Poetry Corner

[MrHyeSev]

Re: Poetry Corner

The Dentist's Chair

In the dentist's chair I lie
I am not brave I think I'll cry
He turns to me my tooth to fill
I start to sweat I hear the drill
I reach around and grab his crutch
I begin to squeeze but not too much
I move my gaze his eyes to view
If you hurt me then I'll hurt you

[Tali]

Re: Poetry Corner

My friend got ticked off at me and wrote a poem:


"Simplicity how I adore you like an afternoon breeze

You brush across my cheek

I can understand you without fault

The truth cannot hide itself

You can be as cold as the arctic

As well as warm like the Caribbean sand

When the storms rage on

The clouds turn you to grey



Please I cannot comprehend

Why others choose to flee to the flooding rain

While the howling winds swirl around them

I shall always be with you

Simplicity

Here there is nowhere to hide"


so.... I responded:

"Oh Complexity ---

You vixen! You vile temptress! Why can I not pull away from thee?

You tempt me like the forbidden fruit of Eden,

and I take the bite of sweetest pleasure.


Oh Complexity ---

You mock me with your gray scales,

You entangle me into your finest threaded webs.

Despite this, I must say I am forever engaged,

forever learning, forever being challenged.




Oh Complexity ---

You shun your sister, Simplicity.

You adore her and hate her.

You keep her at her distance with her fluttering butterflies about her,

while you charm the snakes with the smoothest notes of your clarinet.



Oh Complexity---

how I wish you would release me,

yet I cannot resist how you tease me.

I do not understand myself, you see...

but boredom, too, thus escapes me."

[KanadaHye]

Re: Poetry Corner

Undying Form
By: Serj Tankian

The stars dangling from creation's ears
Compete with their luscious and inviting lips
Designed to devour the universe at large
Her eyes are unseen yet penetrating
Blinking within the arteries of art
Her hairstyles change as the seasons
Delivering nuance to the familiar
She speaks unrehearsed languages simultaneously
from her skin pores with no remorse
We hear, but can't remember how to listen
We see, but can't make out her undying form
Fear of forces our heads to the floor
shying away from looking at her true face
Never realizing, always theorizing, the content of her smile

- from his book Glaring Through Oblivion

[Tali]

Re: Poetry Corner

ooohh Rudyard Kipling!! nice, reminds me of his other poem:

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke (1) your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel, (2)
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

[freakyfreaky]

Re: Poetry Corner

The Buddha at Kamakura

"And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura"

O ye who tread the Narrow Way
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day,
Be gentle when the 'heathen' pray
To Buddha at Kamakura!

To him the Way, the Law, apart,
Whom Maya held beneath her heart,
Ananda's Lord, the Bodhisat,
The Buddha of Kamakura.

For though he neither burns nor sees,
Nor hears ye thank your Deities,
Ye have not sinned with such as these,
His children at Kamakura.

Yet spare us still the Western joke
When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke
The little sins of little folk
That worship at Kamakura --

The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies
That flit beneath the Master's eyes.
He is beyond the Mysteries
But loves them at Kamakura.

And whoso will, from Pride released,
Contemning neither creed nor priest,
May feel the Soul of all the East
About him at Kamakura.

Yea, every tale Ananda heard,
Of birth as fish or beast or bird,
While yet in lives the Master stirred,
The warm wind brings Kamakura.

Till drowsy eyelids seem to see
A-flower 'neath her golden htee
The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly
From Burmah to Kamakura,

And down the loaded air there comes
The thunder of Thibetan drums,
And droned -- "Om mane padme hums" --
A world's-width from Kamakura.

Yet Brahmans rule Benares still,
Buddh-Gaya's ruins pit the hill,
And beef-fed zealots threaten ill
To Buddha and Kamakura.

A tourist-show, a legend told,
A rusting bulk of bronze and gold,
So much, and scarce so much, ye hold
The meaning of Kamakura?

But when the morning prayer is prayed,
Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,
Is God in human image made
No nearer than Kamakura?

-- Rudyard Kipling

Spring

This morning
two birds
fell down the side of the maple tree

like a tuft of fire
a wheel of fire
a love knot

out of control as they plunged through the air
pressed against each other
and I thought

how I meant to live a quiet life
how I meant to live a life of mildness and meditation
tapping the careful words against each other

and I thought—
as though I were suddenly spinning like a bar of silver
as though I had shaken my arms and lo! they were wings—

of the Buddha
when he rose from the green garden
when he rose in his powerful ivory body

when he turned to the long dusty road without end
when he covered his hairs with ribbons and the petals of flowers
when he opened his hands to the world

-- Mary Oliver (1935 - )

[Tali]

Re: Poetry Corner

Poem to My Boyfriend, Spenser


I don't know what lays before us,
but I know where we have been.
So, why don't we take each other's hand,
and follow our gut instinct within?
It's no secret we've had our troubles,
...but working together I know we'll win.

With our fingers in this entwine,
our future we will divine.
As long as you're still mine,
I'll suspect we'll be just fine.

Have you noticed something lately?
It's something very true.
I'm not sure how to make it more obvious,
since it's something you already knew.
How? Because..., have you guessed it?
I love you. ♥

[MrHyeSev]

Re: Poetry Corner

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

-Langston Hughes

[Tali]

Re: Poetry Corner

"If you could only see yourself through my eyes,
You would never, I bet, let me out of your sight"

short poem by anonymous

[MrHyeSev]

Re: Poetry Corner

To Do List From God

I ran my life in search of worldly things;
My time and will were firmly in control.
I thought I had no need for what God brings;
I gave no heed to murmurs from my soul.

“You’re planning, doing all the time,” it said,
“But something else is missing deep inside.
Your mind is whirling, but your heart is dead,
So turn to God and let go of your pride.”

I did, and God said, “Here’s My plan for you:
Give your life to Me, and just let go.
Have faith and pray, and read the Bible through,
And you’ll have blessings more than you can know.”

So simple, yet it brings me perfect peace,
Living life for God the way I should.
Direction, purpose, fullness and release—
Life with God is very, very good.

By Joanna Fuchs

[Tali]

Re: Poetry Corner

How Many Of You? (poem) *written by me*

How many of you are sitting there,

reading this, your heart laid bare?

How many of you are scared to share,

but want someone to hold you and care?



How many of you try to put on a face,

so skillfully crafted to show no trace

of the sorrow you wish you could erase?

Bolder yet, put happiness in its place?



How many of you know how this feels?

I'm sure some of you now are shedding tears.

A face is quite useful as a tool that reveals,

with your grief as thief, your smile it steals.



With your arms folded tightly around you,

you look at the world - the one you once knew.

You stare and ponder: what now will I do?

You'll face this world. To yourself, be true.