Poems

[Guest]

Yeah I am on a bit of a literary kick.
Gives me a break from binary bits.

Some favorites of mine
To make grampster partake of  wine.

---

 THE RAVEN


by Edgar Allan Poe
(1845)


   Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
   While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
                 Only this, and nothing more."

   Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
   Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
   From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
                 Nameless here for evermore.

   And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
   So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
   "'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
                 This it is, and nothing more."

   Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
   But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
   And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"- here I opened wide the door;-
                 Darkness there, and nothing more.

   Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
       fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
   But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
   And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"-
                 Merely this, and nothing more.

   Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
   "Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
   Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-
                 'Tis the wind and nothing more."

   Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and
       flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
   Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed
       he;
   But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
                 Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no
       craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
                 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

   Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;
   For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
   Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door-
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
                 With such name as "Nevermore."

   But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
   Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered-
   Till I scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown
       before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
                 Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

   Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
   Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
   Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
                 Of 'Never- nevermore'."

   But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and
       door;
   Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
   Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
                 Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

   This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
   This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
   On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,
                 She shall press, ah, nevermore!

   Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
   "Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee- by these angels he
       hath sent thee
   Respite- respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
                 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

   "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!- prophet still, if bird or
       devil!-
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
   Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-
   On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore-
Is there- is there balm in Gilead?- tell me- tell me, I implore!"
                 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

   "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil- prophet still, if bird or
       devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore-
   Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
   It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
                 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

   "Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked,
       upstarting-
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
   Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
   Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
       door!"
                 Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

   And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
   And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
   And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the
       floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
                 Shall be lifted- nevermore!

[Guest]

ANNABEL LEE


by Edgar Allan Poe
(1849)


    It was many and many a year ago,
       In a kingdom by the sea,
    That a maiden there lived whom you may know
       By the name of ANNABEL LEE;--
    And this maiden she lived with no other thought
       Than to love and be loved by me.

    She was a child and I was a child,
       In this kingdom by the sea,
    But we loved with a love that was more than love--
       I and my Annabel Lee--
    With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
       Coveted her and me.

    And this was the reason that, long ago,
       In this kingdom by the sea,
    A wind blew out of a cloud by night
       Chilling my Annabel Lee;
    So that her high-born kinsman came
       And bore her away from me,
    To shut her up in a sepulchre
       In this kingdom by the sea.

    The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
       Went envying her and me:--
    Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
       In this kingdom by the sea)
    That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling
       And killing my Annabel Lee.

    But our love it was stronger by far than the love
       Of those who were older than we--
       Of many far wiser than we-
    And neither the angels in Heaven above,
       Nor the demons down under the sea,
    Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
       Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:--

    For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
       Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
    And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
       Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
    And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
    Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
       In her sepulchre there by the sea--
       In her tomb by the side of the sea.

[Guest]

Rudyard Kipling

Cold Iron

Gold is for the mistress -- silver for the maid --
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade."
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of them all."

So he made rebellion 'gainst the King his liege,
Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.
"Nay!" said the cannoneer on the castle wall,
"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- shall be master of you all!"

Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,
When the cruel cannon-balls laid 'em all along;
He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,
And Iron -- Cold Iron -- was master of it all!

Yet his King spake kindly (ah, how kind a Lord!)
"What if I release thee now and give thee back thy sword?"
"Nay!" said the Baron, "mock not at my fall,
For Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of men all."

"Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown --
Halters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown."
"As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small,
For Iron -- Cold Iron -- must be master of men all!"

Yet his King made answer (few such Kings there be!)
"Here is Bread and here is Wine -- sit and sup with me.
Eat and drink in Mary's Name, the whiles I do recall
How Iron -- Cold Iron -- can be master of men all!"

He took the Wine and blessed it. He blessed and brake the Bread.
With His own Hands He served Them, and presently He said:
"See! These Hands they pierced with nails, outside My city wall,
Show Iron -- Cold Iron -- to be master of men all."

"Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong.
Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong.
I forgive thy treason -- I redeem thy fall --
For Iron -- Cold Iron -- must be master of men all!"

