Today's poet

[CalFerguson]

First one for aaaaaages. Hope it makes some kind of sense.

Run To Rest

I run to rest, the mountains an unlikely couch
But what form of meditation is this?
Dancing feet, a pounding heart
The terrain contorting my body
Into countless, never repeated poses
Yet thankfully, mostly upright

The mountains move me, more so for their stillness
Problems hitherto unsolved, dissolved
Rocks as pixels, summits are icons
Never a truer perspective gained
Fashioned as an escape
It is, in truth, a homecoming

I run to grow, dwarfed by the peaks
Winning and losing, yet always gaining
Leaving energy, blood and studmarks
Taking intangible succour
Standing taller for being worn down
Such is the runner's pact with the fells

Superb.

[Mossdog]

For Desire

Give me the strongest cheese, the one that stinks best;
and I want the good wine, the swirl in crystal
surrendering the bruised scent of blackberries,
or cherries, the rich spurt in the back
of the throat, the holding it there before swallowing.
Give me the lover who yanks open the door
of his house and presses me to the wall
in the dim hallway, and keeps me there until I'm drenched
and shaking, whose kisses arrive by the boatload
and begin their delicious diaspora
through the cities and small towns of my body.
To hell with the saints, with martyrs
of my childhood meant to instruct me
in the power of endurance and faith,
to hell with the next world and its pallid angels
swooning and sighing like Victorian girls.
I want this world. I want to walk into
the ocean and feel it trying to drag me along
like I'm nothing but a broken bit of scratched glass,
and I want to resist it. I want to go
staggering and flailing my way
through the bars and back rooms,
through the gleaming hotels and weedy
lots of abandoned sunflowers and the parks
where dogs are let off their leashes
in spite of the signs, where they sniff each
other and roll together in the grass, I want to
lie down somewhere and suffer for love until
it nearly kills me, and then I want to get up again
and put on that little black dress and wait
for you, yes you, to come over here
and get down on your knees and tell me
just how ****ing good I look

- Kim Addonizio

[freckle]

One off I really enjoyed your latest offering superb!

[Adnan Khan]

Just came across this thread. Here's some of our Club's June Run in poetry. Its quite good if anyone wants a read.

[OneOffPoet]

Thanks for the BGR poems Adnan, evocative of a great day out

Was nice to read that my last offering went down well with some on here. Not why i write it but always lovely to get feedback, especially the good kind.

Had a bit of a battle with a club mate recently and this kind of popped in there. Hope it resonates...

The Vest

And then I saw the vest
picked it out amongst the line
that was filing up the fell side
Identical in detail but some way ahead of mine

From nowhere came a kick
At first only I noticed it
until I caught the next in line
Like lorries towards Shap,
an uncomfortable time of overlap
A gasped 'well done' and 'on you go'
The vest was closing, slow

It mattered, but it didn't
The only point was points
and club-wide pride, a small trophy perhaps?
Awarded over dinner, my picture beamed onto and beaming from a slide
Centre stage for a very short while...

I caught and passed the vest, our vest
We fought the fight; he lost, I won
But no-one liked him any less or me any the more
I was no more happy and he no more glum
for being second best, second vest

But our glee, collectively exceeded that of weary marshals
Injured perhaps, kind for sure and with itchy feet for certain
As vest pitted against vest
we loved our days and fights on the fell
Returned not just well, but better
More so for winning, losing and always gaining in life

[nippersmith]

[Mountain Goatess]

Good evening long lost friends, its been a while! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do. A lovely find xxx

The Peace of Wild Things

WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

[Mossdog]

Good evening long lost friends, its been a while! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do. A lovely find xxx

The Peace of Wild Things

WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Welcome back MG and what a lovely soothing post - just what I needed this morning. I had to double check the time you posted it yesterday as I was wondering if it arrived following England's utter mauling by the Wallabies last night. Prescient it was...

[Hes]

I really liked this from Radio 4's programme today. It is Murray Lachlan Young performing his own poetic take on the Shipping Forecast (one of my favourite things on the radio).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034p321/player

[Mossdog]

I really liked this from Radio 4's programme today. It is Murray Lachlan Young performing his own poetic take on the Shipping Forecast (one of my favourite things on the radio).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034p321/player

Yes that was rather wonderful. Had to listen twice! Heard Lemn Sissay on Desert Island Discs today (compelling listening) and a quick search revealed ....


INVISIBLE KISSES

written by Lemn Sissay

If there was ever one
Whom when you were sleeping
Would wipe your tears
When in dreams you were weeping;
Who would offer you time
When others demand;
Whose love lay more infinite
Than grains of sand.

If there was ever one
To whom you could cry;
Who would gather each tear
And blow it dry;
Who would offer help
On the mountains of time;
Who would stop to let each sunset
Soothe the jaded mind.

If there was ever one
To whom when you run
Will push back the clouds
So you are bathed in sun;
Who would open arms
If you would fall;
Who would show you everything
If you lost it all.

If there was ever one
Who when you achieve
Was there before the dream
And even then believed;
Who would clear the air
When it’s full of loss;
Who would count love
Before the cost.

If there was ever one
Who when you are cold
Will summon warm air
For your hands to hold;
Who would make peace
In pouring pain,
Make laughter fall
In falling rain.

If there was ever one
Who can offer you this and more;
Who in keyless rooms
Can open doors;
Who in open doors
Can see open fields
And in open fields
See harvests yield.

Then see only my face
In the reflection of these tides
Trough the clear water
Beyond the river side.
All I can send is love
In all that this is
A poem and a necklace
Of invisible kisses.