Today's poet

[freckle]

Thanks for that SA and to continue today's Autumn theme

Autumn

The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
as if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning "no."

And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.

We're all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It's in them all.

And yet there is Someone, whose hands
infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.

Rainer Maria Rilke

how utterly beautiful, calm and soothing...i somehow needed to read this tonight.....thank you Alf

ps SA lovely choice

[freckle]

Right, I'm feeling much cheerier today and want to help celebrate the 10000th post. Congratulations and many thanks to Freckle!!!!

An Epilogue

I have seen flowers come in stony places
And kind things done by men with ugly faces
And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races
So, I trust too.

John Masefield

just gorgeous...can't believe the choices on here today, brilliant!

[freckle]

Moving Forward by Rainer Maria Rilke

The deep parts of my life pour onward,
as if the river shores were opening out.
It seems that things are more like me now,
That I can see farther into paintings.
I feel closer to what language can't reach.
With my senses, as with birds, I climb
into the windy heaven, out of the oak,
in the ponds broken off from the sky
my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.

[Harry H Howgill]

just gorgeous...can't believe the choices on here today, brilliant!

There is a theory that to become an expert in anything you need to practice it for a minimum of 10,000 hours.

After 10,000 posts the thread is looking pretty damned expert at picking choices.

[Harry H Howgill]

I blurted out this in the age grading thread earlier which Alf (albeit only Alf) thought was poetical. What d'yer think?

I like to think that I will eventually turn into some wizened, most probably hairy bearded and more than slightly bonkers mountain man that chooses to stay in the hills all the time, rarely bothering with civilisation. People walking in the hills will spot me flitting between the crags from time to time, although I'll become an increasingly rare sighting.....until one day I will, like Wainright, end up 'staying forever' in some remote tarn or other

I like to think that I will eventually
turn into some wizened, most probably hairy
bearded and more than slightly bonkers
mountain man that chooses to stay
in the hills all the time,
rarely bothering with civilisation.

People walking in the hills
will spot me flitting between the crags
from time to time,
although I'll become an increasingly rare sighting.....
until one day I will, like Wainright,
end up 'staying forever' in some remote tarn or other

Stolly

[Harry H Howgill]

This is a very touching, heartfelt poem Hes. Your dilemma reminded me of this Larkin poem:

Philip Larkin - Love, We Must Part Now

Love, we must part now: do not let it be
Calamitious and bitter. In the past
There has been too much moonlight and self-pity:
Let us have done with it: for now at last
Never has sun more boldly paced the sky,
Never were hearts more eager to be free,
To kick down worlds, lash forests; you and I
No longer hold them; we are husks, that see
The grain going forward to a different use.

There is regret. Always, there is regret.
But it is better that our lives unloose,
As two tall ships, wind-mastered, wet with light,
Break from an estuary with their courses set,
And waving part, and waving drop from sight.

That is beautiful, especially the last line.

[Harry H Howgill]

No not really have been looking after helen a lot over summer until 2 weeks ago as she had pancreitis if it's spelled that way and then had her gall bladder removed. Plus i have felt not the best.

Sorry to hear that Matt. I hope you both get back to full health soon.

[Harry H Howgill]

Something cheery for a Saturday night!

The Choice

Madness, it felt like madness
How could it come to this
The passion and the love
And then the precipice

I sensed the earth beneath me
Beginning to give way
I watched myself diminish
And why? I couldn’t say.

Your wanted me to be your wife
I wanted to believe
but knew it might cost me my life
and chose instead to leave

I want to say I’m sorry
The choice was hard to make
To rescue you or save myself
I had to make the break

my friends they say “it wasn’t you
you have to remain strong”
but everyday that passes
I wonder, was I wrong?

I'm a bit slow this week. I've only just realised that this one was penned by you. Very well written and extremely poignant. Keep being strong girl.

[freckle]

Good to have the Howgill back...

yesterday my daughter remarked...

"you know mam
two lonely people
aren't lonely at all
they are just two people
who could be together"

Loneliness

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Being apart and lonely is like rain.
It climbs toward evening from the ocean plains;
from flat places, rolling and remote, it climbs
to heaven, which is its old abode.
And only when leaving heaven drops upon the city.

It rains down on us in those twittering
hours when the streets turn their faces to the dawn,
and when two bodies who have found nothing,
dissapointed and depressed, roll over;
and when two people who despise eachother
have to sleep together in one bed-

that is when loneliness receives the rivers...

[freckle]

Ward 31

You would think it would be quiet here
But even though I can’t move a muscle
I hear well enough
About this nurse and that’s- forthcoming holiday,
How this patient and that- isn’t complying.
Blood and MRI results.

Amidst the beeps and the various dramas
of my somewhat surreal compadres,
I hanker for some peace.
To lie, at home in my bed
looking at the sun streaming in
Or to float on a lilo
in a greek swimming pool
without one single ioata of a care.

So when my friend, (also a nurse) visits
Is it any surprise that my eyes well,
That tears prick within the sockets
and roll down my cheek
I ask you...

Is it so unnatural to want to be held and loved
When you cannot hold yourself?