Today's poet

[Alf]

13

Waves crashing
Oil tankers on seas horizon
Wind blowing
Birds soaring in it's gust
Track, trail and muddy puddles
It's all the same ups and downs
But that 13 miler is a Sunday morning must!

MG

Very atmospheric that MG I ran my first race (very carefully!) in a month yesterday and by the sound of it we had the wind and the muddy puddles in common.

[Alf]

Brinkwomanship
Leontia Flynn

When they come for you no bigger than a piece of fruit,
Weighing no more and no less than a water biscuit,
This will be my excuse:
That I hoped you were just testing yourself
As I might subtly and irresistibly
Poke at a sensitive tooth. That is, not morbidly,
But out of curiosity
To locate the exact, minute, sensory transition-between
Merely knowing and the definition
Of pain, and knowing the meaning.

Thats a good one freckle. I thought it was one of yours when I didn't see the name at the bottom. It certainly has the "freckle style" to it

[Alf]

Accidentally stumbled on this when I was checking the correct name of a Kate Bush songtitle for the Chain thread

The Child in Me

She follows me about my House of Life
(This happy little ghost of my dead Youth!)
She has no part in Time's relentless strife
She keeps her old simplicity and truth --
And laughs at grim Mortality,
This deathless Child that stays with me --
(This happy little ghost of my dead Youth!)

My House of Life is weather-stained with years --
(O Child in Me, I wonder why you stay.)
Its windows are bedimmed with rain of tears,
The walls have lost their rose, its thatch is gray.
One after one its guests depart,
So dull a host is my old heart.
(O Child in Me, I wonder why you stay!)

For jealous Age, whose face I would forget,
Pulls the bright flowers you bring me from my hair
And powders it with snow; and yet -- and yet
I love your dancing feet and jocund air.
I have no taste for caps of lace
To tie about my faded face --
I love to wear your flowers in my hair.

O Child in Me, leave not my House of Clay
Until we pass together through the Door,
When lights are out, and Life has gone away
And we depart to come again no more.
We comrades who have travelled far
Will hail the Twilight and the Star,
And smiling, pass together through the Door!

May Riley Smith

[Nee Bother]

Little auld Ken thought he wus fit,
Went for a recce but ran like sh1t,
Couldn't get gannin up the fust hill
and after alf an hour felt rather ill.

Under pressure with thumb on the map
Dunno why...but me nav'in was crap
Kept plugging away but to no avail
Route should've been an easy handrail

Turned left at High Raise to Kidsty Pike
Made up time could've been on me bike
Two minutes up and felt the best for days
Completely c0cked up, I'd been to Low Raise.

Toys out me pram....... for wot was worth
reality checked and brought back to earth
Teach me not to brag and think ahm clever
Must train more or Joss Naylor will happen...... never

NB

[freckle]

Whitburn beach
not far away
and always
in reach

Not quite a hill
but straight from
your door
use it well.

Ooo I like this!

[freckle]

Little auld Ken thought he wus fit,
Went for a recce but ran like sh1t,
Couldn't get gannin up the fust hill
and after alf an hour felt rather ill.

Under pressure with thumb on the map
Dunno why...but me nav'in was crap
Kept plugging away but to no avail
Route should've been an easy handrail

Turned left at High Raise to Kidsty Pike
Made up time could've been on me bike
Two minutes up and felt the best for days
Completely c0cked up, I'd been to Low Raise.

Toys out me pram....... for wot was worth
reality checked and brought back to earth
Teach me not to brag and think ahm clever
Must train more or Joss Naylor will happen...... never

NB

Another good ome NB you are on a roll!

Mossy- such cynicism! .....though i do know what you mean, I can't stand the commercial side of valentines day and I would have thought if you were fond of someone it would be a good idea to demonstrate it all year round and not just on one day so that we can line the pockets of the card/flowers/pointless gifts industry!...that said, there is nothing wrong with using a few choice words to remind someone how you feel...

Variations on the Word Sleep

I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head.

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

Margaret Atwood

[freckle]

Thats a good one freckle. I thought it was one of yours when I didn't see the name at the bottom. It certainly has the "freckle style" to it

why thankyou alf..i am flattered !:-)

[Hes]

I like it Mossy! Blooming day...making us singlies feel inadequate. Thank goodness for good friends, that's what I think.

Its that bloomin' date again.....grrrrrrrr


A Valentine

Before your gate from dawn to late
The cheery postman whistles;
And every mail augments the tale
Of amorous epistles

That jingle "heart" with "part" and "dart,"
Nor fail to mention Cupid;
That rhyme "above" and "love" and "dove"--
And other things as stupid.

I pray you, spurn those lines that burn,
Despite their foolish pleading.
To flame consign each Valentine--
Except the one you're reading.

And scorn the host that sent per post
Those missives, poor and shoddy.
"They love you, too?"--Of course they do!
For so does everybody!

But just as sure as snows are pure
And shoes are made of leather,
I do adore and love you more
Than all the rest together!

Arthur Guiterman

[Hes]

I can't keep up with all the great poems that have been posted on here recently and to start naming all the ones that I like will make this post sound like an awards acceptance speech so I'll just say, thank you to you all for posting such good verses and giving the rest of us great stuff to read. I've particularly enjoyed the original material.

[Harry H Howgill]

I can't keep up with all the great poems that have been posted on here recently and to start naming all the ones that I like will make this post sound like an awards acceptance speech so I'll just say, thank you to you all for posting such good verses and giving the rest of us great stuff to read. I've particularly enjoyed the original material.

I'd like to second that. I'm enjoying just reading everyone's excellent poems and choices, but when things quieten down I'll give something back.