Two favourite poems.

[Mike Sales]

Two of my favourite poems. I hope they give as much pleasure to others as they do to me.

They Flee From Me
By Sir Thomas Wyatt
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.

Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall sweetly did me kiss
And softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”

It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness,
And she also, to use newfangleness.
But since that I so kindly am served
I would fain know what she hath deserved.

It has been said that this is about Ann Boleyn.

Fire and Ice
By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

[Mick F]

My favourite is this, though a lyric to a well-known song,
Poem nonetheless, and always brings a tear to my eyes when I read it.

I know that the evening's empire has returned into sand
And is vanished from my hand
And has left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me
I'm branded on my feet
I have no one here to meet
And the ancient empty streets are too dead for dreaming.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can't feel to grip
My toes are too numb to step
They’re waiting only for my boot-heels to be wandering
I'm ready to go anywhere
I'm ready for to fade into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way
And I promise to go under it.

Although you might hear laughing, spinning swinging
Madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone
It's just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
And I wouldn't pay it any mind
It's just a shadow that you're seeing that he's chasing.

Take me disappearing down the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
And the haunted, frightened trees
Way down to a windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
I want to dance beneath a diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
And circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
I want to forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and nobody knows where I’m going
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle of the morning I'll come following.

[reohn2]

I wandered lonely as a cloud
And spoke to myself aloud
What sayist thou' aloud?
I speakest not to self but a cloud.

My conversation with self alone
Questioned sanity of flesh and bone
Not flesh and bone but mind is asked of
As there be no one else about to ask of

And so to my mind I ask of
Are clouds upto the task of
To what I hear a reply
But 'tis not clouds that do reply

[Mike Sales]

I wandered lonely as a cloud
And spoke to myself aloud
What sayist thou' aloud?
I speakest not to self but a cloud......

Who by?

[reohn2]

I wandered lonely as a cloud
And spoke to myself aloud
What sayist thou' aloud?
I speakest not to self but a cloud......

Who by?

Me.
I just wrote it.

[reohn2]

My favourite is this, though a lyric to a well-known song,
Poem nonetheless, and always brings a tear to my eyes when I read it.

I know that the evening's empire has returned into sand
And is vanished from my hand
And has left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me
I'm branded on my feet
I have no one here to meet
And the ancient empty streets are too dead for dreaming.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can't feel to grip
My toes are too numb to step
They’re waiting only for my boot-heels to be wandering
I'm ready to go anywhere
I'm ready for to fade into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way
And I promise to go under it.

Although you might hear laughing, spinning swinging
Madly across the sun
It's not aimed at anyone
It's just escaping on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facing
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time
It's just a ragged clown behind
And I wouldn't pay it any mind
It's just a shadow that you're seeing that he's chasing.

Take me disappearing down the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
And the haunted, frightened trees
Way down to a windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
I want to dance beneath a diamond sky with one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
And circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
I want to forget about today until tomorrow.

Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I'm not sleepy and nobody knows where I’m going
Hey ! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle of the morning I'll come following.

Ah! Mr Dylan.
Excellent!

[Mick F]

I wrote this one earlier.

I just took a ride
In a Silver Machine
And I’m still feeling mean!
Do you wanna ride,
See yourself going by,
The other side of the sky?

I’ve got a Silver Machine!
It flies sideways through time!
It’s an electric line.
It’s your Zodiac sign.
I’ve got a Silver Machine!

I said I just took a ride
In a Silver Machine
And I’m still feeling mean!
It flies
Out of a dream.
It’s antiseptically clean!
It turns everything green!
I’ve got a Silver Machine!

[reohn2]

I wrote this one earlier.

I just took a ride
In a Silver Machine
And I’m still feeling mean!
Do you wanna ride,
See yourself going by,
The other side of the sky?

I’ve got a Silver Machine!
It flies sideways through time!
It’s an electric line.
It’s your Zodiac sign.
I’ve got a Silver Machine!

I said I just took a ride
In a Silver Machine
And I’m still feeling mean!
It flies
Out of a dream.
It’s antiseptically clean!
It turns everything green!
I’ve got a Silver Machine!

