Today's poet

[Mossdog]

Body Heat


Warmth of summer sun

Blades of grass to soon receive

Bodies, skin to skin.

By heck lass! Short but very much to the point!!! When the merest of words can readily conjure the clearest of visions- that's the mark of a good poem!

[XRunner]

Meeting At Night
by Robert Browning

The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, through its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

[Alf]

Meeting At Night
by Robert Browning

The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, through its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

Excellent choice XRunner. The "cove" reminded me of a little miscalculation by a tired old Alfer running his first Ennerdale Horseshoe on Saturday

In Search of Iron Crag

Two checkpoints left to find
but safe now from cutoff times,
all that remains is a relaxed run
to the finish following the sun
Haycock behind and
Iron Crag next up.
Reaching the summit cairn
there's no marshall around
though I'm sure I have covered
the correct distance on the ground
This must be Iron Crag
but wait a minute
this map I printed
has a smaller scale
than I have ever used before
this is in fact Silver Cove
I'm only half way there!

[Alf]

And to continue the steamy theme of the day

At the Wrong Door

A bank-manager's rapid signature
of hair on the bath enamel, twist
and tail, to confirm that I have missed
you by a minute, mat on the floor,
stamped vigorously with wet; your
absence palpable in the misty,
trickling, inexorcizable ghost
that occupies the whole mirror-
I cannot rub it away - the room
clings to me with such a perfume
of soap and sweat, that I can only
stop to think how somewhere else
you may be standing, naked, lonely,
amid a downfall of dampish towels.

Christopher Reid

[freckle]

Excellent choice XRunner. The "cove" reminded me of a little miscalculation by a tired old Alfer running his first Ennerdale Horseshoe on Saturday

In Search of Iron Crag

Two checkpoints left to find
but safe now from cutoff times,
all that remains is a relaxed run
to the finish following the sun
Haycock behind and
Iron Crag next up.
Reaching the summit cairn
there's no marshall around
though I'm sure I have covered
the correct distance on the ground
This must be Iron Crag
but wait a minute
this map I printed
has a smaller scale
than I have ever used before
this is in fact Silver Cove
I'm only half way there!

aw a lovely poem...can just imagine the disappointment, nice one alfster

[freckle]

Variation on the Word Sleep
Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping.
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 and 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
and that necessary

night all! this fell poet is just toooooo tired!

[Alf]

Variation on the Word Sleep
Margaret Atwood

I would like to watch you sleeping.
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 and 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
and that necessary

night all! this fell poet is just toooooo tired!

She can write a mean poem can our Margaret
Thanks for posting that freckle.

[Alf]

Ready for Flight

From this I will not swerve nor fall nor falter:
If around your heart the crowds disperse
And I who at their whim now freeze or swelter
Am allowed to come to a more temperate place.
And if a runner starts to run to me
Dispatched by you, crying that all is trampled
Underfoot, terraces smashed, the entry
Into holy places rudely sampled,

Then I would come at once my love with love
Bringing to wasted areas the sight
Of butterfly and swan and turtle dove
Their wings ruffled like sails ready for flight

In such surroundings, after the decease
Of devils, you and I would live in peace

Eavan Boland

[Mossdog]

Excellent choice XRunner. The "cove" reminded me of a little miscalculation by a tired old Alfer running his first Ennerdale Horseshoe on Saturday

In Search of Iron Crag

Two checkpoints left to find
but safe now from cutoff times,
all that remains is a relaxed run
to the finish following the sun
Haycock behind and
Iron Crag next up.
Reaching the summit cairn
there's no marshall around
though I'm sure I have covered
the correct distance on the ground
This must be Iron Crag
but wait a minute
this map I printed
has a smaller scale
than I have ever used before
this is in fact Silver Cove
I'm only half way there!

Ah yes - dashed hope and disappointment - always a source of poetic inspiration (and cussing!) and it clearly provided fertile ground for you Alf

[Mossdog]

here are so many tictoc

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people
what toctic time it is for
tictic instance five toc minutes toc
past six tic

Spring is not regulated and does
not get out of order nor do
its hands a little jerking move
over numbers slowly

we do not
wind it up it has no weights
springs wheels inside of
its slender self no indeed dear
nothing of the kind.

(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)

eecummings