Poem of the moment

Saffron · Sun May 23, 2010 7:58 pm


	GaryG48 wrote: I stumbled across this poem and a comment by Robert Pinsky about its writer, Robert Hayden. Of course Pinsky knows what he is talking about but this time he is not obscure—Hayden did just what Pinsky said he did in this touching poem of only 95 words. Here is “Sundays” and Pinsky's comment: of love's austere and lonely offices?

Yes!

Penelope · Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:24 am

Definitely my Poem of the Moment - thus:-

Deep Sorriness Atonement Song

The man who sold Manhattan for a halfway decent bangle,
He had talks with Adolf Hitler and could see it from his angle,
And he could have signed the Quarrymen but didn't think they'd make it
So he bought a cake on Pudding Lane and thought "Oh well I'll bake it"

But his chances they were slim
And his brothers they were Grimm,
And he's sorry, very sorry,
But I'm sorrier than him.

And the drunken plastic surgeon who said "I know, let's enlarge 'em!"
And the bloke who told the Light Brigade "Oh what the hell, let's charge
'em",
The magician with an early evening gig on the Titanic
And the Mayor who told the people of Atlantis not to panic,

And the Dong about his nose
And the Pobble re his toes,
They're all sorry very sorry
But I'm sorrier than those.

And don't forget the Bible, with the Sodomites and Judas,
And Onan who discovered something nothing was as rude as,
And anyone who reckoned it was City's year for Wembley.
And the kid who called Napoleon a shortarse in assembly,

And the man who always smiles
Cause he knows I have his files,
They're all sorry, really sorry,
But I'm sorrier by miles.

And Robert Falcon Scott who lost the race to the Norwegian,
And anyone who's ever split a pint with a Glaswegian,
Or told a Finn a joke or spent an hour with a Swiss-German,
Or got a mermaid in the sack and found it was a merman,

Or him who smelt a rat,
And got curious as a cat,
They're all sorry, deeply sorry,
But I'm sorrier than that.

All the people who were rubbish when we needed them to do it,
Whose wires crossed, whose spirit failed, who ballsed it up or blew it,
All notches of nul points and all who have a problem Houston,
At least they weren't in Kensington when they should have been at Euston.

For I didn't build the Wall
And I didn't cause the Fall
But I'm sorry, Lord, I'm sorry,
I'm the sorriest of all.

-- Glyn Maxwell

Saffron · Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:58 pm

Yes! I am in need of music.

Sonnet (1928)

I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling finger-tips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!

There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep.

Elizabeth Bishop

bleachededen · Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:12 am

Silly Song

Mommy, I want to be all silver.
Son, you'll be awfully cold.

Mommy, I want to be all water.
Son, you'll be awfully cold.

Mommy, sew me onto your cushion.
That I will! This very moment!

--Federico Garcia Lorca

***

I wrote out this poem with my signature drawing around it a few years ago, and it's tacked onto my corkboard above the desk where I sit with my computer most of the time, so I see it every day, and it always makes me smile. I read it when I was a little kid, never even knowing it was Lorca, soon to be one of my favorite poets. I sometimes even read his poems in Spanish without being able to understand them, just to hear the rhythm and the alliteration and flow. :love:

My poetry major is showing again, isn't it? :roll:

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