What Poetry Moved You?

[Pinoymale]

The Road Not Taken

 

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 kept 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.

 

--Robert Frost--

[Guest Gelli®]

The Invitation

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer~

 

 

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for

and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened by life's betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us

to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty

every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,

Yes.”

It doesn't interest me

to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone

with yourself

and if you truly like the company you keep

in the empty moments.

Edited May 9, 2008 by Gelli®

[oropesa]

In the Desert

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said: "Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;

"But I like it

Because it is bitter,

And because it is my heart."

 

 

--Stephen Crane

[race]

poetry from edgar alan poe

[lemon]

come slowly, eden!

lips unused to thee,

bashful, sip thy jasmines,

as the fainting bee,

 

reaching late his flower,

round her chamber hums,

counts his nectars—enters,

and is lot in balms!

 

 

i suppose emily dickinson was one horny lady back then.

[Guest Gelli®]

If You Forget Me - Madonna

 

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

Ahh my love, ahh 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

[lemon]

actually, that poem is pablo neruda's, recited by madonna in the soundtrack of the movie il postino (the postman)... and here's one more from the master.

 

i crave your mouth, your voice, your hair

 

don't go far off, not even for a day

don't go far off, not even for a day, because...

because... i don't know how to say it: a day is long

and i will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

 

don't leave me, even for an hour, because

then the little drops of anguish will all run together,

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift

into me, choking my lost heart.

 

oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.

don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

 

because in that moment you'll have gone so far

i'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,

will you come back? will you leave me here, dying?

 

pablo neruda

[Guest Gelli®]

actually, that poem is pablo neruda's, recited by madonna in the soundtrack of the movie il postino (the postman)... and here's one more from the master.

 

salamat for letting me know. i was listening to her CD the other day and i loved it. :cool:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man & Woman

-by Victor Hugo-

 

Man is the most elevated of creatures,

Woman the most sublime of ideals.

God made for man a throne; for woman an altar.

The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies.

 

Man is the brain, Woman, the heart.

The brain creates light, the heart, love.

Light engenders, love resurrects.

 

Because of reason Man is strong.

Because of tears Woman is invincible.

Reason is convincing, tears, moving.

 

Man is capable of all heroism,

Woman of all martyrdom.

Heroism ennobles, martyrdom sublimates.

 

Man has supremacy,

Woman, preference.

Supremacy is strength, preference is the right.

 

Man is a genius,

Woman, an angel.

Genius is immeasurable, the angel indefinable.

 

The aspiration of man is supreme glory,

The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue.

Glory creates all that is great; virtue, all that is divine.

 

Man is a code,

Woman a gospel.

A code corrects; the gospel perfects.

 

Man thinks, Woman dreams.

To think is to have a worm in the brain, to dream is to have a halo on the brow.

 

Man is an ocean, Woman a lake.

The ocean has the adorning pearl, the lake, dazzling poetry.

 

Man is the flying eagle, Woman, the singing nightingale.

To fly is to conquer space. To sing is to conquer the soul.

 

Man is a temple, Woman a shrine.

Before the temple we discover ourselves, before the shrine we kneel.

In short, man is found where earth finishes, woman where heaven begins.

[Kakita Yoshi]

Weep said the sun,

stare at oblivion,

enjoy the pleasant darkness ever after,

that never again to enjoy,

light, laughter, and joy,

weep at the sun.

[JHP]

Dreams are rosy images on water

and fragile soap bubbles.

 

You touch them with reality

and the bubbles break apart

into a thousand pieces of nothing.

 

And you stir the water

with circumstance

and the images waver

and dissolve.

 

There's just reality.

There's only circumstance.

 

- Mine, written at age 16, thinking about my father on the night of his birthday

[mwah]

Ito ay isang pagsalin ng Desiderata ni Max Ehrmann sa wikang Pilipino.

 

 

MINIMITHI

Pagsalin ni Pete Lacaba

 

Lumakad nang mahinahon

Sa gitna ng ingay at pagkukumahog, at alalahanin

Ang kapayapaang maaaring makuha sa katahimikan.

