Today's poet

[Hes]

Ha ha ha....I love it XRunner. I am pleased to see that the fox and hare are enjoying their new home and making lots of mayhem at the same time!!:thumbup:

I am sure Hes will realise the significance of this poem......

The Hare And The Fox

The fox lay still behind the curtain
beside the wall.
The hare was running with nimble foot
O'er the wall.
Was ever brighter a moon-lit night,
Before, behind me, left and right,
O'er the wall!

The fox laughed low by the curtain
beside the wall.
The hare was running with daring foot
O'er the wall.

I am so happy for everything!
Hello? Why go you with mighty spring
O'er the wall?

The fox lay hid behind the curtain
beside the wall.
The hare dashed to him with reckless foot
O'er the wall.

May God have mercy, but this is queer! --
Good gracious, how dare they dance so here
O'er my dining room wall! :thumbup:

(adapted from a poem by Bjoenstjerne Bjornson)

There will be mayhem if the fox catches that hare:w00t:

[freckle]

Something I penned in the late 90's when I was racing. apologies in advance


The arrival of cars brings the playing fields to life
People alight eager to register their entry
Signing the declaration – ‘On your head be it’
Hands fumbling trying to pin numbers on vests

Bodies mill around in various colours of cloth
Are there really so many makes and patterns?
The experienced are relaxed, smiling and swapping jokes
Newcomers are nervous and self conscious

Runners disappear to perform their warm up
Some sprinting erratically other taking careful strides
Muscles and tendons stretched in preparation
Systems primed, ready to switch into overdrive

Tensions building as the time for ‘off’ draws near
Fingers twitching ready to start the watch
The whippets head for the front line
Mortals gather in the pack behind

The starter wishes good luck to all
On your marks GO – what about set?
A mad rush to get to the front
Avoid getting caught in the bottleneck

The pace drops on the first ascent
Reality focused on the task ahead
Who’s been doing their hill homework?
How can he run s fast up this?

The top and tired legs start stretching out
Flat paths allow a rise in speed
Track athletes show their metal
Reborn after the pain of the climb

A descent changes the rhythm
Disengage brain and freefall to the bottom
Co-ordination a thing of the past
Grit your teeth and hang on

The races has it’s own peculiar lifecycle
Hard climb, fast flat and swooping downhill
Places are won and lost throughout
How close is the person behind you?

The marshal urges you on to greater things
Shouting your position in the field
Not far to go – keep pumping
Breathing hard, heart beating like a bass drum

At last – the final drop to the finish
Can you catch the plummeting figure in front of you?
From somewhere you manage to summon a sprint
Hurling yourself across the line

Then it is over, the pain is gone
The agony replaced by euphoria
The smiles on the finishers say it all
Hard as it was it was worth it!

I really enjoyed this clivebaby and felt it conjured up a great deal of the general atmosphere at races, many thanks for posting and oh welcome to the thread!

[freckle]

One day the end will come
And i'll ask myself, What have i done
Sat on my bum, posting on a forum
Should really shut up and go for run

So tomorrow i'll jog, with my dog
Probably fall headfirst in a bog
Or fall backwards upon my bum
Be reet, at least i'll have some fun

ha ha! like it steve... i have just got back from a 5 miler and have somehow managed to burn the front of my neck into a strange triangular shape, it looks deeply eccentric especially as I have now dyed my hair bright red! i get myself into some to right pickles!

[Alf]

Where we started


If people can dream together, we dream together.
This is the way it always starts.
Out of the darkness of the streets that lie between us
and the river rising like a rampart raised to part the city
from its dreamed and dreaming counterpart across the river
falling like leaves shed by the streetlamps every evening
dreaming they shed light and keep the city from the river,
we make our way back to each other’s side.

It doesn’t take long. It never does,
not in the dream we dream together.
I know you and you know me so well,
all we need to find each other is to sleep.
Inside this world more real than real
we’re always more and more awake.
It’s how we dream it.

And maybe because it’s a collaboration,
like a double negative,
what we end up with is the opposite of a dream,
where I’m about to tell you something
but you already know it,
and you’re about to tell me,
since we’re dreaming together,
so that we stop and start and smile and stop again
like two strangers in a doorway.

But whatever it is that parts,
like dawn the lips of the curtains,
like the last look,
tears us from each other’s side,
you, half way across the labyrinth of dream
and boulevard, and me, in my half,
at the end of the street
at the end of the night,
the streetlamps stepping back in their own darkness
where we started.

Liane Strauss

[XRunner]

The Thought-Fox (mostly by Ted Hughes)

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank thread where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
This post is finished.

[stevefoster]

ha ha! like it steve... i have just got back from a 5 miler and have somehow managed to burn the front of my neck into a strange triangular shape, it looks deeply eccentric especially as I have now dyed my hair bright red! i get myself into some to right pickles!

I have a bright red head but no hair. Managed not to fall in a bog but dog did, had to be dragged out!

[stevefoster]

The Thought-Fox (mostly by Ted Hughes)

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank thread where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
This post is finished.

Like that Hamish, very good.

Don't know why Cliveybaby is apologising, great poem from him:thumbup:

[freckle]

Evening all...hope your weekend has been a good one...i have had a lovely restorative one including fun and games with a house full of kids, a top cycle on my new bike (which i think was the best suprise gift I have ever received! :wink, a run and listening to this poem on poetry please at tea time...its left me feeling that sometimes life is sweet, better make the most of it before it all goes pete tong!

Amo Ergo Sum
Kathleen Raine


Because I love
The sun pours out its rays of living gold
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.

Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance.

Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.

Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.

Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees.

Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds.

Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light.

Because I love
The iridescnt shells upon the sand
Takes forms as fine and intricate as thought.

Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.

Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.

Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep,
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.

[stevefoster]

Evening all...hope your weekend has been a good one...i have had a lovely restorative one including fun and games with a house full of kids, a top cycle on my new bike (which i think was the best suprise gift I have ever received! :wink, a run and listening to this poem on poetry please at tea time...its left me feeling that sometimes life is sweet, better make the most of it before it all goes pete tong!

Amo Ergo Sum
Kathleen Raine


Because I love
The sun pours out its rays of living gold
Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.

Because I love
The earth upon her astral spindle winds
Her ecstasy-producing dance.

Because I love
Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.

Because I love
Wind blows white sails,
The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.

Because I love
The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
The transparent sunlit trees.

Because I love
Larks rise up from the grass
And all the leaves are full of singing birds.

Because I love
The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light.

Because I love
The iridescnt shells upon the sand
Takes forms as fine and intricate as thought.

Because I love
There is an invisible way across the sky,
Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
And all the stars travel that path by night.

Because I love
There is a river flowing all night long.

Because I love
All night the river flows into my sleep,
Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.

Great poem freckle, a new bike, road or mountain bike? What sort, and divn't say one with 2 wheels!

[freckle]

I have a bright red head but no hair. Managed not to fall in a bog but dog did, had to be dragged out!

Oh no poor you steve! be careful! ....i think my red marks are actually hair dye as it is rubbing off!

Alf- i loved the Liane Strauss poem especially the opening line and then later on this one...."you, halfway through the labyrinth of a dream...." such a good description of a dream in both the literal and metaphorical sense as sometimes it is not clear where dreams conscious and unconscious will take us ....thanks for posting

X runner i love the thought fox poem its one of my faves