Your Favorite Poems

[journey]

Great poems Miss-Aussie!  Thanks for posting them Mel.

 
- E. E. Cummings "I Carry Your Heart"

I carry your heart with me(I carry it in
my heart)I am never without it(anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
I fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)I want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)


 

[Jessica]

   
Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics) Lyrics
Artist: Guns N' Roses
Album: Use Your Illusion II



If we could see tomorrow
What of your plans
No one can live in sorrow
Ask all your friends

Times that you took in stride, their
Back in demand
I was the one who's washing
Blood of your hands

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I know the things you wanted
They're not what you have
With all the people talkin'
It's driving you mad


If I was standing by you
How would you feel?
Knowing your love's decided
And all love is real
Baby

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I thought I could live in your world
As years all went by
With all the voices I've heard
Something has died

And when you're in need of someone
My heart won't deny you
So many seems so lonely
With no one left to cry to baby

And don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight, baby, maybe, someday
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry
Tonight

(fades away)

[Queen of Everything]

Theres a verse Play written by Christopher Fry - Called The Boy With A Cart - It is really quiet Beautiful... 

[journey]

"Hug O' War"
 
by Shel Silverstein

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

[Kitano]

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats

I Will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

[Aava]

Suicide in the Trenches by Seigried Sassoon


I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

[Carlos_f_Rose]

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I?m a schizophrenic

And so am I.

"and so AM I"
Are you sure you didnt mean,  and so are YOU??

[journey]

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I?m a schizophrenic

And so am I.

"and so AM I"
Are you sure you didnt mean,? and so are YOU??

No that's what he meant. It's a joke about schizophrenia: a rare mental illness. Technically, the joke is an error, because schizophrenia isn't the same as multiple personality disorder.




"A Storm, Forever Momentary" - B.L. Pasterson
 

    And then summer bid farewell
To the station. Taking off its cap,
Thunder took as a souvenir
A hundred blinding photos of night.

A bunch of lilacs grew dim. At that
Moment the thunder, gathering an armful
Of lightning, attempted from the field
To illuminate town hall.

And when a wave of gloating
Poured along the building's roof
And, like charcoal lines in a sketch,
A gate of rain crashed down,

The abyss of consciousness began to flash:
And so, it seemed, illumination
Could reach even those corners of the mind
Where it is now as light as day.

 
 

[Carlos_f_Rose]

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I?m a schizophrenic

And so am I.

"and so AM I"
Are you sure you didnt mean,? and so are YOU??

No that's what he meant. It's a joke about schizophrenia: a rare mental illness. Technically, the joke is an error, because schizophrenia isn't the same as multiple personality disorder.




"A Storm, Forever Momentary" - B.L. Pasterson
 

? ? And then summer bid farewell
To the station. Taking off its cap,
Thunder took as a souvenir
A hundred blinding photos of night.

A bunch of lilacs grew dim. At that
Moment the thunder, gathering an armful
Of lightning, attempted from the field
To illuminate town hall.

And when a wave of gloating
Poured along the building's roof
And, like charcoal lines in a sketch,
A gate of rain crashed down,

The abyss of consciousness began to flash:
And so, it seemed, illumination
Could reach even those corners of the mind
Where it is now as light as day.

 
 

I need to learn a lot

[journey]

Rita Dove - The Fish in the Stone

The fish in the stone
would like to fall
back into the sea.

He is weary
of analysis, the small
predictable truths.
He is weary of waiting
in the open,
his profile stamped
by a white light.


In the ocean the silence
moves and moves
and so much is unnecessary!


Patient, he drifts
until the moment comes
to cast his
skeletal blossom.


The fish in the stone
knows to fail is
to do the living
a favor.


He knows why the ant
engineers a gangster's
funeral, garish
and perfectly amber.
He knows why the scientist
in secret delight
strokes the fern's
voluptuous braille.

[AxlsMainMan]

PENELOPE'S DESPAIR

Yannis Ritsos

Not that she didn't recognize him in the fireside light; nor was it
the beggar's rags, the disguise; no: transparent signs -
the scarred knee, the sturdiness, the craftiness in the eye. Startled,
leaning he back against the wall, she sought some justification,
a short reprieve from having to respond,
and be betrayed. Were twenty years wasted for him then?

Twenty years of dreams and anticipation, for this wretch,
these white whiskers soaked in blood? She sank mute onto a chair,
slowly she gazed at the slaughtered suitors on the floor, as if seeing
her own muffled aspirations. And she uttered, "Welcome,"
heeding her own strange and distant voice. In the corner her loom
veiled the ceiling in trelliswork shadows; and those birds, woven
against green foliange in striking red year, suddenly
turned black and gray on this homecoming night,
hovering in the unbroken sky of her final perseverance.

