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Standing Wolf
03-21-2016, 11:06 AM
I posted one of my favorite poems, Alden Nowlan's 'The Execution', on another thread.

Here's another favorite.

Traveling through the Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

- William Stafford

del
03-21-2016, 11:12 AM
The Bridge Builder

By Will Allen Dromgoole (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/will-allen-dromgoole)

An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

FindersKeepers
03-21-2016, 11:15 AM
That's a thought-provoking one, Wolf.



Here's one of my favorites:

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 the 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.

nathanbforrest45
03-21-2016, 11:27 AM
Here is my contribution. World's shortest poem with the worlds longest title.

Exclamation of a Young Lady upon finding a dead bug

Ugh

Chris
03-21-2016, 11:28 AM
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

nathanbforrest45
03-21-2016, 01:00 PM
This really is one of favorite poems. I know its a child's poem but I like it



James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he;
"You must never go down
to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Put on a golden gown.
James James Morrison's Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James Morrison's Mother
Said to herself, said she:
"I can get right down
to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea."

King John
Put up a notice,
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES MORRISON'S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
TO THE END OF THE TOWN -
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!"


James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me."

James James
Morrison's mother
Hasn't been heard of since.
King John said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?"

(Now then, very softly)
J.J.
M.M.
W.G.Du P.
Took great
C/0 his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J.J. said to his M*****
"M*****," he said, said he:
"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-
if-you-don't-go-down-with-ME!"








http://ingeb.org/Rainbow.JPG

Standing Wolf
03-21-2016, 01:31 PM
My wife, son and I were talking about music lyrics last night, and I mentioned that in my Junior year of high school, ca. 1970-71, in English class, we studied the lyrics from 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' as poetry. My wife said that in one of her classes they had done the same thing with the songs of Simon and Garfunkel.

nathanbforrest45
03-21-2016, 02:08 PM
What is poetry other than words, what are song lyrics other than words. Both are meant to convey images or thoughts. I don't see the difference.

FindersKeepers
03-21-2016, 03:37 PM
My wife, son and I were talking about music lyrics last night, and I mentioned that in my Junior year of high school, ca. 1970-71, in English class, we studied the lyrics from 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' as poetry. My wife said that in one of her classes they had done the same thing with the songs of Simon and Garfunkel.


Some of the most heartfelt poetry in the world is memorialized in song. Something about the combination of the words and the melody. How many have ridden/driven/flown into war singing? And Amazing Grace? Nothing, without the lilting bagpipes.

nathanbforrest45
03-21-2016, 03:55 PM
Here's one that is both music and poetry


Well, I heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah...

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah...

Baby, I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor (you know)
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
And love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah...

There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me, do ya?
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah...

Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdyTXBT5CQE

Standing Wolf
03-21-2016, 04:26 PM
Some of the most heartfelt poetry in the world is memorialized in song. Something about the combination of the words and the melody. How many have ridden/driven/flown into war singing? And Amazing Grace? Nothing, without the lilting bagpipes.

I came across a small book the other day called 'Blackbird Singing' by Paul McCartney. It was simply the lyrics to many of the songs that he's written over the years, arranged as poetry. I suppose that if someone had never heard of McCartney or the Beatles and never heard their music, they might read this book without a clue that they were intended to be song lyrics.

Ngc1514
03-23-2016, 03:19 PM
The Death of the Ball Turret GunnerFrom 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.



Randall Jarrell 1914-1965