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.