Today's poet

[freckle]

Enjoyed your 'joy' poem Freckle. Not much compares to a little quiet joy! Here's another I think you may like..I do love a bit of Rilke now and again!


Blank Joy

She who did not come, wasn't she determined
nonetheless to organize and decorate my heart?
If we had to exist to become the one we love,
what would the heart have to create?

Lovely joy left blank, perhaps you are
the center of all my labors and my loves.
If I've wept for you so much, it's because
I preferred you among so many outlined joys.


Rainer Maria Rilke

interesting MG i need to ponder! x

[Hes]

Compiling a cd for someone whilst scratching plaster for a printing plate and I loved this Thea Gilmor song which seems as good as some poems:

Concrete

November in a rainstorm, the truest truth I ever heard
The sound of babies crying in a hospital ward
Oh, like a bed of rushes, they spread love out on the concrete floor
Names, and dates, and faces I really can't remember anymore

We could hardly tell the difference between one year and another
Sun like pouring whiskey, snow like shedding skins of lovers
And, I grew up with magic; free and wild as bindweed
Pushing for the boundary, pushing through the edges of the concrete

I'm the girl that bought a round-trip cross the Rubicon
And I'm not sure that even I know where I'm coming from

Sentimental tango when I was just fourteen
I could hear Astaire and Rogers tap their way across the screen
Oh, bullied and belittled, until the sun set in the concrete
I wore my sister's black skirt, all dressed up for Halloween

We could hardly tell the difference between the shouting and the quiet
It was the path of least resistance to stage my own private riot
And the walls tumbled like Babel, down around my feet
Rhyme came in deliverance rising through the wreckage and the concrete

I'm the girl that bought a round-trip cross the Rubicon
I'm not sure that even I know where I'm coming from

For a girl who loves her words, yeah, she loves her silence more
Found a better example of what hearts and tongues are for
There is truth in your arms love, there is truth in this song
There is truth in the concrete and the nails that our lives are built upon

[freckle]

fancy listening to some dulcet tones?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNK-EVXEp-g

[freckle]

i liked that song hes, you work late don't ya?

here's more simon....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxcoppuQFE8

[Hes]

Love this Freckle!! Its so good to hear his voice eh? I'm mainly working late due to being busy with Open Studios today and procrastinating with facebook in the less busy times and then cutting my lawn with a pair of shears. I had a goal of what I needed to do today and I am determined to get it done.

i liked that song hes, you work late don't ya?

here's more simon....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxcoppuQFE8

[freckle]

Love this Freckle!! Its so good to hear his voice eh? I'm mainly working late due to being busy with Open Studios today and procrastinating with facebook in the less busy times and then cutting my lawn with a pair of shears. I had a goal of what I needed to do today and I am determined to get it done.

shears? you funny! ...well i hope you reach the goal! for selfish reasons i am glad you procrastinated as i really enjoyed the photos on FB! well....i suppose i had better try and get some shut eye up early tomoz but sunday nights can have a touch of the insomnia for me! ....na night x

[Hes]

Night freckle, sleep tight! Been nice to see you a bit today even if its only via the internet.xx

shears? you funny! ...well i hope you reach the goal! for selfish reasons i am glad you procrastinated as i really enjoyed the photos on FB! well....i suppose i had better try and get some shut eye up early tomoz but sunday nights can have a touch of the insomnia for me! ....na night x

[Stevie]

Stevie - fantastic response - love teh moodiness of those words - looking forward to seeing you on 9th July in the Black Village of Gravestones - hopefully the gala will cheer it up a bit!!

I think it is easily possible to over analyse poems and lose the sense of the whole - Billy Collins certainly thinks so:

Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Still, Heptonstall is a good poem and like you say the feel of the whole is very moody. What book does this come from? I wondered if it came from Remains of Elmet (which I haven't read), in which case the meaning may well be tied up in the poem's context in the whole book.

I found this bookcover scan on the web - a familiar view to many, past Heptonstall church to Stoodley Pike. Not quite the view from your race route, as I know that the war memorial, church and Stoodley Pike are in near perfect alignment.
Attachment 4888

[Alf]

I think it is easily possible to over analyse poems and lose the sense of the whole - Billy Collins certainly thinks so:

Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.


But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Still, Heptonstall is a good poem and like you say the feel of the whole is very moody. What book does this come from? I wondered if it came from Remains of Elmet (which I haven't read), in which case the meaning may well be tied up in the poem's context in the whole book.

I found this bookcover scan on the web - a familiar view to many, past Heptonstall church to Stoodley Pike. Not quite the view from your race route, as I know that the war memorial, church and Stoodley Pike are in near perfect alignment.
Attachment 4888

I liked the Billy Collins words Stevie. Sometimes you just need one line (light switch) in a poem for it to hook you.

He Bids His Beloved Be At Peace

I hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,
Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;
The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,
The East her hidden joy before the morning break,
The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,
The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,
The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:
Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat
Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,
Drowning love's lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,
And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

William Butler Yeats

[Trig]

I think it is easily possible to over analyse poems and lose the sense of the whole - Billy Collins certainly thinks so:

Introduction To Poetry by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Still, Heptonstall is a good poem and like you say the feel of the whole is very moody. What book does this come from? I wondered if it came from Remains of Elmet (which I haven't read), in which case the meaning may well be tied up in the poem's context in the whole book.

I found this bookcover scan on the web - a familiar view to many, past Heptonstall church to Stoodley Pike. Not quite the view from your race route, as I know that the war memorial, church and Stoodley Pike are in near perfect alignment.
Attachment 4888

Remains of Elmet. The very book - I have it open now! I live on West Laithe in Heptonstall - familar to anyone who has run Leg 3 of Calderdale Way Relay as the cobbled street behind Heptonstall churches. Really enjoyed Elmet both poetry and the powerful imagery of Fay Godwin; delighted to find Hughes has penned a tribute to "West Laithe Cobbles" in Elmet. Unfortunately I can't find the work on the web anywhere? Would love to post it for all to share.
A great book for those who love the South Pennines