 

Walang isinusuko hanggat maaari,

Pakitunguhan nang mabuti ang lahat ng tao.

 

Sabihin ang iyong katotohanan nang tahimik at malinaw;

At makinig sa iba, kahit sa nakayayamot at mangmang;

Sila man ay may kasaysayan.

 

Iwasan ang mga taong mabunganga at palaaway,

Sila'y ikinaiinis ng kalooban.

 

Kung ihahambing mo ang sarili sa iba,

Baka yumabang ka o maghinanakit; sapagkat laging

May lilitaw na mas mahusay o mas mahina sa iyo.

 

Ikalugod ang iyong mga tagumpay at saka mga balak.

 

Manatiling interesado sa iyong hanapbuhay,

Gaano man kaaba; ito'y tunay na ari-arian

Sa pabago-bagong kapalaran ng panahon.

 

Maging maingat sa iyong negosyo;

Sapagkat ang daigdig ay puno ng panlilinlang.

Subalit huwag maging bulag sa kabutihang makikita.

Maraming nagsisikap na makamit ang mga adhikain; at sa lahat ng dako,

Ang buhay ay puno ng kabayanihan.

 

Maging tapat sa sarili. Higit sa lahat, huwag magkunwari.

Huwag ding libakin ang pag-ibig:

Sapagkat sa harap ng lahat ng kahungkagan at kawalang-pag- asa,

Ito'y lagi't laging sumisibol, tulad ng damo.

 

Tanggapin nang mabuti ang mga payo ng katandaan,

Buong-giliw na isuko ang mga bagay-bagay ng kabataan.

 

Pag-ibayuhin ang lakas ng loob,

Ito'y pananggalang laban sa biglaang kasawian.

Subalit huwag ikaligalig ang mga haka-haka.

 

Maraming pangamba ang likha ng pagod at pangungulila.

 

Bagamat kailangan ang sapat na disiplina,

Maging magiliw sa sarili.

 

Ikaw ay supling ng sanlibutan.

Katulad ng bituin,

May liwanag kang taglay.

At anupaman ang iyong gawin,

Itong sanlibutan ay narito

Sa paligid mo.

 

Kung gayon, pakisamahan ang Panginoon,

Anuman ang pananaw mo sa kanya.

At anuman ang iyong pinagkakaabalahan at minimithi,

Sa maingay na kalituhan ng buhay,

Pakisamahan ang iyong kaluluwa.

 

Sa kabila ng lahat ng pagkukunwari, kabagutan, at

gumuhong pangarap,

Maganda pa rin ang daigdig.

 

Mag-ingat. Sikaping lumigaya.

[moichi]

Without dreams of hope and pride a man will die

Though his flesh still moves his heart sleeps in the grave

Without land man never dreams cause he's not free

All men need a place to live with dignity

 

Take the crumbs from starving soldiers, they won't die

Lord said not by bread alone does man survive

Take the food from hungry children, they won't cry

Food alone won't ease teh hunger in their eyes

 

Every child belongs to mankind's family

Children are the fruit of all humanity

Let them feel the love of all the human race

Touch them with the warmth, the strength of that embrace

 

Give me love and understanding, I will thrive

As my children grow my dreams come alive

Those who hear the cries of children, God will bless

I will always hear the Children of Sanchez

 

Words and Music by Chuck Mangione

[eternalchaos]

Pippa Passes - by Robert Browning

 

here's a passage from it:

 

 

"...

The year's at the spring,

 

And day's at the morn;

 

Morning's at seven;

 

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

 

The lark's on the wing;

 

The snail's on the thorn;

 

God's in his Heaven -

 

All's right with the world! "

[lemon]

i find no peace, and yet i make no war:

and fear, and hope: and burn, and i am ice:

and fly above the sky, and fall to earth,

and clutch at nothing, and embrace the world.

 

one imprisons me, who neither frees nor jails me,

nor keeps me to herself nor slips the noose:

and love does not destroy me, and does not loose me,

wishes me not to live, but does not remove my bar.

