What Poetry Moved You?

[superseeker]

William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

 

Invictus

 

OUT of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

[Guest FL]

I walked a mile with Pleasure;

She chatted all the way;

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

 

I walked a mile with Sorrow,

And ne'er a word said she;

But, oh! The things I learned from her,

When Sorrow walked with me.

 

Robert Browning Hamilton

[laging_nagmamahal]

Sa Dakong Hindi Ko Pa Nalalakbay

(ang aking pagsasatagalog ng "somewhere i have never travelled" ni e.e. cummings)

 

sa dakong hindi ko pa nalalakbay, may galak, sa kabila

ng anumang karanasan, may angking katahimikan ang iyong mga mata:

sa iyong pinakabahagyang paramdam, naroon ang mga bagay na kumukupkop sa akin,

o hindi ko masaling dahil napakalapit nila.

 

ang pahapyaw mong sulyap ay madaling magpapalaya sa akin

kahit pa ipinid ko ang sariling gaya ng mga daliri,

lalagi mo akong pinamumukadkad ng talulot sa talulot, gaya ng pamumukadkad ng Tagsibol

(sa pagdamping maparaan, mahiwaga) sa una niyang rosas.

 

o kung ang hiling mo’y ipinid ako, ako at

ang buhay ko ay magpipinid ng buong kagandahan, daglian,

tulad sa panginginita ng puso ng bulaklak na ito sa niyebeng

maingat na nananaog sa lahat ng dako.

 

walang masasaksihan sa mundong ito ang papantay

sa kapangyarihan ng sukdol mong kahinaan: ang kakinisan mong

nag-uudyok sa akin ng makulay niyang mga parang,

naglalarawan ng kamatayan at kawalang-hanggan sa bawat paghinga.

 

(hindi ko batid kung alin sa iyo ang nagpipinid

at nagbubukas; taglay ko lamang ang saloobing nakauunawa,

ang tinig ng iyong mga mata ay higit pang malagom sa lahat ng rosas)

walang sinuman, kahit pa ang ulan, ang may ‘sing munting mga kamay.

[cuatro_ojos]

The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost)

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

[Leyna]

A POEM FOR SWINGERS, A POEM FOR THE PLAYGIRLS OF THE UNIVERSE

I like women who haven't lived with too many men.

I don't expect virginity but I simply prefer women

who haven't been rubbed raw by experience.

 

There is a quality about women who choose

men sparingly;

it appears in their walk

in their eyes

in their laughter and in their

gentle hearts.

 

Women who have had too many men

seem to choose the next one

out of revenge rather than with

feeling.

 

When you play the field selfishly everything

works against you:

one can't insist on love or

demand affection.

you're finally left with whatever

you have been willing to give

which often is:

nothing.

 

Some women are delicate things

some women are delicious and

wondrous.

 

If you want to piss on the sun

go ahead

but please leave them

alone.

 

- Charles Bukowski

[SaintPeter5858]

Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios

[Leyna]

When You Have Forgotten Sunday: The Love Story

 

And when you have forgotten the bright bedclothes on a Wednesday and a Saturday,

And most especially when you have forgotten Sunday —

When you have forgotten Sunday halves in bed,

Or me sitting on the front-room radiator in the limping afternoon

Looking off down the long street

To nowhere,

Hugged by my plain old wrapper of no-expectation

And nothing-I-have-to-do and I'm-happy-why?

And if-Monday-never-had-to-come —

When you have forgotten that, I say,

And how you swore, if somebody beeped the bell,

And how my heart played hopscotch if the telephone rang;

And how we finally went in to Sunday dinner,

That is to say, went across the front room floor to the ink-spotted table in the southwest corner

To Sunday dinner, which was always chicken and noodles

Or chicken and rice

And salad and rye bread and tea

And chocolate chip cookies —

I say, when you have forgotten that,

When you have forgotten my little presentiment

That the war would be over before they got to you;

And how we finally undressed and whipped out the light and flowed into bed,

And lay loose-limbed for a moment in the week-end

Bright bedclothes,

Then gently folded into each other —

When you have, I say, forgotten all that,

Then you may tell,

Then I may believe

You have forgotten me well.

by Gwendolyn Brooks

Edited July 1, 2011 by Leyna

[Leyna]

For women who are 'difficult' to love

you are a horse running alone

and he tries to tame you

compares you to an impossible highway

to a burning house

says you are blinding him

that he could never leave you

forget you

want anything but you

you dizzy him, you are unbearable

every woman before or after you

is doused in your name

you fill his mouth

his teeth ache with memory of taste

his body just a long shadow seeking yours

but you are always too intense

frightening in the way you want him

unashamed and sacrificial

he tells you that no man can live up to the one who

lives in your head

and you tried to change didn't you?

closed your mouth more

tried to be softer

prettier

less volatile, less awake

but even when sleeping you could feel

him travelling away from you in his dreams

so what did you want to do love

split his head open?

you can't make homes out of human beings

someone should have already told you that

and if he wants to leave

then let him leave

you are terrifying

and strange and beautiful

something not everyone knows how to love

~ warsan shire, poem eleven

[immatureandunstable]

I'm Explaining a Few Things

Pablo Neruda

 

You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?

and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?

and the rain repeatedly spattering

its words and drilling them full

of apertures and birds?

I'll tell you all the news.

 

I lived in a suburb,

a suburb of Madrid, with bells,

and clocks, and trees.

 

From there you could look out

over Castille's dry face:

a leather ocean.

My house was called

the house of flowers, because in every cranny

geraniums burst: it was

a good-looking house

with its dogs and children.

Remember, Raul?

Eh, Rafel? Federico, do you remember

from under the ground

my balconies on which

the light of June drowned flowers in your mouth?

Brother, my brother!

Everything

loud with big voices, the salt of merchandises,

pile-ups of palpitating bread,

the stalls of my suburb of Arguelles with its statue

like a drained inkwell in a swirl of hake:

oil flowed into spoons,

a deep baying

of feet and hands swelled in the streets,

metres, litres, the sharp

measure of life,

stacked-up fish,

the texture of roofs with a cold sun in which

the weather vane falters,

the fine, frenzied ivory of potatoes,

wave on wave of tomatoes rolling down the sea.

 

And one morning all that was burning,

one morning the bonfires

leapt out of the earth

devouring human beings—

and from then on fire,

gunpowder from then on,

and from then on blood.

Bandits with planes and Moors,

bandits with finger-rings and duchesses,

bandits with black friars spattering blessings

came through the sky to k*ll children

and the blood of children ran through the streets

without fuss, like children's blood.

 

Jackals that the jackals would despise,

stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out,

vipers that the vipers would abominate!

 

Face to face with you I have seen the blood

of Spain tower like a tide

to drown you in one wave

of pride and knives!

 

Treacherous

generals:

see my dead house,

look at broken Spain:

from every house burning metal flows

instead of flowers,

from every socket of Spain

Spain emerges

and from every dead child a rifle with eyes,

and from every crime bullets are born

which will one day find

the bull's eye of your hearts.

 

And you'll ask: why doesn't his poetry

speak of dreams and leaves

and the great volcanoes of his native land?

 

Come and see the blood in the streets.

Come and see

The blood in the streets.

Come and see the blood

In the streets!

[quinlanvos]

One of my favorites:

 

If you forget me - Pablo Neruda

 

I want you to know

one thing.

 

You know how this is:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ash

or the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you,

as if everything that exists,

aromas, light, metals,

were little boats

that sail

toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

 

Well, now,

if little by little you stop loving me

I shall stop loving you little by little.

 

If suddenly

you forget me

do not look for me,

for I shall already have forgotten you.

 

If you think it long and mad,

the wind of banners

that passes through my life,

and you decide

to leave me at the shore

of the heart where I have roots,

remember

that on that day,

at that hour,

I shall lift my arms

and my roots will set off

to seek another land.

 

But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,

in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine.

[SaintPeter5858]

Footprints in the Sand. The poem and its music

[SaintPeter5858]

Another touching poem for me is Rizal's "Mi Ultimo Adios"

[girlspankee]

It has to be Invictus.

[hornystudph]

Footprints in the Sand

Desiderata

poems by e.e. cummings

[pacey]

right now i am incredibly moved by pablo neruda's "sonnet xvii"

 

here's most of it:

 

i love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

 

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

 

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

[cocoy0]

Lourd De Veyra and Jim Libiran are reading poetry on air sa Chillax Radio. Salitan with songs such as Sylvia La Torre's "Alembong" and TVJ's Tough Hits. Nangangalahati na yata sila sa Cirilo Bautista collection ni Lourd.

[pacey]

pablo neruda's sonnet xvii remains my favorite, but today i can relate to this more:

 

IF YOU FORGET ME

 

I want you to know

one thing.

 

You know how this is:

if I look

at the crystal moon, at the red branch

of the slow autumn at my window,

if I touch

near the fire

the impalpable ash

or the wrinkled body of the log,

everything carries me to you,

as if everything that exists,

aromas, light, metals,

were little boats

that sail

toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

 

Well, now,

if little by little you stop loving me

I shall stop loving you little by little.

 

If suddenly

you forget me

do not look for me,

for I shall already have forgotten you.

 

If you think it long and mad,

the wind of banners

that passes through my life,

and you decide

to leave me at the shore

of the heart where I have roots,

remember

that on that day,

at that hour,

I shall lift my arms

and my roots will set off

to seek another land.

 

But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,

in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine.

[silvercross0816]

the Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

[Legato Bluesomers]

one century of verse

[Julianda]

Mark Twain's "All right, then, I'll go to hell"

[Guest nick fury]

The arrows turn, the swords repel, may nothing pierce this mortal shell.

[Guest nick fury]

A whim, a thought and more is sought. Awake my mind, thy will be wrought.

[Guest nick fury]

Sheath this feet in the driving gale, make swift these legs or land I sail.

[Macdknife]

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 skilfully, 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 color 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

[Leyna]

I have this heart and

it is noisy and a little clumsy

and it can no longer speak

your name beyond the first letter,

sounding like a hum, sounding like

an admission,

sounding like the electricity

in the fence that I wish would keep me

from missing you.

 

113 by Cassandra