Favorite poets and/or poem

[pixy0stix]

sou is getting me all hot an bothered.

[summer]

You guys did the good ones **pouts** 

We read this at my Unitarian fellowship last week:


And then all that has divided us will merge.

And then compassion will be wedded to power

And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind.

And then both men and women will be gentle.

And then both women and men will be strong.

And then no person will be subject to another’s will.

And then all will be rich and free and varied.

And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many.

And then all will share equally in the earth’s abundance.

And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old.

And then all will nourish the young.

And then all will cherish life’s creatures.

And then all will live in harmony with each other and the earth.

And then everywhere will be called Eden once again.



- Judy Chicago

[summer]

I Wrote A Good Omelet
by Nikki Giovanni


I wrote a good omelet...and ate

a hot poem... after loving you

Buttoned my car...and drove my

coat home...in the rain...

after loving you

I goed on red...and stopped on

green...floating somewhere in between...

being here and being there...

after loving you

I rolled my bed...turned down

my hair...slightly

confused but...I don't care...

Laid out my teeth...and gargled my

gown...then I stood

...and laid me down...

To sleep...

after loving you

[summer]

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.




Max Ehrmann, "Desiderata"

[Myrrhine]

Mar 27, 2014 15:51:51 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Mar 27, 2014 15:42:40 GMT -5 Myrrhine said:

Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

This line comes to me periodically out of the blue. It's one of my favorites.

Yeah, that last line is the one that sticks with me!

[summer]

I always loved "Knock Knock"

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 16:21:42 GMT -5 summer said:

I always loved "Knock Knock"

I've got goosebumps. Damn.

[thejackpot]

Nikki Giovanni is my favorite. This one was read by my goddaughter at my wedding.

Love Is

Some people forget that love is
tucking you in and kissing you
'Good night'
no matter how young or old you are
Some people don't remember that
love is
listening and laughing and asking
questions
no matter what your age
Few recognize that love is
commitment, responsibility
no fun at all
unless

Love is
You and me
Nikki Giovanni

[Jermys]

I have to say Whitman because he's family. Also, I love Ginsberg, Poe, and William Carlos Williams, but my all time favorite is Dorothy Parker.

[thejackpot]

If You Forget Me

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
Pablo Neruda

[katietornado]

Mar 27, 2014 15:00:36 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm all emo in my choices. I absolutely love Emily Dickinson and her fondness for cemeteries. Edgar Allen Poe thrills my heart. John Donne could do naughty things to me.

OMG!  Have you read "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters?  The premise is that it's set in a cemetery, and each poem is the words from a person buried there.  Some are really mundane, like "man, that other guy was an asshole and I'm still bitter."  Some were about unrequited love.  My favorite is George Gray.  Beautiful words that have inspired me to take chances since the day I read it.  Here, George Gray talks about what is on his headstone.

I HAVE studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.

For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.

And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.

To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire —
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

[Jermys]

A Certain Lady -Dorothy Parker

Oh, I can smile for you, and tilt my head,
And drink your rushing words with eager lips,
And paint my mouth for you a fragrant red,
And trace your brows with tutored finger-tips.
When you rehearse your list of loves to me,
Oh, I can laugh and marvel, rapturous-eyed.
And you laugh back, nor can you ever see
The thousand little deaths my heart has died.
And you believe, so well I know my part,
That I am gay as morning, light as snow,
And all the straining things within my heart
You'll never know.

Oh, I can laugh and listen, when we meet,
And you bring tales of fresh adventurings, --
Of ladies delicately indiscreet,
Of lingering hands, and gently whispered things.
And you are pleased with me, and strive anew
To sing me sagas of your late delights.
Thus do you want me -- marveling, gay, and true,
Nor do you see my staring eyes of nights.
And when, in search of novelty, you stray,
Oh, I can kiss you blithely as you go ....
And what goes on, my love, while you're away,
You'll never know.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 16:28:55 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Randall Jarrell

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

I remember reading this in college and being absolutely horrified by the imagery.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 16:30:50 GMT -5 katietornado said:

Mar 27, 2014 15:00:36 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm all emo in my choices. I absolutely love Emily Dickinson and her fondness for cemeteries. Edgar Allen Poe thrills my heart. John Donne could do naughty things to me.

