What Poetry Moved You?

[Guest bleeding_angel]

"I Am Not Yours"

-Sara Teasdale

 

I am not yours, not lost in you,

Not lost, although I long to be

Lost as a candle lit at noon,

Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

 

You love me, and I find you still

A spirit beautiful and bright,

Yet I am I, who long to be

Lost as a light is lost in light.

 

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out

My senses, leave me deaf and blind,

Swept by the tempest of your love,

A taper in a rushing wind.

[phoenix101]

Where Sadness Comes From

 

 

Don't go back to say it came from way

back when. It did, it did, but now.

 

When you said did just now did you feel

a little dip, a curtsey in

 

the middle of the word, almost

another syllable but

 

not quite? We like to say a word,

a single word can make us feel.

 

There, there it is again, this time

a falling down at the end of feel.

 

You feel it, how that little sound

goes dropping down and hangs alone.

 

I'm here to tell you I come from

a place where hanging used to happen:

 

it happened in the trees, by God,

it happens even now in air,

 

the air the mouth lets loose; I hear

a hanging all the time. It leaves

 

a sadness in the voice; we speak,

and wait for history to catch up

 

with us. It's slow, but then, that lets

you hear it coming; you hear it now

 

before you speak, that sadness in

your voice, the part of you that wants

 

to last, to hang or dip, to hold

the word for just a little more—

 

my people, this is an elegy

to you, the sadness in your voice.

 

 

 

Maurice Manning

[phoenix101]

My Kindred Spirit

by Babycakes

My kindred spirit,

Do you doubt we’ll share,

A love transcendent,

And truly rare?

 

Our souls dominion;

Will give us no choice.

Time will stand still,

When I hear your voice.

 

If fate has its way

Your eyes will meet mine,

Lost in forever

We’ll travel past time.

 

Then, long awaited

Our hands will touch;

Mine, fragile, soft,

Yours warm and rough.

 

No thoughts will break,

Or suspend our dance.

When our souls meet,

We’ll be left to chance.

 

A force of nature,

Destiny shall ordain.

Our will cast aside,

Released from the pain.

 

To each other's center,

We will be led,

Seduction upon us,

Our hungers fed.

 

My heart, for you only,

My flesh will surrender,

Respond to your warmth,

To your touch, so tender.

 

A coveted encounter,

Fulfilled at long last,

We’ll know from then on,

If this will just pass.

 

The danger for us,

Will be revealed then -

What might be our future,

Are we lovers or friends?

[Cucho]

Ramon Sampedro - Mar Adentro

(From the book Letters from hell)

Out to sea. Out to sea,

and in the weightlessness of the deep

where dreams come true,

two souls unite to fulfill a single wish.

 

Your gaze and mine, over and over like an echo,

repeating silently: "Deeper, and deeper,"

beyond everything that is flesh and blood.

But I always awaken and I always wish for death,

my lips forever entangled in your hair.

 

A few years ago they made a movie about Ramon Sampedro's tragic life. The movie (Mar Adentro - The sea inside) won 1 oscar and i strongly recommend it!

[tororista]

Isla del Fuego

by Ruel S. De Vera

 

Burning in the fiction

of affection, we lie

sprawled and separate

on the satin of sand,

 

with only your stranded

silence spanning

this damp distance

between us.

 

It is your incandescent

fear of touch that keeps us

constantly apart

like shoreline and sea.

 

You are afraid that, once joined,

we can no longer be sundered,

can no longer tell who is who,

what is what, whose is whose.

 

But even now,

the mangrove finds

the milling shadows melded

into its many limbs.

 

Already this sky, stained saffron

by sunset, decants the last light

of this naked night's coupling

with the afternoon.

 

So leave your fear

to be washed away

by the waterworn forgetfulness

of flotsam and sand,

 

and discover that love,

like embers of fleeting fireflies,

can blot out

even the most careful of stars.

[tororista]

wala. lang.

dahon. nahulog. sa puno.

dahan. dahan.

 

wala. lang.

ulan. bumuhos. sa lawa.

dahan. dahan.

 

wala. lang.

alitaptap. umiikot. sa gabi.

dahan. dahan.

 

wala. lang.

ikaw. iniisip. kita.

ngayon. bukas.

 

wala.lang.

[melancholic]

Oh Sadness!

Why torment me?

Aren't dreams supposed to make me happy?

But when reality stings, oh how painful!

How pathetic!

How sorrowful!

 

Oh destiny!

Please, please teach me!

Teach me to trod your thornful way!

What lies beyond this path? I don't know!

Maybe somehow...

A brighter day.

 

Oh my soul!

Endure, endure once more!

Another day, your tears to pour.

Look beyond the shadows, a hopeful glint.

The rainbow's bend?

Or finally, the end.

[melancholic]

This is what you call obsession!

 

Hangang Tingin Lang

by Melancholic

 

Ngawit na sa katitingin

Buti't di pa ako duling

Siguro nga'y malapit na

Kahahanap ng pagasa

 

Titig na titig sa iyong ganda

Di ko maalis ang aking mata

Walang kaduda-dudang ikaw na

Ang hanap ng puso't kaluluwa

 

Ngunit sa kabila ng nararamdaman

Isang napakalalim na kalungkutan

Ikaw ay talagang mahirap abutin

Parang Isang napakalayong bituin

 

Ikaw nga ba ay hangang pangarap lamang

At panaginip na ayaw kong gisingan

Siguro nga ay mas magandang ganito

Ngunit sana lang, tadhana ay magbago

 

--- lines with stupid tone ---

 

 

Sa bawa't ngiting bitiwan mo

Lumiliwanag ang araw ko

Gasgas na nga ang linyang ito

Para sayo ay inulit ko

 

Sana'y makakita ka ng bagay sa'yo

Huwag kang magpapaloko kahit kanino

Kung maaari ay hintayin mo ako

Papalitan ko lang muna ang mukha ko!

 

Siguro naman ay pwede na rin

Ang mukha ko ay iyong tiisin!

Ay 'wag nalang, nangangarap lamang!

Di naman masama, libre naman.

Edited May 15, 2007 by melancholic

[popkern]

DREAMER'S MANIFESTO

(Poem by Jourdan Sebastian)

 

I, (state your name), choose to live a life of adventure, excitement, service, joy, spontaneity and love.

I choose to love.

And as I love I live.

As I live I give.

As I give I serve.

As I serve I step closer to the reality of my dreams.

I will dream. I will dream big and amazing and spectacular and awesome dreams.

I will live my dreams and not compromise for the sake of security or safety or comfort.

I will jump-out ofmy comfort zone and embrace change.

Change, whom I fear.

 

Change, whom I dread.

I will seek to live beyond what I can, believing that the God whom I trust is much, much bigger and greater than any obstacle I may face.

I will face my fear. I will stop running away from it and turn around.

And when I am face-to-face and eye-to-eye with it I will grab the bull by its balls and make it scream surrender!!!

I surrender.

I surrender to my great Destiny knowing deep in my heart I am destined for excellence I am destined for greatness. Not mediocrity, not conformity.

 

Not in arrogance but with the mantle of humility placed upon me.

Because this is not about me. This is about humanity.

I will persevere for the sake of humanity, who need men and women

inflamed by passion that will ignite the hearts of the timid and fearful souls to push on and soar higher.

 

And I will do all this not ten years from now when I am free.

Not five years from now when I have the money.

Not one year from now when I am ready.

Not one month from now when all is steady.

Not one week from now when I know how.

 

Not even tomorrow because tomorrow is far from now.

I will live my dreams now and I will act now.

[popkern]

Time And Love

 

Time flies. The swift hours hurry by

And speed us on to untried ways;

New seasons ripen, perish, die,

And yet love stays.

The old, old love – like sweet at first,

At last like bitter wine –

I know not if it blest or curst,

Thy life and mine.

 

Time flies. In vain our prayers, our tears,

We cannot tempt him to delays;

Down to the past he bears the years,

And yet love stays.

Through changing task and varying dream

We hear the same refrain,

As one can hear a plaintive theme

Run through each strain.

 

Time flies. He steals out pulsing youth,

He robs us of our care-free days,

He takes away our trust and truth,

And yet love stays.

O Time! take love! When love is vain,

When all its best joys die –

When only its regrets remain –

Let love, too, fly.

 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

[popkern]

Cello Songs

 

The cello stirs deep strains of memory long buried,

Streaks of bleak images set free by music from another time.

The ennui of its song fills my body with longing unnamed

With dreams unfulfilled, with tears unspent.

 

The bow slides over the cello's strings, over the heartstrings,

over the strands and strata of sadness

as it sings its mournful melody.

 

Raynette Eitel

[denimhead]

If you need to kiss it,

Kiss it.

