Today's poet

[freckle]

Dreaming of Socrates.

Poets know not what they write,
For the inspiration comes from above,
Pen connects with paper words take flight,
Jove guides you with his love.

Do not dismay just follow the divine,
Have no arrogance dear pen no hate,
Your goodly self could write no line,
Make libation and Joves words will illuminate.

By Matt Harmston.

So good to see you back Matt! Hope you and the family are well .....lovely verse :-) x

[Sunbeam Alpine]

I enjoyed the Ted Hughes - but seems a serious challenge to read Joseph Conrad to your lover . or to listen to it being read. Don't recall Conrad using any paragraphs - or many full stops !
Well the end of a long day - and this one from Roy Fisher marks a long road with some familiar places from those up north - and has just some full stops .

The Running Changes
Driving northward in February once on the run, to be clear of the Midlands in a panic and ruin of life,
I heard the telephones ring in the air for the first hundred miles.

But in the afternoon rain I found Sedbergh and threaded on through it, a silent close stone lock which let me pass but barred my trouble; I feared only it might be gone on ahead to lie in wait for me by the Tyne. Then the look of the road up to Kirkby, the plainness and dark of it, settled my stomach; and the sight of Brough Keep, black as could be, risen in the fields by a change of road, made me for that day my own man, out over cold stripped Stainmore.

Another year, coming down in peace out of Durham in a late snowstorm towards sunset,
I met the lorries, headlamps full on, thrashing their way up over Stainmore in spray-wave of rose-tinted slush, cloud-world behind and below them filling the valley-bottom, rolling, shot through with pink, in the side-valleys breaking apart to lance the pastures right across with sunlight from no sure source:
and under the last trail of the cloud, the vanishing up of its blush into the grey, and the snow thinning, there, once again, was Brough Castle marking the turn southward, and being dark.

[freckle]

I enjoyed the Ted Hughes - but seems a serious challenge to read Joseph Conrad to your lover . or to listen to it being read. Don't recall Conrad using any paragraphs - or many full stops !
Well the end of a long day - and this one from Roy Fisher marks a long road with some familiar places from those up north - and has just some full stops .

The Running Changes
Driving northward in February once on the run, to be clear of the Midlands in a panic and ruin of life,
I heard the telephones ring in the air for the first hundred miles.

But in the afternoon rain I found Sedbergh and threaded on through it, a silent close stone lock which let me pass but barred my trouble; I feared only it might be gone on ahead to lie in wait for me by the Tyne. Then the look of the road up to Kirkby, the plainness and dark of it, settled my stomach; and the sight of Brough Keep, black as could be, risen in the fields by a change of road, made me for that day my own man, out over cold stripped Stainmore.

Another year, coming down in peace out of Durham in a late snowstorm towards sunset,
I met the lorries, headlamps full on, thrashing their way up over Stainmore in spray-wave of rose-tinted slush, cloud-world behind and below them filling the valley-bottom, rolling, shot through with pink, in the side-valleys breaking apart to lance the pastures right across with sunlight from no sure source:
and under the last trail of the cloud, the vanishing up of its blush into the grey, and the snow thinning, there, once again, was Brough Castle marking the turn southward, and being dark.

your a class act sa ! :-) x

[Alf]

Good to see Matt back in fine form on the thread (hope Leonidas doesn't mind my Avatar )

Great choice freckle, I was reading that one a couple of weeks ago as I remember looking up what a rag rug was at the time.

I think we have had J.P. before on the thread and here is another one of his.

The Winter Wolf

There is something a little grayer than the snowed-upon
forest background: a watchfulness, a waiting hunger
in the peripheral vision. It is not that the white world
is comfortable to her, but she has found a way
to live in it: winter coat, letting the snow form
around her till it is a blanket that keeps her own
warmth within. It is not hard to see she lives
with purpose. This is where my beliefs begin:
she is the mind of snow. She has brought frost
to the pines, ice to the lake, and glitter to
the hills. Her voice is the wind cutting through
the landscape. When I hear her gospel in the boughs,
I know this is the cathedral, and when her gaze
is upon me, I am already on my knees.

J. P. dancing bear

[Alf]

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.


Major Michael Davis O'Donnell

[freckle]

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.


Major Michael Davis O'Donnell

beautiful and so very apt at the moment

[stevefoster]

"My love, you are strong and you will do well in life.
I love you and my children deeply.
Today and tomorrow, each day grow and grow.
Keep smiling and never give up, even when things get you down.
So, in closing, my love... tonight, tuck my children in bed warmly.
Tell them I love them.
Then hug them for me... and give them both a kiss good night for Daddy."

From the film Black Hawk Down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aowl7Wwzyis

Nice one Alf.

[Alf]

"My love, you are strong and you will do well in life.
I love you and my children deeply.
Today and tomorrow, each day grow and grow.
Keep smiling and never give up, even when things get you down.
So, in closing, my love... tonight, tuck my children in bed warmly.
Tell them I love them.
Then hug them for me... and give them both a kiss good night for Daddy."

From the film Black Hawk Down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aowl7Wwzyis

Nice one Alf.

Good one Steve, I think I will watch BHD again tonight

[Mountain Goatess]

tastes of oak and spice
cherry flavours running thro
fine wine a'flowing

[Mountain Goatess]

All That is Gold Does Not Glitter


All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien