Today's poet

[Hes]

I love the Christmas tree haiku! Brilliant one and all.

I also enjoyed Old Whippet's interesting and obscure poetry form and hope that I will make it to at least one or two of the mentioned races. Please do do some of the North Yorkshire ones, they're really enjoyable and friendly races and it was great to see you last year at Gisborough Moors.

I really should post some poetry but am lacking inspiration. Haven't been able to run for two weeks due to being sickly and am risking a descent into doom and gloom...:boohoo:

However...that would be bad and so I'll fish about for something cheery!!

[Hes]

uncut christmas tree
holding stars in its branches
lives for one more year

[Hes]

The Exquisite Foreplay of the Tortoise

Every movement of my body
is a genuflection to stone,
my flesh a chalice for dust,
which is itself the dry ghosts of flesh.

It is true that I have had
my dalliances with the odd
toadstool, the bulbous contours
of their weeping bride-heads,

but oh my love, consider
the rare patience of my desire,
the readiness with which my body
greets you, the anticipation

born in my clay heart
twenty-five years before
I could gaze over the horizon
of your skull, my two legs

trembling on your back
like a ship-born boy's
on his first beach, terrified
he will drown in this strange earth.

Nicky Beer

[Derby Tup]

saddened Derby Tup
eyeing doomed fir, chuckles at:
tortoise foreplay verse!

[XRunner]

Is the poetry theme tonight about animal copulation?

The Elephant is Slow to Mate
by D.H. Lawrence

The elephant, the huge old beast,
is slow to mate;
he finds a female, they show no haste
they wait

for the sympathy in their vast shy hearts
slowly, slowly to rouse
as they loiter along the river-beds
and drink and browse

and dash in panic through the brake
of forest with the herd,
and sleep in massive silence, and wake
together, without a word.

So slowly the great hot elephant hearts
grow full of desire,
and the great beasts mate in secret at last,
hiding their fire.

Oldest they are and the wisest of beasts
so they know at last
how to wait for the loneliest of feasts
for the full repast.

They do not snatch, they do not tear;
their massive blood
moves as the moon-tides, near, more near
till they touch in flood.

[freckle]

I love the Christmas tree haiku! Brilliant one and all.

I also enjoyed Old Whippet's interesting and obscure poetry form and hope that I will make it to at least one or two of the mentioned races. Please do do some of the North Yorkshire ones, they're really enjoyable and friendly races and it was great to see you last year at Gisborough Moors.

I really should post some poetry but am lacking inspiration. Haven't been able to run for two weeks due to being sickly and am risking a descent into doom and gloom...:boohoo:

However...that would be bad and so I'll fish about for something cheery!!

Hope you feel better soon Hes...I too am lacking inspiration tonight and feeling generally fatigued! reckon its the dark nights!

[Hes]

Ha ha...I enjoyed your choice XRunner. I hadn't meant to start something here, purely to cheer myself up but it would be interesting to know how many poems have been written on the subject!

Is the poetry theme tonight about animal copulation?

The Elephant is Slow to Mate
by D.H. Lawrence

The elephant, the huge old beast,
is slow to mate;
he finds a female, they show no haste
they wait

for the sympathy in their vast shy hearts
slowly, slowly to rouse
as they loiter along the river-beds
and drink and browse

and dash in panic through the brake
of forest with the herd,
and sleep in massive silence, and wake
together, without a word.

So slowly the great hot elephant hearts
grow full of desire,
and the great beasts mate in secret at last,
hiding their fire.

Oldest they are and the wisest of beasts
so they know at last
how to wait for the loneliest of feasts
for the full repast.

They do not snatch, they do not tear;
their massive blood
moves as the moon-tides, near, more near
till they touch in flood.

[Hes]

Thanks Freckle, I hope you feel better soon too. I think the dark nights aren't helping and I'm not very good at accepting that I'm not invincible and have to take it easy sometimes. Have you noticed that the nights are definitely drawing out again though...4.30pm before it was dark tonight. Hurray!

Hope you feel better soon Hes...I too am lacking inspiration tonight and feeling generally fatigued! reckon its the dark nights!

[Old Whippet]

Are you doing the Kielder Borderer this year OW ?

I doubt it Alf - a recipe for disaster for me - even the hosts call it 'Britains worst fell race'. As a navigationally challenged fell runner, that'd be the last anyone would see of me. And the terrain - urgh! Not a path for miles. I really cant be doing with tussocks and heather. Give me screes and jagged rock any day. However I am rethinking my commitment to never ever ever doing the Allendale Challenge ever again, now the entries are out.
And you? are you treading the Northumberland fells?

[Old Whippet]

The Exquisite Foreplay of the Tortoise

Every movement of my body
is a genuflection to stone,
my flesh a chalice for dust,
which is itself the dry ghosts of flesh.

It is true that I have had
my dalliances with the odd
toadstool, the bulbous contours
of their weeping bride-heads,

but oh my love, consider
the rare patience of my desire,
the readiness with which my body
greets you, the anticipation

born in my clay heart
twenty-five years before
I could gaze over the horizon
of your skull, my two legs

trembling on your back
like a ship-born boy's
on his first beach, terrified
he will drown in this strange earth.

Nicky Beer

Hes. You continue to outrage and offend. Tortoise Porn??? Surely a new low for this most dignified of threads.