If you need to kick it,

Kick it.

If you need to scream it,

Scream it.

 

But kiss it, kick it, scream it

Now.

 

If you need to leave it,

Leave it.

If you need to love it,

Love it.

If you need to hold it,

Hold it.

 

But leave it, love it, hold it

Now.

 

If you need to squeeze it,

Squeeze it.

If you need to spill it,

Spill it.

If you need to tell the world

You've got more to you

Than the world has as of yet

Allowed you to be,

 

Then be it, tell it, spill it,

Squeeze it out of each instantaneous moment.

Make the juice, the jive, the jazz, the jism,

The mysticism that ism you!

 

Grab at the moon!

And hold the stars hot inside your head.

 

'Cause now is all there ever was

And all there ever will be.

 

So kiss it, kick it, scream it

Now!

 

- marc kelly smith

kiss it

[popkern]

A Recipe for Suicide

 

Take lies and fears

And a pinch of regret and also

A little confusion and mistakes.

Put sickness and worry

And a cup full of betrayal

In an enormous cauldron of tears.

Mix with depression

And a touch of failure

Until tears rush down your face.

Throw in a miscarriage

And a lost love or two.

Then, broil in a broken heart

At one million degrees

Until overwhelmed with grief and sorrow.

You can tell it’s done

When you can stand no more pain.

Let stand until tired of the madness of the world.

Sprinkle on some jealousy

And serve with sadness and unrest.

Taste a touch of suicide.

 

Aubrey McClure

[popkern]

Love & Wind

 

Created at the same time

Likeness in each one

Neither seen by natural eye

Both can tear a world apart

Soothe a soul

Created a storm

One moves the air

The other leaves us breathless

Think upon the love as you feel the wind

And ponder upon the wind as you feel love

For both can blow right bye

Without knowing it was ever there

 

Patricia Gale

[Guest bleeding_angel]

i carry your heart with me

 

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 it's 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)

 

-ee cummings

[Guest bleeding_angel]

Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face

 

Be glad your nose is on your face,

not pasted on some other place,

for if it were where it is not,

you might dislike your nose a lot.

 

Imagine if your precious nose

were sandwiched in between your toes,

that clearly would not be a treat,

 

Within your ear, your nose would be

an absolute catastrophe,

for when you were obliged to sneeze,

your brain would rattle from the breeze.

 

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,

remains between your eyes and chin,

not pasted on some other place--

be glad your nose is on your face!

 

-Jack Prelutsky

[Guest bleeding_angel]

Alone

 

Lying, thinking

Last night

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

I came up with one thing

And I don't believe I'm wrong

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

There are some millionaires

With money they can't use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They've got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Now if you listen closely

I'll tell you what I know

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blow

The race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,

'Cause nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

-Maya Angelou

[qazaq]

"Mother to Son"

Langston Hughes

 

Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I'se been a-climbin' on,

And reachin' landin's,

And turnin' corners,

And sometimes goin' in the dark

Where there ain't been no light.

So, boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps.

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

Don't you fall now—

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

[iwalkalone]

Dancing in the Rain

Jay Schexnayder

 