 

i see without eyes, and have no tongue, but cry:

and long to perish, yet i beg for aid:

and hold myself in hate, and love another.

 

i feed on sadness, laughing weep:

death and life displease me equally...

 

134, il canzoniere, se è stato chiamato "voi non imparano mai..."

[azayco]

For inspiration, I turn to Robert Frost.

 

To curb my optimism, I read Emily Dickinson.

[lemon]

morning (love sonnet XXVII)

 

naked you are simple as one of your hands;

smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round.

you've moon-lines, apple pathways

naked you are slender as a naked grain of wheat.

 

naked you are blue as a night in Cuba;

you've vines and stars in your hair.

naked you are spacious and yellow

as summer in a golden church.

 

naked you are tiny as one of your nails;

curved, subtle, rosy, till the day is born

and you withdraw to the underground world.

 

as if down a long tunnel of clothing and of chores;

your clear light dims, gets dressed, drops its leaves,

and becomes a naked hand again.

 

ahhh, neruda... no one can perk up an otherwise gloomy morning better than you!

[clam_eater]

correction lang: "relay to me ye verse" dapat

prose ay short stories, novels, works of fiction.

verse tula

[nyok]

and this is my happy ending by kevin staniec

[oropesa]

When the Cat Stole the Milk

 

Well there it is. There's nothing to do.

The cat steals the milk and it's gone.

Then the cat steals you, and you're found

Days later, with milk on your face.

 

That implies that you become whoever

Steals. The trees steal a man,

And an old birch become his wife

And they live together in the woods.

 

Some of us have always wanted

God to steal us. Then our friends

Would call each other, and print

Posters, and we would never be found.

 

--Robert Bly

--------------

 

so there's nothing to do

but wait for someone

to steal you.

[azayco]

to a young child

by Gerald Manley Hopkins

 

Márgarét, áre you gr’eving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves, like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Áh! ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you w’ll weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It is the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

[lemon]

the awakening

 

in the early dawn of happiness

you gave me three kisses

so that i would wake up

to this moment of love

 

i tried to remember in my heart

what I’d dreamt about

during the night

before i became aware

of this moving

of life

 

i found my dreams

but the moon took me away

it lifted me up to the firmament

and suspended me there

i saw how my heart had fallen

on your path

singing a song

 

between my love and my heart

things were happening which

slowly slowly

made me recall everything

 

you amuse me with your touch

although i can’t see your hands.

you have kissed me with tenderness

although I haven’t seen your lips

you are hidden from me.

 

but it is you who keeps me alive

 

perhaps the time will come

when you will tire of kisses

i shall be happy

even for insults from you

i only ask that you

keep some attention on me.

 

 

today's daily dose of rumi

[lemon]

life & death

 

look at love

how it tangles

with the one fallen in love

 

look at spirit

how it fuses with earth

giving it new life

 

why are you so busy

with this or that or good or bad

pay attention to how things blend

 

why talk about all

the known and the unknown

see how the unknown merges into the known

 

why think seperately

of this life and the next

when one is born from the last

 

look at your heart and tongue

one feels but deaf and dumb

the other speaks in words and signs

 

look at water and fire

earth and wind

enemies and friends all at once

 

the wolf and the lamb

the lion and the deer

far away yet together

 

look at the unity of this

spring and winter

manifested in the equinox

 

you too must mingle my friends

since the earth and the sky

are mingled just for you and me

 

be like sugarcane

sweet yet silent

don't get mixed up with bitter words

 

my beloved grows

right out of my own heart

how much more union can there be

 

yan para sa 'yo... di yan ksp si rumi. the poor man's wife died when he wrote that. peace, sheila!

[baratobama]

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

 

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.

 

ooo000ooo

 

Nothing like a classic to get you going.

[naked_angel]

TAGUBILIN AT HABILIN

Ni Jose F. Lacaba

 

Mabuhay ka, kaibigan!

Mabuhay ka!