Halkwind

[reohn2]

Time dreams
Are memories
Come from the earth
And return to the earth

In the reunion
Our pulse
Comes from the sky
And returns to the sky
Reflections of ancient sunlight
Time dreams
In human form
And reformed
Life
In shapes of shadows
Of industriously darkened
Reformed humans
And behaviors
Morality
Decided by punishment
Or reward
Punishment
Or reward
Decided by obediences
Willingness to believe
Using the lie
Like a drug
For the heart
Silenting questions
And feelings
With answers of fear
And doubt
Taking the mind
Through trips
Some self pity
Some anger
Some blame
Disconnected from time dreams
The medicine of dream time
Encoded in the DNA of human form
Spiritual
Umbilical cords
Inside
Human consciousness

Dream time
A place of being
Outside of us
Inside of us
Where we can
Unhide our hiddens

Straight talk
With ancestor memories
Free without judgment
Answers to questions
And feelings
Dream time
Is part of our pulse
Memories in the shapes
Of life
We are a part of that
The breath part

Our memories
Comes from the earth
And return to the earth
In the reunion
Our pulse comes from the sky
And returns to the sky

Dream time
A place of being
Outside of us
Inside of us
Where we can
Unhide our hiddens
Straight talk
With ancestor memories
Free without judgment
Answers to questions
And feelings

Memories in the shapes of life
We are part of that
The breath part

John Trudell
Can be heard performed here:-
https://youtu.be/fRTMe_EPgSM

[reohn2]

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”

Rumi

[100%JR]

Roses are Red
So is Bacon
Poems are hard
Bacon.

On a serious note,always liked this but only recently found out it was written by Dylan:-

The eastern world it is explodin'
Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
You're old enough to kill but not for votin'
You don't believe in war, what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin'

But you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
Can't you feel the fears that I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'
I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin'
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation
Handful of Senators don't pass legislation
And marches alone can't bring integration
When human respect is disintegratin'
This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Think of all the hate there is in Red China
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space
But when your return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door-neighbor, but don't forget to say grace

And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Not sure if that or this is my favourite Dylan:-

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you can call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can really see the sky?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

[SimonCelsa]

I like the Johnny Cash version:

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liars chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I will keep myself
I would find a way

A bit morose though, you have to be in the right mood!

[100%JR]

I like the Johnny Cash version:

Powerful,powerful video

[reohn2]

I like the Johnny Cash version:

Powerful,powerful video

The disconnect is palpable....

[Audax67]

Audax in Excelsis

I've ridden that damned bike of mine for ever and a day,
I've seen all hours upon the clock slide up and slip away.
I've supped some horrid stuff in bars and greasy cafetarious,
And stamped in on the very dot with breath short and dispairious.

I mind when me and Bernie rode from Belfort to Tonnerre
And in a night as black as Hell got lost we knew not where
When in the dark a friendly light meant rest and food for weary us
And we rolled out on midnight all replete and gently beerious.

Remember how we climbed the road from river to the glow
And topped the summit over Dijon all spread out below
Our lights were dim, the night was old, we swooped down all precarious
And rode in cackling with the dawn, two daft baboons hilarious.

We rode through day, through night and noon, through snow and baking heat
O'er miles of gravel, holes and filth with frozen hands and feet
We ground up slopes no map could find against a wind imperious
For hour upon unending hour: man dear, it was not serious.

Four hundred once, with chums all young and strong but oh so kind;
Half-slaughtered by two hundred k I struggled on behind.
Three-fifty, and I climbed a hill, so crawling and laborious,
A butterfly flew through my wheel and exited still glorious.

I've crossed the Jura all alone, though someone else seemed nigh
And cracked with folk who were not there beneath a Breton sky
I've woven dozy on the road from side to side delirious
Then laid my chin upon the bars and snored like rhinocirious.

I've slept beneath the velvet sky and loved the Milk Way
I've watched old burning Jupiter with rams and fishes play
I've braked for feckless badgers and for roe all starting fearious
And bit macadam more than once with outcome deleterious.

Now I've a sheaf of brevet cards and hair that once was grey,
Endurance grows with age, they say, but all must fade away,
Some day a final card be stamped, one last grande arrivée.
So I'll just go on wishing for bright rides and ends victorious
And if there is a Paradise, why then it must be moreious.


With thanks to G. K. Menzies for the inspiration of his Poaching in Excelcis.