"Crowns are for the valiant -- sceptres for the bold!
Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold!"
"Nay!" said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,
"But Iron -- Cold Iron -- is master of men all!
Iron out of Calvary is master of men all!"

[Guest]

Rudyard Kipling

If


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

Apropos the season. Pulled from www.njcsd.org. Author unknown. -NF.

A DIFFERENT CHRISTMAS POEM

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and dark of the night,
a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
standing watch over me, and my wife and child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light.
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at Pearl Harbor on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of Nam,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.

"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?"
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us and never forget".
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.

[bermbuster]

Choose Something Like a Star

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud-
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something! And it says, "I burn."
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

--Robert Frost

[LawDog]

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


Half a league, half a league,
 Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
 Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
 Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
 Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
 Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
 Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
 Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
 All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
 Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
 Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
 Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
 Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
 All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
 Noble six hundred.
 
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson


 
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

--William Blake

LawDog

[LawDog]

If you had the choice of two women to wed,
(Though of course the idea is quite absurd)
And the first from her heels to her dainty head
Was charming in every sense of the word:
And yet in the past (I grieve to state),
She never had been exactly "straight".

And the second -- she was beyond all cavil,
A model of virtue, I must confess;
And yet, alas! she was dull as the devil,
And rather a dowd in the way of dress;
Though what she was lacking in wit and beauty,
She more than made up for in "sense of duty".

Now, suppose you must wed, and make no blunder,
And either would love you, and let you win her --
Which of the two would you choose, I wonder,
The stolid saint or the sparkling sinner?

--Robert Service


When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husband, each confirms the other's tale --
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

Man, a bear in most relations-worm and savage otherwise, --
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.

Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger --- Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue --  to the scandal of The Sex!

But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity -- must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions -- not in these her honour dwells.
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.

She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.

She is wedded to convictions -- in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies! --
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

Unprovoked and awful charges --  even so the she-bear fights,
Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons -- even so the cobra bites,
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
And the victim writhes in anguish -- like the Jesuit with the squaw!

So it cames that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice -- which no woman understands.

And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern -- shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.

--Rudyard Kipling


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas

LawDog

[LawDog]

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain --and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

--Robert Frost


Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupation,
That is know as the children's hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper and then a silence:
Yet I know by their merry eyes,
They are plotting and planning together,
To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
O'er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me,
They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
Is not a match for you all?

I have you fast in my fortress
And will not let you depart,
But put you down in the dungeon
In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

LawDog

[matis]

A few that come to mind:

 Dover Beach

The sea is calm to-night,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;  on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The sea of faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

- Matthew Arnold
____________________________________________________

 
Daddy
 

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time---
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one grey toe
Big as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish town
Scraped flat by the roller
Of wars, wars, wars.
But the name of the town is common.
My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.
So I never could tell where you
Put your foot, your root,
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
I could hardly speak.
I thought every German was you.
And the language obscene

An engine, an engine
Chuffing me off like a Jew.
A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.
I began to talk like a Jew.
I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna
Are not very pure or true.
With my gypsy ancestress and my weird luck
And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack
I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of *you*,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue.
Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You---

Not God but a swastika
So black no sky could squeak through.
Every woman adores a Fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,
In the picture I have of you,
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot
But no less a devil for that, no not
Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two---
The vampire who said he was you
and drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat, black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always *knew* it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

 Sylvia Plath

____________________________________________________

 Ozymandias of Egypt
 
I MET a traveller from an antique land   
Who said:Two vast and trunkless legs of stone   
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,   
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown   
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command            5
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read   
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,   
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.   
And on the pedestal these words appear:   
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:     10
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"   
Nothing beside remains: round the decay   
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,   
The lone and level sands stretch far away.   

Percy Bysshe Shelley

_______________________________________________



The Unknown Citizen      
by W. H. Auden

(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)


He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,

For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,

(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in a hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace:  when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.

Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.


