The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 12/15/05)

[RetroLounge]

Speaking To You (From Rock Bottom)

Speaking to you
this hour
these days when
I have lost the feather of poetry
and the rains
of separation
surround us tock
tock like Go tablets

Everyone has learned
to move carefully

'Dancing' 'laughing' 'bad taste'
is a memory
a tableau behind trees of law

In the midst of love for you
my wife's suffering
anger in every direction
and the children wise
as tough shrubs
but they are not tough
--so I fear
how anything can grow from this

all the wise blood
poured from little cuts
down into the sink

this hour it is not
your body I want
but your quiet company

Michael Ondaatje

**********************************************

RL

[wildhorses]

1. amazing...every day

how do you do it?

[RetroLounge]

2. Luck, I guess?

Oh, and I also used to be the poetry editor of this magazine back in another life and time...

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/English/ccr/

RL

[wildhorses]

5. that would explain it....

lucky for us ;) thanks

[In_The_Wind]

3. Companionship is the sweetest form of love.

www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/propht.htm#Love

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Thank you. That was very good. I have several favorite poems, but this one

stands out, because I love his use of the sound of words and it's very evocative. It's by e.e. cummings, no surprise, since I really like most of his.:-)


All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the merry deer ran before.

Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
the swift sweet deer
the red rare deer.

Four red roebuck at a white water
the cruel bugle sang before.

Horn at hip went my love riding
riding the echo down
into the silver dawn.

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the level meadows ran before.

Softer be they than slippered sleep
the lean lithe deer
the fleet flown deer.

Four fleet does at a gold valley
the famished arrow sang before.

Bow at belt went my love riding
riding the mountain down
into the silver dawn.

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the sheer peaks ran before.

Paler be they than daunting death
the sleek slim deer
the tall tense deer.

Four tell stags at a green mountain
the lucky hunter sang before.

All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn.

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
my heart fell dead before.

[RetroLounge]

6. I love Cummings...

thanks.

:hi:

RL

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I do, as well, and you're welcome.:D

This poem is my all-time favorite, but I like so many others of his, for his use of language. That one is particularly evocative, paints pictures in my head, and colors, and a definite mood, but I also like this one (that I'm about to post) a great deal, just for his use of words. I'm quite sure that you must know it.:-):hi:

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
(autumn winter spring summer)
that no one loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then) they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and no one stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
no one and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

[LaraMN]

13. I'll second that one; it's my favorite by him, as well.

I've read it to my son in the past and it confused him, but he liked it, too.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. I think it probably confuses everyone, LOL! Until you really listen...

But what he does with words is pretty amazing. I read it to a friend who is unfamiliar with poetry and he thought it was Poe. They both had a gift for words. And your son is very fortunate to become familiar with poetry at a young age. I started with Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses." Depending on his age, your son might appreciate that better.:D

Rhiannon:hi:

[bigtree]

7. I found this excerpt in a Tennyson book I have, pages crumbling . . .

"How say you, war or not?"
"Not war, if possible, O king," I said,"lest from the abuse of war,
The desecrated shrine, the trampled year,
The smoldering homestead, and the household flower
Torn from the lintel-all the common wrong-
And smoke go up thro' which I loom to her
Three times a monster: now she lightens scorn
At him that mars her plan, but then would hate
(And every voice she talk'd with ratify it,
And every face she look'd on justify it)
The general foe. More soluable is this knot,
By gentleness than war. I want her love.
What were I nigher this altho' we dash'd
Your cities into shards and catapults,
She would not love;- or brought her chain'd, a slave,
The lifting of whose eyelash is my lord,
Not ever would she love; but brooding turn
The book of scorn, till all my fitting chance
Were caught within the record of her wrongs,
And crush'd to death: and rather, Sire, than this
I would the old God of war himself were dead,
Forgotten, rustling on his iron hills,
Rotting on some wild shore with ribs of wreck,
Or like an old-world mammoth bulk'd in ice, Not to be molten out."

Excerpt from, "The Princess: A Medley" by, Alfred Tennyson

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear RetroLounge....

How beautiful and melancholy this is!

I especially love the last stanza...

"this hour it is not
your body I want
but your quiet company"

How that speaks to me today.......

Thank you


:loveya: :hug:

[RetroLounge]

11. Hello my friend

:hug:

RL

[RevCheesehead]

9. personally, I fear for the children.

Their wisdom may be in their ignorance... but are they emotionally tough as well? Or perhaps, blessedly oblivious?

I shall remain quiet today.
:hug:

[RetroLounge]

10. .

:hug:

RL

[swimboy]

15. quieter even

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

17. shhhh

:hi:

RL

[threehensandacow]

16. i don't know

if it's a good thing to be able to express so much with words or a terrible thing to have so much to express with them. there's that quiet satisfaction in knowing that we can read or write something that evokes all the confusing beauty that is this life. and an unsettling quiet in knowing that we've experienced it so deeply as to be able to share it. but thanks for sharing. i admire your consistency with your poetry thread though you're going through some tough times. at least there's something we can count on. so wear your seatbelt. we'll need more tomorrow. .

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Thank you for your thoughts, my friend, and welcome to DU.

We're so glad to have you with us. And I think that this is something you can count on, but only if you want it. That's the beauty of DU, since you can choose what to read and what you'd rather choose to ignore. But there is much that is worth reading on DU, apart from the angst and the frustration, much that is well very written and truly beautiful. There are some fine writers here, politics and otherwise, and some lovely thoughts. And thank you for sharing yours. I hope that you'll join us, often.:D

Rhiannon:hi:

[RetroLounge]

21. we'll need more tomorrow

and so you shall receive...

:hi:

RL

[SeattleGirl]

19. I am always so amazed

at how the poetry you select can say so much, and oftentimes with so few words. Thank you, again, my friend. :hug:

[RetroLounge]

20. I am finding so many good poems out there

it is difficult some days to choose which to post.

:hi:

RL