Your favourite poem

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

 

[calumdown]

Somewhere I have never travelled.
by EE Cummings.

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

i'd have given you a like
but e.e. cummings preferred no capital letters in his name
(my hero)

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

About 20 years ago there was a brief vogue for Spamku (Haiku poems about Spam) and The Independent even ran an article on them.

This is the only one I remember:

Spam frying in lard
The whirr of the kitchen fan
Summer of my youth

Not the same thing at all, but this is inspired by the one that the Japanese consider to be the best Haiku poem ever written:

Still pond,
Phil Neville falls in,
Hurrah!

 

[calumdown]

fuck me.
9 pages and no mention of baudelaire.


il faut être toujours ivre
tout est là
c’est l’unique question
pour ne pas sentir l’horrible fardeau du temps
qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre
il faut vous enivrer sans trêve
mais de quoi?
de vin
de poésie
ou de vertu
à votre guise
mais enivrez-vous
et si quelquefois
sur les marches d’un palais
sur l’herbe verte d’un fossé
dans la solitude morne de votre chambre
vous vous réveillez
l’ivresse déjà diminuée ou disparue
demandez au vent
à la vague
à l’étoile
à l’oiseau
à l’horloge
à tout ce qui fuit
à tout ce qui gémit
à tout ce qui roule
à tout ce qui chante
à tout ce qui parle
demandez quelle heure il est
et le vent
la vague
l’étoile
l’oiseau
l’horloge
vous répondront
"il est l’heure de s’enivrer!"
pour n’être pas les esclaves martyrisés du temps
enivrez-vous
enivrez-vous sans cesse!
de vin
de poésie
ou de vertu
à votre guise


in english it's summat like this...

we should always be drunk
that is the be-all and end-all
the only choice there is
to no longer feel the horrible burden of time
which racks your shoulders and bows you downwards to the earth
you must make yourself ceaselessly drunk
but drunk on what?
wine
poetry
virtue
whichever you prefer
only - get drunk!
and from time to time
whether on a palace stair
or in the green grass of a ditch
or in the gloomy loneliness of your room
you waken with your drunkenness wearing off or already gone
then ask the wind and the waves
the stars or the birds or the clocks
whatever is fleeting
whatever moans or spins or sings or speaks
ask them what day it is
then wind and wave and star and bird and clock will answer you
"it is time to get drunk!"
so
as never to be the martyred slaves of time
get drunk without respite
with wine or poetry or virtue
whichever you prefer.


(@Vienna_70 how's my french?)

 

[Blue Mist]

Do you consider Rap to be modern poetry?

@mancity2012_eamo

Changes by 2Pac

I thought I'd posted this before but the lyrics, to me, are poetry, modern day poetry.
I can't copy and paste on my phone but that is a poet telling others how he sees life. Brilliant.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

@mancity2012_eamo

Changes by 2Pac

I thought I'd posted this before but the lyrics, to me, are poetry, modern day poetry.
I can't copy and paste on my phone but that is a poet telling others how he sees life. Brilliant.

I’m not very well up on rap. It’s not stuff I would listen to a whole album of but I have heard very good pieces that I would consider poetry rather than music.
I know it can be both, but most of the commercial stuff I’ve heard by big names, strikes me as being a piece of piss.

But like I’ve said, I have heard pieces, snippets on tv shows that I thought were very much hard hitting modern poetry.

I’ll check out the piece you are talking about.

 

[calumdown]

 

[Blue Mist]

I’m not very well up on rap. It’s not stuff I would listen to a whole album of but I have heard very good pieces that I would consider poetry rather than music.
I know it can be both, but most of the commercial stuff I’ve heard by big names, strikes me as being a piece of piss.

But like I’ve said, I have heard pieces, snippets on tv shows that I thought were very much hard hitting modern poetry.

I’ll check out the piece you are talking about.

I am not saying all Rap is poetry. A lot is just swearing and pretending to be a 'gangsta' but some Rap, especially the 80's stuff had a real social message.
Changes is imo saying a lot about American society and it's values.

 

[calumdown]

 

[Saddleworth2]

Ae Fond Kiss​

BY ROBERT BURNS
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love forever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted—
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace. enjoyment, love, and pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!