W. H. Auden




matis

[grampster]

An impossible act to follow, but here goes....

Midnight Thoughts
    grampster

My verse wanders
from black
to light.
Sometimes
it rhymes.
Often not.

Playing with words
and numbers
and lines
and meanings
and hidden humor
and lectures
to the higher side
of the enlightened
civilized mind.

I am myself
a contradiction.
A mirror of the
lizard that changes.
What would he do
when consulting
a mirror?

For a vision
of what I am
is suddenly
reflected by the
background
into which I
try to blend
and I discover
I am only what I
see,
not what I think?

Judging is  in the
seeing not the
knowing?
and that is the
the painful folly
that we are liars
to the end.
Even to ourselves?

[grampster]

"Theresa and the Bank Robber"
       grampster  1991

He marches straight
to the window.
Dew sparkles from his
upper lip.
Brows curled in thoughtful
frown as if
preoccupied, he wonders
why he's here.

Engine of fury clutched
in sweaty hand he
mumbles haltingly
the words of fright,
to haunt her future
days and
nights.

Quickly he exits
a flurry of cloak
and clatter of
greasy boots,
leaving behind stunned
wide eyed
innocents.

His crime compounded
by hurt
and confusion,
memory of fear;
of family, made
more intense by
sense of loss
and helplesness.

Time passes
but
a sense of reckless
expectation
nibbles at her
outside edge
as each strange
face intrudes.

But as cork dulls
the sharpest knife
the memory limps
to faded
fables,
embelished
for the little ones
at Gramma's knee.

A halt, a
pause.
Can it truly be?
Did it happen
that day
so long ago?
Or was it just a memory?

[grampster]

Gifts
    grampster

Poetry is the measure of a man.
for it purges the soul of its
anguish..
or joy.
Poetry brings forth the infernal
fires of creativity
for it makes you think or merely
caress the keyboard
and words appear
incidental to
thought.
Either way
or no way.
Up and down the keyboard
random thoughts.
Issues of the day.

The bane of poetry
those schooled in the parameters
of iambic pentameter.
Of all the ways of
formal writing.
For it is indeed no
good
unless the literati
are pleased.
But my soul is disturbed not
by those who judge merit.
For my verse makes my heart
soar.
And that indeed is what counts,
indeed.

The verse loosens the cords
that bind a man
to earth.
Freedom of the creator
flows through fingertips
cramped by correction and
doubt.
Not qualified!
Not qualified!
Echo through the chambers
of the mind.
But smilingly placed on
paper,
nonetheless.

Old lessons learned
in dusty past.
Teachers of right and wrong.
Memories of forced words
learned
by dictums tried and true;
to be recalled by
flowing verse
learned nonetheless.
Eager for acceptance,
fearful of rejection.
Memory.
Poetry is the measure of a man.
Freedom for the expression
of his joy or doom.

[matis]

Grampster,


Marriage and family counseling, general wisdom for whatever ails you -- and now this?



I posted poems that I love, but written by others.


You posted poems that you yourself wrote.



I bend my knee.




matis

[grampster]

Matis,

     Your words are kind and conjures up a smile.  I've never shared my poetry
with anyone before.  

Thank you.

[grampster]

Requiem for a Fetus
     grampster  1992

Awareness intrudes.
Like a persistant
mosquito buzzing
casually 'round
the ear.

Warmth Soft
Comfort Round
Buzz Gurgle
Rock and Sway

Feelings Startle
Sound Thought
Move
Blink Urges
Wetness  and Stretches

Down Up Lick
Suck Touch
Choose! Choose?
Choice?!
Go! Stay?
Die.........

[grampster]

Getting up Early
    grampster  May 1991

Warm and sultry comes
the day.
Heralds in feathers
cry out in
happiness.
Wisps of mists creep
ethereal 'tween the
houses.
Smell of life brings
eddies to the
brain.
Body feels as if to
burst
in song and praise
of Him who spoke
it so.