Clouds cover the sky

And Drops fill the air

I watch from a window

Overlooking a cobblestone street

Small pools are made

By the non-stop rain

And there she is

I do not know her

But she knows me

She steps out into the rain

And is immediately surrounded

By the avalanche of droplets

Her clothes cling to her body

Accentuating her every curve

I swallow a growing lump

That had developed in my throat

Her hips sway to some far off music

Music that only she can hear

Then she looks up at me

Staring directly into my eyes

She beckons and I cannot resist

As if in a trance, I stumble down the stairs

My hand trembles as I reach for the door

Something is not right about her

I know it, but I cannot help myself

I open the door slowly

And there she is

Standing stone still, gazing into my eyes

Drops pouring down her face

My breath catches

The shoulder of her shirt

Has slipped down her arm

Revealing her shoulder and collarbone

She extends both her hands

My arms move of their own volition

I am powerless to do anything

She takes my hands

And suddenly I hear the music

We start dancing

I do not want to, but my body

Refuses to listen to my commands

The rain lessens somewhat

As we spin faster and faster

The spray from her ebony hair

Catches light from the lamps

And reflects it in all directions

My clothes have become soaked

I cannot tell if it is rain on my face

Or tears

Now she is pulling me away

Toward her house

I tell my feet to stop

But they keep going

They propel me to the open doorway

I smell strong incense burning

It smells like rotting flesh

And sweet gardens at the same time

She guides me to her bed

Where she pushes me gently

I fall back softly onto the bed

My eyes roll in their sockets

Taking in the vision before me

She removes her damp blouse

And slowly pulls off her skirt

As I lay there on the bed

She kneels before me

She starts to loosen my collar

And unbutton my shirt

I am screaming in my head

But my mouth is silent

She pulls my shirt off

And buries my mouth with a kiss

Her lips are soft

The scent of her is like perfume

My nose greedily sniffs for more

My hand reaches up

It caresses her bare back

I am ranting my frustrations

But my mouth is occupied with her kiss

I do not think I could talk anyway

My entire body refuses to listen

My heart skips a beat

As her hand slides down my chest

Caressing my ribs

Tugging at my pants

One by one the candles

Start to go out of their own volition

It has gotten dark outside

One single candle is all the light there is

It starts to flicker

In the recesses of my mind

I know if the candle goes out

I am lost

But my mind is hazy

I cannot make anything out

As her hands stroke my chest

I try to focus

But everything is blurry

She is covering my mouth with a passionate kiss

She caresses my shoulders

I hang limply on the bed

But my hands hold her close

I try to make my hands let go

They refuse to listen to me

My resolve starts to melt

My will starts to sap

The candle starts to fade

She breaks off the kiss

And gazes into my eyes

I stare back into hers

I see silent laughter

I see a smoldering flame

But I do not see what I most wanted to

She has no soul

And a small smile tugs at her lips

She narrows her eyes

As her tongue dances over my lips

A small sigh escapes me

Her smile grows

I start gasping

In my mind, I am panicking

Her gaze is drawn to the burning candle

Dancing and flickering with her eyes

She slowly blinks

The candle winks out

And I am lost

[burn4me]

Family First

 

 

Friends may come and friends may go

Family is first and this I know

Putting friends first is a mistake

And not one that you should make

 

Family’s forever and this I know

Friends enter your life and then they go

Making friends is fun trust me with this

But not something you would miss

 

Love your family while they are here

Keep their love very near

Family can leave the world at any time

So don’t make yourself feel like slime

 

Family is here to comfort you

I know your friends do this too

Without your family you would be lost

Hold on to them no matter the cost

[mwah]

Remember

Christina Rossetti

 

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

 

:cry:

[George Estregan Lives]

A kind of burning

 

it is perhaps because

one way or the other

we keep this distance

closeness will tug us apart

in many directions

in absolute din

how we love the same

trivial pursuits and

insignificant gewgaws

spoken or inert

claw at the same straws

pore over the same jigsaws

trying to make heads or tails

you take the edges

i take the center

keeping fancy guard

loving beyond what is there

you sling at stars

i bedeck the weeds

straining in song or

profanities towards some

fabled meeting apart

from what dreams read

and suns dismantle

we have been all the hapless

lovers in this wayward world

in almost all kinds of ways

except we never really meet

but for this kind of burning

 

 

ophelia a. dimalanta

[i_skittles]

Tonight I Can Write

Pablo Neruda (translated by W.S. Merwin)

 

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is shattered

 

and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

 

 

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

 

Through the nights like this one I held her in my arms.

I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

 

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.

How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

 

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

 

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.

And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

 

 

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.

The night is shattered and she is not with me.

 

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.

My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

 

 

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.

My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

 

The same night whitening the same trees.

We, of that time, are no longer the same.

 

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

 

Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.

Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

 

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

 

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms

my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

 

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer

and these the last verses that I write for her.

[Guest foxtrotbravo]

Remember

Christina Rossetti

 

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

 

:cry:

 

 

happy or sad memories, the heart never forgets.... even in the throes of alzheimer's.....

[rdaq97]

This is for you Champ. Rest in peace.

 

Kender Mourning Song

(from Dragonlance: Dragons of Spring Dawning)

 

Always before, the spring returned.

The bright world in its cycle spun

In air and flowers, grass and fern,

Assured and cradled by the sun.

 

Always before you could explain

The turning darkness of the earth,

And how that dark embraced the rain,

And gave the fern and flowers birth.

 

Already I forget these things,

And how a vein of gold survives

The mining of a thousand springs,

The seasons of a thousand lives.

 

Now winter is my memory,

Now autumn, now the summer light --

So every spring from now will be

Another season into night.