Today's poet

[Stef F]

Aww :closed:

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

[Alf]

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?

A bit of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet 14 (slightly modified )

"Love each other for love's sake, that evermore
you may love on, through love's eternity."

[Alf]

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

Got ya tinternet moved freckle ?

[Alf]

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!

I enjoyed that Mossy

[Alf]

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

Only tree picture I can remember looking back through the very distant mists of time to Art History in 'A' level General Studies! was Hobbema's 'Avenue of trees'. I think that picture was more about what the trees contributed to the overall picture than the trees themselves. Or at least that's what I put in the exam



(which I passed).




I loved the Emily Dickinson poem by the way

[Skarsnik]

Only tree picture I can remember looking back through the very distant mists of time to Art History in 'A' level General Studies! was Hobbema's 'Avenue of trees'. I think that picture was more about what the trees contributed to the overall picture than the trees themselves. Or at least that's what I put in the exam



(which I passed).




I loved the Emily Dickinson poem by the way

yeah, Alf, bit of deja vu going on now, as I recall this in A Level Art too, yet wouldn't have without the prompt... The artist uses the trees to good effect in drawing the eye to a central point, and creating depth and perspective, but the trees also create an almost sinister mood to what is ostensibly a straightforward landscape depiction. The leaning trees in particular provide an uneasy sense of foreboding, heightened by the melancholic use of shadow. Didn't Hopper do something similar 250 yrs later? Aren't trees often viewed with suspicion in literature and myth? Why is that... I passed too, by the way, but my exhibition lacked colour, so my mark suffered....

[MachGirl]

A short but sweet little poem ....


Edwin Arnold ' Destiny '


Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

[plodding bear]

Cheers for those suggestions ALf and Freckle, I eventually came up with something - not quite as eloquent as your suggestions, but my daughter liked it!
Machgirl, I could well have gone for your one just above this post, 'Destiny' by Edwin Arnold. Very apt!

[Hes]

Nice pic...I think there are lots of artists that have depicted trees in an interesting way: Graham Sutherland, Samuel Palmer, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Paul Nash, Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh did some nice olive trees, Piet Mondrian did some gorgeous tree drawings before he moved towards abstraction....I could go on. I love trees and they feature in my own work but I guess it depends on what one considers makes a 'good' tree painting.

[QUOTE=Alf;381886]Only tree picture I can remember looking back through the very distant mists of time to Art History in 'A' level General Studies! was Hobbema's 'Avenue of trees'. I think that picture was more about what the trees contributed to the overall picture than the trees themselves. Or at least that's what I put in the exam QUOTE]

[Hes]

Hi Plodding Bear, really glad you came up with something. I read your post yesterday and started looking up poems until I realised that I'd wiled away a good hour and not found anything suitable so I had to get on with work instead. There is only so much procrastination I can get away with. I enjoyed the hunt though, it made me reread some lovely poems, so thanks.

Cheers for those suggestions ALf and Freckle, I eventually came up with something - not quite as eloquent as your suggestions, but my daughter liked it!
Machgirl, I could well have gone for your one just above this post, 'Destiny' by Edwin Arnold. Very apt!