Today's poet

[Mossdog]

I know you are a fan of Plath Mossy so here's one for you. I came across it in one of my favourite anthologies by Common Ground called Trees Be Company.

Winter Trees

The wet dawn inks are doing their blue dissolve.
On their blotter of fog the trees
Seem a botanical drawing—
Memories growing, ring on ring,
A series of weddings.

Knowing neither abortions nor bitchery,
Truer than women,
They seed so effortlessly!
Tasting the winds, that are footless,
Waist-deep in history—

Full of wings, otherworldliness.
In this, they are Ledas.
O mother of leaves and sweetness
Who are these pietàs?
The shadows of ringdoves chanting, but easing nothing.

Sylvia Plath

Oh many thanks Hes. I haven't read that one before, and it really is a 'classic' in the sense that reading it 'pins me to the spot' sending that chilled frisson down the spine that Sylvia often manages to do to me.

Really sorry to hear about your bruises and your friend's accident too.

Just did what i call the Hudeshope Horseshoe - 12 empty, tractless, but glorious miles, in bright sunshine. Last week's snow is banked like the course of a vast pristine, white velodrome, allowing the mudclaws to chew miles upon miles of crunchy cadence, over what is usually unremitting blanket bog. All in chilly dazzling sunshine too - heavenly or what?

[Hes]

Hi Mossy, thanks for the sympathy...am feeling fine today, just slightly stiff, I think Ray is suffering a bit though. I loved your account of your run, it could be a poem. It really does sound heavenly. So many people at my running club haven't run for ages because of the weather but I have found that I've been out more and for longer. Its compulsive! My last few longs runs have been some of the best and most memorable ever. I love being up on the moors in virgin snow with hares dashing about and the land transformed and magical.

Oh many thanks Hes. I haven't read that one before, and it really is a 'classic' in the sense that reading it 'pins me to the spot' sending that chilled frisson down the spine that Sylvia often manages to do to me.

Really sorry to hear about your bruises and your friend's accident too.

Just did what i call the Hudeshope Horseshoe - 12 empty, tractless, but glorious miles, in bright sunshine. Last week's snow is banked like the course of a vast pristine, white velodrome, allowing the mudclaws to chew miles upon miles of crunchy cadence, over what is usually unremitting blanket bog. All in chilly dazzling sunshine too - heavenly or what?

[Hes]

Gosh...I really love this! I could spend days beachcombing and imagining all the stories behind the strange objects that get washed up. Can't wait to spend Christmas with my mum by the sea. Thanks for posting it SA. Well worth the wait.

You know it's cold when there's ice on the high water mark As promised weeks ago here is something from George Mackay Brown.

Beachcomber
Monday I found a boot -
Rust and salt leather.
I gave it back to the sea, to dance in.

Tuesday a spar of timber worth thirty bob.
Next winter
It will be a chair, a coffin, a bed.

Wednesday, a half can of Swedish spirits.
I tilted my head.
The shore was cold with mermaids and angels.

Thursday I got nothing, seaweed,
A whale bone,
Wet feet and a lud cough.

Friday I held a seaman's skull,
Sand spilling from it
The way time is told on Kirkyard stones.

Saturday a barrel of sodden oranges.
A Spanish ship
was wrecked last month at The Kame.

Sunday, for fear of the elders,
I sit on my bum.
What's Heavan? A sea chest with a thousand gold coins.

By George Mackay Brown

[plodding bear]

Can any of you guys help out a dad in distress? My daughter has just got engaged, and I want to find something nice to write in a card which I have a feeling will end up in a scrap book to be kept. I can't think of any poetic quotes, and I'm at work so prpbably won't have much time to try and come up with anything. On the off-chance that the muse doesn't strike... any ideas? Just a couple of nice lines from somewhere for a young couple about to embark on a future together? Help?

[Skarsnik]

here's a nice one... for someone very special

Hope
By: Sri Chinmoy

Hope abides; therefore I abide.
Countless frustrations have not cowed me.
I am still alive, vibrant with life.
The black cloud will disappear,
The morning sun will appear once again
In all its supernal glory.

[Derby Tup]

Sonnet XLV

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -

because - I don't know how to say it: a day is long

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because

then the little drops of anguish will all run together,

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift

into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.

Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far

I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,

Will you come back? Will you leave me here,

dying?

Pablo Neruda

[Sunbeam Alpine]

Thank you Hes. GMB is very imaginative. This swept over my desk recently which is another take on seas and tides.

Incidentally I liked Winter Trees - but here's one for you as an artist : why are there so few good representations of trees in art ? If I'm wrong - then who (apart from I think Shukshin ?? in Russia with birches) can carry it off?

I started Early -- Took my Dog

I started Early - Took my Dog -
And visited the Sea -
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me -
And Frigates - in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands -
Presuming Me to be a Mouse -
Aground - opon the Sands -

But no Man moved Me - till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe -
And past my Apron - and my Belt
And past my Boddice - too -

And made as He would eat me up -
As wholly as a Dew
Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve -
And then - I started - too -

And He - He followed - close behind -
I felt His Silver Heel
Opon my Ankle - Then My Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl -

Until We met the Solid Town -
No One He seemed to know -
And bowing - with a Mighty look -
At me - The Sea withdrew -

Emily Dickinson

[Mossdog]

Sonnet XLV

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -

because - I don't know how to say it: a day is long

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because

then the little drops of anguish will all run together,

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift

into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.

Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far

I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,

Will you come back? Will you leave me here,

dying?

Pablo Neruda

Magnifico

[Mossdog]

THE RAINBOW

By Charlotte Richardson


Soft falls the shower, the thunders cease!
And see the messenger of peace
Illumes the eastern skies;
Blest sign of firm unchanging love!
While others seek the cause to prove,
That bids thy beauties rise.

My soul, content with humbler views,
Well pleased admires thy varied hues,
And can with joy behold
Thy beauteous form, and wondering gaze
Enraptured on thy mingled rays
Of purple, green, and gold.

Enough for me to deem divine
The hand that paints each glowing line;
To think that thou art given
A transient gleam of that bright place
Where Beauty owns celestial grace,
A faint display of Heaven!

[freckle]

Can any of you guys help out a dad in distress? My daughter has just got engaged, and I want to find something nice to write in a card which I have a feeling will end up in a scrap book to be kept. I can't think of any poetic quotes, and I'm at work so prpbably won't have much time to try and come up with anything. On the off-chance that the muse doesn't strike... any ideas? Just a couple of nice lines from somewhere for a young couple about to embark on a future together? Help?

Evening all and hello plodding bear...I have been pondering your request...i wondered about the first verse or third verse of this one by e e cummings (by the way mossy thanks for posting the cummings xmas tree poem-beautiful!)...here is wishing the young couple a most happy future together!

being to timelessness as it's to time,
love did no more begin than love will end:
where nothing is to breathe to stroll to swim
love is the air the ocean and the land

(do lovers suffer?all divinities
proudly descending put on deathful flesh:
are lovers glad?only their smallest joy's
a universe emerging from a wish)

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear:
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star-

-do lovers love?why then to heaven with hell.
whatever sages say and fools,all's well

Wisee cummings