long beach home like a gull diving.

For on the sand the grey-wolf sea lies, snarling,
cold twilight wind splits the waves’ hair and shows
the bones they worry in their wolf-teeth. O, wind blows
and sea crouches on sand, fawning and mouthing;
drops there and snatches again, drops and again snatches
its broken toys, its whitened pebbles and shells.

[Einar]

Fantastic choices SA and Alf.

This one's about a young Highland girl grappling with a complex poem at school....

Poetry drives its lines into her forehead
like an angled plough across a bare field.
I’ve seen her kind before…
And she - like them – should grow along these valleys
Bearing bright children, being kind to love.
Simple affection needs no complex solace
nor quieter minds abstractions of the grave…

Iain Crichton Smith

[Mossdog]

Some excellent verse on here tongiht....



Ode on Solitude
Alexander Pope


Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye.

[freckle]

Hello - subjects have moved on again since last time. Douglas Dunn is a good way to finish the day - but Robert Macfarlane ( fine natural history writer) shapes up an essay on R 3 at 11 pm - but my mind slides away that late. Love is a fine subject but maybe because it has no definite meaning or logic - which is good in a way - but makes it elusive.
Here's something from Judith Wright from Australia - who is maybe famous for her environmental work / poems - written I believe towards the end of her life !

The Company Of Lovers

We meet and part now over all the world;
we, the lost company,
take hands together in the night, forget
the night in our brief happiness, silently.
We, who sought many things, throw all away
for this one thing, one only,
remembering that in the narrow grave
we shall be lonely.

Death marshalls up his armies round us now.
Their footsteps crowd too near.
Lock your warm hand above the chilling heart
and for a time I live without my fear.
Grope in the night to find me and embrace,
for the dark preludes of the drums begin,
and round us round the company of lovers,
death draws his cordons in.

Evening all...some beautiful choices made over the past 24 hours, I have enjoyed dipping in and out of the thread and being more of a consumer rather than contributer as I am very much tied up with work commitments at the minute....Hes your haiku was cool....Alf I love your recent contribution, well written albeit somewhat downbeat!...SA I really like this choice....for me it just reaffirms that life is too damn short and that we should live for today!... i particularly liked the line about "in the narrow grave we shall be lonely"....:-)

[freckle]

PS Alf....admit it...you teach english lit on the sly!!!!!!

[freckle]

The Border(s)

I wasn’t sure of the eventual evolution
In a fragment my cortex was neatly bypassed
An unconscious, implicit
leaning into me -leaning into you
With Wainrights central fells clearly in view
The smell of coffee and a turquoise tie.
Sometimes the earliest memories
Are the most salient.



and by the master....

Leaning Into The Afternoons by Pablo Neruda

Leaning into the afternoons,
I cast my sad nets towards your oceanic eyes.
There, in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames;
Its arms turning like a drowning man's.
I send out red signals across your absent eyes
That wave like the sea, or the beach by a lighthouse.
You keep only darkness my distant female;
From your regard sometimes, the coast of dread emerges.

Leaning into the afternoons,
I fling my sad nets to that sea that is thrashed
By your oceanic eyes.
The birds of night peck at the first stars
That flash like my soul when I love you.
The night, gallops on its shadowy mare
Shedding blue tassels over the land.

[Derby Tup]

Some fantastic stuff on here atm. It's inspired an increase in haiku activity

watery sunshine
pierces ethereal mist
September morning

[Hes]

There has been some good stuff on here lately. All the Neruda makes me want to go back to Chile, I still have two shells from La Isla Negra by my bed. I really like DT's September haiku and Freckle's lovely poem. Thanks to Mossy for the positive poem about solitude.