[journey]

"I Have Loved Hours at Sea"
by Sara Teasdale

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,
The fragile secret of a flower,
Music, the making of a poem
That gave me heaven for an hour;

First stars above a snowy hill,
Voices of people kindly and wise,
And the great look of love, long hidden,
Found at last in meeting eyes.

I have loved much and been loved deeply --
Oh when my spirit's fire burns low,
Leave me the darkness and the stillness,
I shall be tired and glad to go.

[Sakib]

Half Caste by John Agard

Excuse me
standing on one leg
I'm half-caste
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather/
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
ah rass/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
is a half-caste symphony/
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Ah lookin at yu wid de keen
half of mih eye
and when I'm introduced to yu
I'm sure you'll
understand
why I offer yu half-a-hand
an when I sleep at night
I close half-a-eye
consequently when I dream
I dream half-a-dream
an when moon begin to glow
I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu must come back tomorrow
wid de whole of yu eye
an de whole of yu ear
an de whole of yu mind
an I will tell yu
de other half
of my story

[Carlos_f_Rose]

   
Don't Cry (Alternate Lyrics) Lyrics
Artist: Guns N' Roses
Album: Use Your Illusion II



If we could see tomorrow
What of your plans
No one can live in sorrow
Ask all your friends

Times that you took in stride, their
Back in demand
I was the one who's washing
Blood of your hands

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I know the things you wanted
They're not what you have
With all the people talkin'
It's driving you mad


If I was standing by you
How would you feel?
Knowing your love's decided
And all love is real
Baby

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I thought I could live in your world
As years all went by
With all the voices I've heard
Something has died

And when you're in need of someone
My heart won't deny you
So many seems so lonely
With no one left to cry to baby

And don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight, baby, maybe, someday
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry
Tonight

(fades away)

mmm, I never saw it like a poem

[MCT]

Grey Hours : Naples

There are some hours when I seem so indifferent; all things fade
To an indifferent greyness, like that grey of the sky;
Always at evening-ends, on grey days; and I know not why,
But life, and art, and love, and death, are the shade of a shade.
Then, in those hours, I hear old voices murmur aloud,
And memory forgoes desire, too weary at heart for regret;
Dreams come with beckoning fingers, and I forget to forget;
The world as a cloud drifts by, or I drift by as a cloud.

--Arthur Symons--

[Jagged Little Pill]

sorry to drag this thread up but I just read a poem and I really like it and I want to post it here.

                                                    The Invitation.

? It doesnt interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
? It doesnt interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
? It doesnt interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by lifes betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
? I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
? It doesnt interest me if the story you are telling is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul, if you can be faithless and therefore be trustworthy.
? I want to know if you can see beauty, even when its not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presense.
? I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon " Yes!"
? It doesnt interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
? It doesnt interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
? It doesnt interest me what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
? I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

? - Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

[Doc Emmett Brown]

'Mouettes' by Jacques LACARRI?RE

Les mouettes heurtent le ciel comme un miroir
O? jamais elles ne se reconnaissent.
Leur v?ritable image erre dans la l?gende
Entre le sable humide et la mer ? venir.
Les mouettes hantent le ciel comme un remords
D'ouate et de cendres
Elles, pens?es sans repos, d?sirs jamais en place,
Vou?es ? questionner sans tr?ve
Leur s?ur incompr?hensible : l'?cume.



In English by babelfish:

GULLS

The gulls run up against the sky as a mirror
Where never they are not recognized.
Their true image wanders in the legend
Between wet sand and the sea to come.
The gulls haunt the sky like a remorse
Of wadding and ashes
They, thought without rest, desires never in place,
Dedicated to question without treve
Their incomprehensible sister: the scum(?)

[Carlos_f_Rose]

Guys this is a speech, which is like a poem for me because I find it extremely beautiful and tender I hope you like it -- if you read it-- take care your Bolivian friend Carlitos.

Charles Chaplin...  Look Up Hannah from the film The great Dictator.

Hope... I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written " the kingdom of God is within man " - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."

[josh85]

mine's gotta be 'if' by rudyard kippling, i don't have it on me, havn't memorized it and can't be arsed to look it up on the net but i'll post it when i've found my book. it's truely powerfull.

[Jagged Little Pill]

mine's gotta be 'if' by rudyard kippling, i don't have it on me, havn't memorized it and can't be arsed to look it up on the net but i'll post it when i've found my book. it's truely powerfull.

I looked it up, is this it?

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling