Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Here is an unusual love poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (cira June 1864). A playful, comic poem about keeping infatuation in check. The first line almost forms a double entendre, as we generally think of school girl/boy crushes as being the ones we are too embarrassed to admit or come at too vulnerable an age to confess.
She Schools The Flighty Pupils Of Her Eyes
She schools the flighty pupils of her eyes,
With levell'd lashes stilling their disquiet;
She puts in leash her pair'd lips lest suprise
Bare the condition of a realm at riot.
If he suspect that she has ought to sigh at
His injury she'll avenge with raging shame.
She kept her love-thoughts on most lenten diet,
And learnt her not to startle at his name.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Penelope wrote:
Lovely poem Saffron:
Manley Hopkins was a man!! How did he know I wonder!!
Quote:
She kept her love-thoughts on most lenten diet, And learnt her not to startle at his name.
She wasn't a 'blusher' then......which is what always gave the game away for me.
I had the same thought: how did he know?! I'm a blusher too, I can't hide anything.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Oh, I haven't the patience to go through all the pages to see if I have already posted these two poems -- I just want to post them and if they are repeats, forgive me.
First -- I like the second stanza of this poem. I like to think about the voices of the people I like and love. Thinking about the way someone sounds brings that person right up close and vivid.
The Barrier
by Claude McKay
I must not gaze at them although
Your eyes are dawning day;
I must not watch you as you go
Your sun-illumined way;
I hear but I must never heed
The fascinating note,
Which, fluting like a river reed,
Comes from your trembing throat;
I must not see upon your face
Love's softly glowing spark;
For there's the barrier of race,
You're fair and I am dark.
And second, an all time favorite poem --
Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (249)
by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Oct 2007 Posts: 2553 Images: 3 Location: Cheshire, England
Thanks: 144 Thanked: 273 times in 224 posts
Gender: Country:
Saffron posted:
Quote:
Wild Nights – Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury!
Futile – the winds – To a heart in port – Done with the compass – Done with the chart!
Rowing in Eden – Ah, the sea! Might I moor – Tonight – In thee!
It made me think of the Elton John song:-
Quote:
And I guess that's why They call it the blues Time on my hands Could be time spent with you Laughing like children Living like lovers Rolling like thunder under the covers And I guess that's why They call it the blues
In his book 'Vadan' Inayat Khan - Sufi Teacher, says.....
'Is love pleasure, is love merriment? No, love is longing constantly......it is love that teaches man: Thou, not I.
_________________ Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try. Dr. Seuss
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
I Do Not Love Thee
by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
I do not love thee!—no! I do not love thee!
And yet when thou art absent I am sad;
And envy even the bright blue sky above thee,
Whose quiet stars may see thee and be glad.
I do not love thee!—yet, I know not why,
Whate’er thou dost seems still well done, to me:
And often in my solitude I sigh
That those I do love are not more like thee!
I do not love thee!—yet, when thou art gone,
I hate the sound (though those who speak be dear)
Which breaks the lingering echo of the tone
Thy voice of music leaves upon my ear.
I do not love thee!—yet thy speaking eyes,
With their deep, bright, and most expressive blue,
Between me and the midnight heaven arise,
Oftener than any eyes I ever knew.
I know I do not love thee! yet, alas!
Others will scarcely trust my candid heart;
And oft I catch them smiling as they pass,
Because they see me gazing where thou art.
--Funny how sometimes we do not even know our own feelings or are so afraid of them we refuse to acknowledge them.
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
This Room and Everything in It
by Li-Young Lee
Lie still now
while I prepare for my future,
certain hard days ahead,
when I’ll need what I know so clearly this moment.
I am making use
of the one thing I learned
of all the things my father tried to teach me:
the art of memory.
I am letting this room
and everything in it
stand for my ideas about love
and its difficulties.
I’ll let your love-cries,
those spacious notes
of a moment ago,
stand for distance.
Your scent,
that scent
of spice and a wound,
I’ll let stand for mystery.
Your sunken belly
is the daily cup
of milk I drank
as a boy before morning prayer.
The sun on the face
of the wall
is God, the face
I can’t see, my soul,
and so on, each thing
standing for a separate idea,
and those ideas forming the constellation
of my greater idea.
And one day, when I need
to tell myself something intelligent
about love,
I’ll close my eyes
and recall this room and everything in it:
My body is estrangement.
This desire, perfection.
Your closed eyes my extinction.
Now I’ve forgotten my
idea. The book
on the windowsill, riffled by wind . . .
the even-numbered pages are
the past, the odd-
numbered pages, the future.
The sun is
God, your body is milk . . .
useless, useless . . .
your cries are song, my body’s not me . . .
no good . . . my idea
has evaporated . . . your hair is time, your thighs are song . . .
it had something to do
with death . . . it had something
to do with love.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 44
Thanks: 0 Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Gender: Country:
Love poems don't strike the same chord for me that Love Letters do. So here's my favorite letter:
The third letter from Ludwig van Beethoven to his immortal beloved
Good morning, on July 7
Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.
ever thine
ever mine
ever ours
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Laser Harbor wrote:
Love poems don't strike the same chord for me that Love Letters do. So here's my favorite letter:
Thanks for posting the letter. It is a beautiful letter and to me reads like poetry. A love letter was read in the Ken Burns series The Cival War that I have always loved. The letter is from Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah. I'll post excerpts from the letter as it is too long to post the whole.
July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington
My very dear Sarah:
Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.
----
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .
-------
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Feb 2009 Posts: 44
Thanks: 0 Thanked: 0 time in 0 post
Gender: Country:
Quote:
If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights . . . always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again . . .
Sullivan sure knew what to say to melt a ladys heart.
I also have a soft spot for John Keats. Here's a favorite of mine from him.
To Fanny Brawne:
I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me.
I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving ....I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be
martyr'd for my religion - love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My creed is love and you are its only tenet - you have ravish'd me away by a power I cannot resist.
- John Keats
I think it's knowing it's for the girl next door that he fell in love with.
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Laser Harbor wrote:
I also have a soft spot for John Keats. Here's a favorite of mine from him.
DWill too, I think.
Quote:
To Fanny Brawne:
- I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me.
I can so identify with this line. It seems to me it is the essence of falling in love.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
As I was packing books today (I am finally moving), I came across a book with one of my favorite love poems in it. I love Ondaatje's use of the sense of smell and the the intensity of the poem.
The Cinnamon Peeler
Michael Ondaatje
If I were a cinnamon peeler
I would ride your bed
And leave the yellow bark dust
On your pillow.
Your breasts and shoulders would reek
You could never walk through markets
without the profession of my fingers
floating over you. The blind would
stumble certain of whom they approached
though you might bathe
under rain gutters, monsoon.
Here on the upper thigh
at this smooth pasture
neighbour to you hair
or the crease
that cuts your back. This ankle.
You will be known among strangers
as the cinnamon peeler's wife.
I could hardly glance at you
before marriage
never touch you
--your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers.
I buried my hands
in saffron, disguised them
over smoking tar,
helped the honey gatherers...
When we swam once
I touched you in the water
and our bodies remained free,
you could hold me and be blind of smell.
you climbed the bank and said
this is how you touch other women
the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter.
And you searched your arms
for the missing perfume
and knew
what good is it
to be the lime burner's daughter
left with no trace
as if not spoken to in the act of love
as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.
You touched
your belly to my hands
in the dry air and said
I am the cinnamon
Peeler's wife. Smell me.
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2008 Posts: 2495 Images: 5 Location: Round Hill, VA
Thanks: 221 Thanked: 175 times in 141 posts
Gender: Country:
Believe it or not I came upon this poem in the new non-fiction selection for Nov/Dec, Empire of Illusion. The italicized lines are the dedication to Eunice (his wife). Now there is a man passionate about his wife!
Let us live, my Lesbia, and love,
and value at one farthing
all the talk of crabbed old men.
Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the short light has once set, remains to be slept the sleep of one unbroken night. Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
Then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then yet thousand, then a hundred.
Then, when we have made up many thousands,
we will confuse our counting, that we may not know the reckoning,
nor any malicious person blight them with evil eye,
when he knows that our kisses are so many.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (ca. 84 BC – ca. 54 BC) Roman poet
_________________ Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads ~ Henry David Thoreau
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” -Thich Nhat Hahn
Joined: Apr 2009 Posts: 2003 Location: New Jersey Highscores:84 Thanks: 277 Thanked: 246 times in 200 posts
Gender: Country:
Love poems
The Cinnamon Peeler Michael Ondaatje
Thank you Saffron for pausing from your moving chores to post this poem.
The sense of smell is very powerful. I believe that smell is the strongest sense for memory. I know this is true for me. I wore the perfume “Eternity” while on my honeymoon, and every time I smell this perfume, it whisks me back 19 years ago to Niagara Falls. Yes, corny, but we did honeymoon in Niagara Falls.
Each person has a natural smell, not an odor, but a scent.
Quote:
what good is it to be the lime burner's daughter left with no trace as if not spoken to in the act of love as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.
These are my favorite lines. This is a very sensuous poem. I love the idea of the transfer of one person’s scent to another and how that scent will leave a mark, something lasting, and very personal.
I have tried to continue this poem in my mind, add her scent to it. I’m thinking about oranges, or vanilla, and how those scents along with the cinnamon co-mingle on their skin. But what could she be? An orange zester?
_________________ I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth. --William Faulkner
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
The 12th Disciple is now being
stocked at Poor Richard's
Bookstore in Colorado Springs.
We're happy to have the
title at such a historic
location in Colorado Springs.
If… more
For most of us, a very big
part of our lives will be a
dark place, we wont realize
it. We live, we eat, we have
some fun, we go to school, we
sleep. But it will come the
time, when… more
The 12th Disciple's
endorsement for a Presidential
Candidate...we'll pass.
If many haven't learned
over the past several decades,
centuries, and millennia, the
gover… more
So I've been looking for
new books to read, but I
haven't found any that
have caught my attention
lately. I want to try and
venture out into a different
genre, but I'… more
For those who constantly gripe
about jobs being sent
overseas, focus your anger on
this. Read about how one of
the most profitable companies
prided by American citizens
offshores t… more
Its January 1945 and British,
Commonwealth, US and POWs from
various other nationalities
are finally awaiting
liberation from the various
camps in Eastern Europe, where
some of the… more
A good friend of mine recently
received a pre-paid credit
card. She went to pay for a
$20.00 gas purchase only to
later find out that over a
$70.00 hold was placed on her
card for… more
While watching the bube tube
(TV) this morning I stumbled
on a motivational speaker
saying today marks a new
year, you now have a blank
canvas to work from.
The 12th Disciple wishes you
and yours a Happy New Year.
Many of us hope and pray that
2012 will bring better
leadership in the government
of the United States, better
leadership i… more
The Cat & The
Nightingale Saga, the docu
drama version of The Weekend
Trippers, also tells Rifleman
Ted Taylors story but in a
slightly different way. It too
tells of the… more
In 2011 I published my book;
in the book I outlined 9 Key
Principles to Prosperity
(happiness). Like
many of you, I walked through
2011 with the Woe is me
attitude. When… more
More and more these days I see
people using social media to
quote what someone else has
said. I see people posting
their favorite rappers lyrics,
lines from movies and what
seems t… more
Im down the school for the
first time today. My friend
visited two weeks ago and said
it was chaos. They must have
heard I was back
because everything is tidy and
orderly today… more
I'm quite positive that
everyone who enters this site
has the same thing in mind:
fear of seeing a world without
books, without literature. We
see it everyday, more people
qui… more
For once in my life I step off
the plane at Banjul, and
dont get a rush of elation.
I went home to see my
daughters twins safely
delivered. They are all well
now, but Im goin… more
Last weekend I witnessed a
couple of family members
literally fall apart at the
seams because of a problem
with a couple of their
employees. They recently
opened a group home, and
… more
Tell your friends when to meet you in the BookTalk.org Chat Room.
Booktalk.org on Facebook
If you enjoy business bestsellers and would like to expand your business knowledge check out the quality book summaries offered by the world's leading book summary company.
BookTalk.org is a free book discussion group or online reading group or book club. We read and talk about both fiction and non-fiction books as a group. We host live author chats where booktalk members can interact with and interview authors. We give away free books to our members in book giveaway contests. Our booktalks are open to everybody who enjoys talking about books. Our book forums include book reviews, author interviews and book resources for readers and book lovers. Discussing books is our passion. We're a literature forum, or reading forum. Register a free book club account today! Suggest nonfiction and fiction books. Authors and publishers are welcome to advertise their books or ask for an author chat or author interview.
Tweet This Topic
