What are some of the poems that have really moved you in the past, or have really meant something to you for some reason or other? It could be a famous poem, or it could be something a friend wrote. Here's one that really touched me, doubly so having visited his grave: The Parable Of The Old Man And The Young Wilfred Owen So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, And took the fire with him, and a knife. And as they sojourned both of them together, Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father, Behold the preparations, fire and iron, But where the lamb for this burnt-offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, And builded parapets and trenches there, And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son. When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven, Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him, thy son. Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns, A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one.
Where the clouds are dark and the dogs go bark when the clouds are black and the ducks go quack when the sky is blue and the cows go mooooo Think of loverly poobrain she'll be thinking of you
In nineteen sixty-six the Queen pulled down her knicks she licked her bum and said "yum yum, it tastes like Weetabix"
I've avoided this thread 'cos teaching poetry is work to me so I get sick of reading the stuff But this is probably my favourite poem, one of William Wordsworth's "Lucy" poems. A SLUMBER did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seem'd a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Roll'd round in earth's diurnal course With rocks, and stones, and trees.
if you have taken this rubble for my past raking through it for fragments you could sell know that i long ago moved on deeper into the heart of the matter if you think you can grasp me, think again: my story flows in more than one direction a delta springing from the riverbed with its five fingers spread delta, adrienne rich
Either America by Allen Ginsberg, or this: The Day Lady Died It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I don't know the people who will feed me I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun and have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets in Ghana are doing these days in Ghana are doing these days I go on to the bank and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard) doesn't even look up my balance for once in her life and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or Brendan Behan's new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres of Genet, but I don't, I stick with Verlaine after practically going to sleep with quandariness and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing -- Frank O'Hara
I consider some lyrics to be poetry. This to me is just as much a poem as it is a song. It has always been super meaningful to me since the first time I ever heard it about 10 years ago. Yes, maybe I'm cheating a bit, but I still think this is poetry. "Hurt" by Trent Reznor I hurt myself today To see if I still feel I focus on the pain The only thing that's real The needle tears a hole The old familiar sting Try to kill it all away But I remember everything What have I become? My sweetest friend Everyone I know Goes away in the end You could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt I wear my crown of shit On my liar's chair Full of broken thoughts I cannot repair Beneath the stain of time The feeling disappears You are someone else I am still right here What have I become? My sweetest friend Everyone I know Goes away in the end You could have it all My empire of dirt I will let you down I will make you hurt If I could start again A million miles away I would keep myself I would find a way
Skin Deep I think that I am lovely Despite a broken nose You can detract from it By wearing fancy clothes I think I am beautiful Although I have cross-eyes You can detract from that aswell By wearing fancy ties I think I am beautiful Even though I've got big ears I cover them with blankets When anyone appears. I think I am beautiful Although my legs are thin If people want to see them I say my legs aren't in If some folk say I'm ugly As some folk certainly will I get out my rotweiler And say kill kill kill. Spike Milligan 1995
This poem by Byron is seriously underestimated by academics who rate other works of his,His greater stuff like "she walks in beauty" and his epics, are brilliant but I love this poem and it is the one which if I am buried I would have that last verse on my grave stone. He wrote it, I believe, for lady Caroline Lamb, who actually died of grief when he left her. I think he is saying in the first two verses that youth is vibrant with life and that its goal is to find love, fame and fortune are not on the agenda, what is fame and fortune without the love of a woman. In the second two verses he is saying that he sought fame precisely so that it would make him more attractive to women and that when he had fame, fortune and love, he realised the best of it was love and that the guiddy feeling of first love is life itself. youth and love is life itself ps (if any of you wonder what "hoary" means - it means "old") ALL FOR LOVE O TALK not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty. What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled? 'Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled: Then away with all such from the head that is hoary— What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory? O Fame! if I e'er took delight in thy praises, 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases, Than to see the bright eyes of the dear one discover She thought that I was not unworthy to love her. There chiefly I sought thee, there only I found thee; Her glance was the best of the rays that surround thee; When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story, I knew it was love, and I felt it was glory. . (Lord George Gordon Byron)
I love this one by Polly Styrene of X-ray spex Its about womanhood as a mere commodity and makes me think of Mahler and Hunderwasser whenever I read it BONDAGE UP YOURS Bind me tie me Chain me to the wall I wanna be a slave to you all Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more Chain-store chain-smoke I consume you all Chain-gang chain-mail I don't think at all Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more Thrash me crash me Beat me till I fall I wanna be a victim For you all Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more Oh bondage up yours Oh bondage no more
Again by polly styrene GERM FREE ADOLESCENCE I know your antiseptic Your deodorant smells nice I'd like to get to know you You're deep frozen like the ice She's a germ free adolescent Cleanliness is her obsession Cleans her teeth ten times a day Scrub away scrub away scrub away The S.R. way.... You may get to touch her If your gloves are sterilised Rinse your mouth with listerine Blow disinfectant in her eyes Her phobia is infection She needs one to survive It's her built-in protection Without fear she'd give up and die She's a germ free adolescent Cleanliness is her obsession Cleans her teeth ten times a day Scrub away scrub away scrub away The S.R. way....
i liked those polly styrene poems, especially the second one. i've never heard of her before. she sounds pretty interesting.
X Ray Spex were a two hit wonder from the punk era, good stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEjkPRp60bU
