Poetry - please?

[Ann]

TNT, you beat me to my favorite Pleiades poem! So I'll have to post a little Pleiades-flavored lament:

The moon has set and
the Pleiades, Middle
of the night, time spins
away and I lie alone.

Sappho

[emc]

astronomy reverie

earth spins to the night
night unveils heaven’s light
tending imagination’s quest
my captive soul discovers rest

[MargaritaMc]

And Ann - you reminded me about Sappho!

This is my favourite Sappho,

I have a daughter, golden,
Beautiful, like a flower -
Kleis, my love -
And I would not exchange her for
All the riches of Lydia......

Margarita

[MargaritaMc]

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brave- ... ing-truth/

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

»»»»

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.

Maya Angelou

Margarita

[emc]

Shining like a work of art
Hanging on a wall of stars
Are you what I think you are?

You're my satellite
You're riding with me tonight
Passenger side, lighting the sky
Always the first star that I find
You're my satellite

Elevator to the moon
Whistling our favorite tune
Trying to get a closer view

You're my satellite
You're riding with me tonight
Passenger side, lighting the sky
Always the first star that I find
You're my satellite

Maybe you will always be
Just a little out of reach

Guster, Satellite

[saturno2]

To: Margarita Debayle
By: Rubén Darío
Margarita is beautiful the sea,
and the wind
leads essence subtle of orange blossom;
I feel
in the soul a lark to sing:
your accent;
Margarita,
I will tell a story...

[MargaritaMc]

margarita.jpeg

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8541699-A_Mar ... uben_Dario
has the complete poem, in original Spanish and in English translation.

Margarita, está linda la mar,
y el viento
lleva esencia sutil de azahar;
yo siento
en el alma una alondra cantar;
tu acento.
Margarita, te voy a contar
un cuento.

¡que guapo!
Thank you for this, Saturno. To my shame, I did not know of it, nor of this famous Nicaraguan poet... It is a marvellous find.

Margarita

[MargaritaMc]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Pushkin "I Loved You"
My absolutely favourite Russian poem, here put beautifully to music. The English translation is on the screen.
Margarita

[saturno2]

Presentiment
By: Emily Dickinson

Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn
indicate that suns go down;
the notice to the startied grass
that darkness is about to pass

[emc]

Cool. Ms. Emily wasn't always depressed.

[MargaritaMc]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Everyone's favourite - and Frost's reading is superlative.
M

[emc]

“…[taking] the road less traveled by” brought to mind a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama, wherein a group of human explorers intercepted an alien starship and upon landing on it encountered a door/hatch with a wheel. After futile attempts trying to open the door by turning the wheel counterclockwise as was the human standard… they eventually opted to try clockwise at which point the door/hatch opened.

[MargaritaMc]

Sappho wrote

The stars around the beautiful moon
Hiding their glittering forms
Whenever she shines full on earth.
Silver.

She also wrote ......

The Muses have filled my life
With delight.
And when I die I shall not be forgotten.
Selected Poems and Fragments
Translated by A. S. Kline (2005)

And she was right...

[Beyond]

In that case... who is Sappho

[MargaritaMc]

In that case... who is Sappho

Sappho (pron.: /ˈsæfoʊ/; Attic Greek Σαπφώ [sapːʰɔ̌ː], Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω, Psappho [psápːʰɔː]) was a Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BCE, and it is said that she died around 570 BCE, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho

[Beyond]

Ah, that's why i didn't know. It's all Greek to me.

[emc]

Poetry is in the mind of the beholder. Be it Greek or otherwise.

This isn’t exactly poetry in the classical sense but it's positive reinforcement about getting older… which even you, Mister Beyond, are doing… as we speak...

One thing I’ve noticed is that as we age we appear to become smarter… which explains why the hair on our head begins to gray. This graying-out is a direct result of brain overflow. As we acquire more smarts, we begin to gain excess “gray matter” which turns into a sort of human “flowering” of the head… similar to plant life when it reaches its cyclic and beautiful apex.

You have my apology, for redundancy, to any of you that have visited and read my website.

[MargaritaMc]

Spike Milligan
- The ABC

'Twas midnight in the schoolroom
And every desk was shut
When suddenly from the alphabet
Was heard a loud "Tut-Tut!"

Said A to B, "I don't like C;
His manners are a lack.
For all I ever see of C
Is a semi-circular back!"

"I disagree," said D to B,
"I've never found C so.
From where I stand he seems to be
An uncompleted O."

C was vexed, "I'm much perplexed,
You criticise my shape.
I'm made like that, to help spell Cat
And Cow and Cool and Cape."

"He's right" said E; said F, "Whoopee!"
Said G, "'Ip, 'Ip, 'ooray!"
"You're dropping me," roared H to G.
"Don't do it please I pray."

"Out of my way," LL said to K.
"I'll make poor I look ILL."
To stop this stunt J stood in front,
And presto! ILL was JILL.

"U know," said V, "that W
Is twice the age of me.
For as a Roman V is five
I'm half as young as he."

X and Y yawned sleepily,
"Look at the time!" they said.
"Let's all get off to beddy byes."
They did, then "Z-z-z."

[Beyond]

[Ann]

Ann

[MargaritaMc]

 

Ann

I am very glad you like Spike's poem! (He was a member and writer of the iconic BBC radio comedy programme, 'The Goons', which I grew up with. I don't think it ever crossed the Atlantic or went elsewhere in Europe, but its type of humour was a predecessor of The Hitchhiker's Guide and Monty Python.)

Here are some more of my favourites:

A Silly Poem

Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?

Bump

Things that go 'bump' in the night
Should not really give one a fright.
It's the hole in each ear
That lets in the fear,
That, and the absence of light!

There Are Holes In The Sky

There are holes in the sky
Where the rain gets in
But they're ever so small
That's why the rain is thin.


Margarita

[Beyond]

Thanks Margarita! Your last two poetry posts are my kind of poetry.

[MargaritaMc]

Thanks Margarita! Your last two poetry posts are my kind of poetry.

I will therefore try to remember more - just for you!
Margarita

[Beyond]

Thanks! A few of the 'fun' ones scattered amongst the 'others', (if you think of it) would do very nicely.

[Ann]

Margarita, I just love the Hamlet and Ophelia poem!

Ann