Iyan ang una't huli kong

Tagubilin at habilin:

Mabuhay ka!

 

Sa edad kong ito, marami akong maibibigay na payo.

Mayaman ako sa payo.

 

Maghugas ka ng kamay bago kumain.

Maghugas ka ng kamay pagkatapos kumain.

Pero huwag kang maghuhugas ng kamay para lang makaiwas sa sisi.

Huwag kang maghuhugas ng kamay kung may inaapi

Na kaya mong tulungan.

 

Paupuin sa bus ang matatanda at ang mga may kalong na sanggol.

Magpasalamat sa nagmamagandang-loob.

Matuto sa karanasan ng matatanda

Pero huwag magpatali sa kaisipang makaluma.

 

Huwag piliting matulog kung ayaw kang dalawin ng antok.

Huwag pag-aksayahan ng panahon ang walang utang na loob.

Huwag makipagtalo sa bobo at baka ka mapagkamalang bobo.

Huwag bubulong-bulong sa mga panahong kailangang sumigaw.

 

Huwag kang manalig sa bulung-bulungan.

Huwag kang papatay-patay sa ilalim ng pabitin.

Huwag kang tutulog-tulog sa pansitan.

 

Umawit ka kung nag-iisa sa banyo.

Umawit ka sa piling ng barkada.

Umawit ka kung nalulungkot.

Umawit ka kung masaya.

 

Ingat lang.

 

Huwag kang aawit ng “My Way” sa videoke bar at baka ka mabaril.

Huwag kang magsindi ng sigarilyo sa gasolinahan.

Dahan-dahan sa matatarik na landas.

Dahan-dahan sa malulubak na daan.

 

Higit sa lahat, inuulit ko:

 

Mabuhay ka, kaibigan!

Mabuhay ka!

Iyan ang una't huli kong

Tagubilin at habilin:

Mabuhay ka!

 

Maraming bagay sa mundo na nakakadismaya.

Mabuhay ka.

Maraming problema ang mundo na wala na yatang lunas.

Mabuhay ka.

 

Sa hirap ng panahon, sa harap ng kabiguan,

Kung minsan ay gusto mo nang mamatay.

Gusto mong maglaslas ng pulso kung sawi sa pag-ibig.

Gusto mong uminom ng lason kung wala nang makain.

Gusto mong magbigti kung napakabigat ng mga pasanin.

Gusto mong pasabugin ang bungo mo kung maraming gumugulo sa utak.

 

Huwag kang patatalo. Huwag kang susuko.

 

Narinig mo ang sinasabi ng awitin:

“Gising at magbangon sa pagkagupiling,

Sa pagkakatulog na lubhang mahimbing.”

Gumising ka kung hinaharana ka ng pag-ibig.

Bumangon ka kung nananawagan ang kapuspalad.

 

Ang sabi ng iba: “Ang matapang ay walang-takot lumaban.”

Ang sabi ko naman: Ang tunay na matapang ay lumalaban

Kahit natatakot.

 

Lumaban ka kung inginungodngod ang nguso mo sa putik.

Bumalikwas ka kung tinatapak-tapakan ka.

Buong-tapang mong ipaglaban ang iyong mga prinsipyo

Kahit hindi ka sigurado na agad-agad kang mananalo.

 

Mabuhay ka, kaibigan!

Mabuhay ka!

Iyan ang una't huli kong

Tagubilin at habilin:

Mabuhay ka!

[lemon]

if you were coming in the fall,

i’d brush the summer by

with half a smile and half a spurn,

as housewives do a fly.

 

if i could see you in a year,

i’d wind the months in balls,

and put them each in separate drawers,

until their time befalls.

 

if only centuries delayed,

i’d count them on my hand,

subtracting till my fingers dropped

into van diemen’s land.

 

if certain, when this life was out,

that yours and mine should be,

i’d toss it yonder like a rind,

and taste eternity.

 

but now, all ignorant of the length

of time’s uncertain wing,

it goads me, like the goblin bee,

that will not state its sting.

 

 

emily dickinson always explains a woman... or is it a man?