OMG!  Have you read "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters?  The premise is that it's set in a cemetery, and each poem is the words from a person buried there.  Some are really mundane, like "man, that other guy was an asshole and I'm still bitter."  Some were about unrequited love.  My favorite is George Gray.  Beautiful words that have inspired me to take chances since the day I read it.  Here, George Gray talks about what is on his headstone.

I have not, but I'll put it on my list to read some day.

[thejackpot]

Incident
BY COUNTEE CULLEN
(For Eric Walrond)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

I always use this as a small way to get my students to see the power of the n word.

[erbear]

My very favorite poem is TS Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". I also love Dylan Thomas, particularly "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And "The Lady of Shallot". 

[summer]

I just found this now while I was looking for another one.  I like it!

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 16:36:25 GMT -5 erbear said:

My very favorite poem is TS Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". I also love Dylan Thomas, particularly "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And "The Lady of Shallot". 

Yes! Apparently I have a thing for ocean/drowning imagery, because I always remember the last line of the poem:

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

[Jermys]

Mar 27, 2014 16:36:15 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Incident
BY COUNTEE CULLEN
(For Eric Walrond)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

I always use this as a small way to get my students to see the power of the n word.

I saw Gwendolyn Brooks read The Ballad of Pearl May Lee when I was a kid, and it has haunted me since.

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 16:39:12 GMT -5 summer said:

I just found this now while I was looking for another one.  I like it!

This is like my life motto right here.

[erbear]

Mar 27, 2014 16:39:47 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Mar 27, 2014 16:36:25 GMT -5 erbear said:

My very favorite poem is TS Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". I also love Dylan Thomas, particularly "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." And "The Lady of Shallot". 

Yes! Apparently I have a thing for ocean/drowning imagery, because I always remember the last line of the poem:

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

It's an amazing poem. I think it's a weird choice in a lot of ways (it's pretty depressing) but the language and imagery is amazing. 

I also love the one you have in your siggy <3. I forgot about that one but it's one of my favs.

[thejackpot]

Mar 27, 2014 16:40:20 GMT -5 Jermys said:

Mar 27, 2014 16:36:15 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Incident
BY COUNTEE CULLEN
(For Eric Walrond)

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

I always use this as a small way to get my students to see the power of the n word.

I saw Gwendolyn Brooks read The Ballad of Pearl May Lee when I was a kid, and it has haunted me since.
That poem is POWERFUL! 

[Jermys]

I think I was eight or nine when I saw Ms Brooks read (one of the perks of growing up in a college town!), and it remains one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I'm not sure I would want my 8 year old hearing that poem, but holy fuck, I have never been more moved in my life.

[thejackpot]

Mar 27, 2014 16:55:39 GMT -5 Jermys said:

I think I was eight or nine when I saw Ms Brooks read (one of the perks of growing up in a college town!), and it remains one of the most powerful experiences of my life. I'm not sure I would want my 8 year old hearing that poem, but holy fuck, I have never been more moved in my life.

That is a perk indeed. I couldn't imagine hearing that one at 8 being read by Ms.Brooks no less. So cool. 

[summer]

This is one of the best threads

[pixy0stix]

Mar 27, 2014 17:03:06 GMT -5 summer said:

This is one of the best threads

I've enjoyed it thoroughly. More people need to post!

[AJL]

Pablo Neruda, Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

[andrealynn]

The moment you feel,
you’re nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself
in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else
means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
 — e.e. cummings

[pedanticwench]

Serenade, by Poe

So sweet the hour, so calm the time,
I feel it more than half a crime,
When Nature sleeps and stars are mute,
To mar the silence ev’n with lute.
At rest on ocean’s brilliant dyes
An image of Elysium lies:
Seven Pleiades entranced in Heaven,
Form in the deep another seven:
Endymion nodding from above
Sees in the sea a second love.
Within the valleys dim and brown,
The wearied light is dying down,
And earth, and stars, and sea, and sky
Are redolent of sleep, as I
Am redolent of thee and thine
Enthralling love, my Adeline.
But list, O list,--so soft and low
Thy lover’s voice tonight shall flow,
That, scarce awake, thy soul shall deem
My words the music of a dream.
Thus, while no single sound too rude
Upon thy slumber shall intrude,
Our thoughts, our souls—O God above!
In every deed shall mingle, love.

[terpsfan]

This is probably going to be lame in such a scholarly thread but this is my favorite. I memorized it in 5th grade and recite it to myself often. It reminds me of home in RI in the winter and running.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.