Padding of barefeet
on concrete
cracked and
crumbled.
Wetness and cool
runs to knee and thigh.
Twinkling dew and shaft
of early sun
begins to edge the
'morn with
reality.
Car noises and barking
dogs bring thoughts
to home and
steaming brew.
Same time
Same place
Next year.

[grampster]

American Nighmare
    grampster  1992

witness pontificating
polyglot of suits
and ties
striving to drive home
self serving mush
called management

products of sweating
brows and quivering
muscles take second
seat to charts
and graphs
proliferated by finger
pointing false lords

personalities and warmth
replaced by cold
thumb tacks on
maps of corporate
flow charts to be
changed on whim

does the seat
sit
window slide
shoe fit
or worker pride
no matter its your hide
no one cares if you died

replacing face to
face
human interacation
are vcrs and memos
spouting loyalty and
corporate pride

courage of conviction
gives way
to bureaucratic
feifdoms
built in
a kingdom that
never was

crunching numbers herald the
beginning of the end
wake up before chips
replace us all
even pin stripe
suits

[grampster]

...and finally, I shall burden you no more this beautiful season after one more.

"To Gary As He Embarks Upon His 50th Year-Always Older Than Me.  (plus he has a
glass eye)  49 Years And A Bottle Of Rum."

        grampster 1992

On ode to
a belly
so sleek
and so cute.

If you could
only speak
but you're
a mute.

Bearing silent
witness
to profligate
ways.

Silent Witness
you say?
How Cute!
No way Jose.

It jiggles
and gurgles
and softly
sways.

Oops, there
goes the
heart!
You finally pays.  

[Guest]

Very nice!

[Jamisjockey]

--Robert Frost



LawDog

'nuff said.

Lovers, forget your love,
  And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
  And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil
  Was melted down at noon,
And the cagèd yellow bird
  Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,
  He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by,
  To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,
  Concerned with ice and snow,
Dead weeds and unmated birds,
  And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,
  He gave the sash a shake,
As witness all within
  Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed
  To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
  And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside
  And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the breeze
  A hundred miles away.

-Robert Frost
"Wind and Window flower"

[grampster]

C'mon folks.  I've hung it out there.  I've never shared my poetry with anyone.  I've never had the nerve. I don't know if I dare, ever, to share it again.  What say you?

[matis]

 I've never shared my poetry with anyone.  I've never had the nerve.

I still don't.




matis

[grampster]

Matis,

It is a scary thing,
laying your soul out for
stripping.
One's head is crammed
with urgent things.
Needing to be said.

Yet fear stiffles
all.
Too many are
the critics,
yet with nothing
to offer in its
stead.

Anger and love
so close to
the surface.
alike in many
ways.

Yearning to be
undestood,
yet not able
to bridge the
gap.
Hope!

[SMLE]

A bit if my own work.

Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps

Dedicated to ALL the heroes of D-Day
By Sean Rodgers

Just outside the Pearly gates, the golden pavement stops
And there stands a little bar that serves Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps.
 
At a table in one corner, Three young men are drinking.
One moment they are talking, another they are thinking.

Each one has a story about that dreadful day,
When each of them arrived here by his own unpleasant way.

Joe was from Kentucky, his father tilled the soil
And hoped for better for his son than a life of endless toil.

Joe's end was fairly clean, from a rifle shot,
A heavy Mauser bullet don't slow down for no steel pot.

Tommy was from London town, a Cockney born and bred,
He drove a double decker bus to keep his family fed.

Tommy's end was rougher, a rather messy fate,
When he stepped into the flight path of that whistlin' Eighty-eight.

Fritz was from Thruringia where his father ran a bank,
His mother was pious soul who never smoked or drank.

Fritz was in a bunker he thought was out of reach,
But not from sixteen inchers standing off the beach.

Each one had a story, each one had a name,
And even with their differences, they were pretty much the same.

So we'll sing Ich Hatte einen Kameraden, play Last Post and Taps,
And drink a toast to heroes with Whiskey, Gin and Schnapps!