Got Poetry?

[Tony&Cheri]

Originally Posted by melliedee

No, you are right about that. I was just thinking of older uses of couplets outside of the western tradition, like the Ghazal.

It's such an interesting subject, translation, because it's really its own kind of creativity. I love different versions of Baudelaire as well as some of my favorite Polish poets. Some of the differences are merely style choices, and others drastically change the form and meaning of a poem.

You are very right. In my limited exposure to Asian poetry I have found the structure often is as important as content in conveying the meaning of the words. Less is more seems to be the key.

BTW on a seperate topic...as you like the Beat poets I was wondering if you know of a poem by Kenneth Patchen I've been trying to locate. I don't know the name (yeah, I know that helps a lot ) but it is about (if I remember correctly) the need for connection to save the universal light. Something like: "if we were all seperate the light would fail". It was published on the inside of the back cover of the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971) and I have not been able to find it since (my copy of the catalog being buried in storage in San Francisco along with my Zap Comics and copies of the Berkley Barb). Can't find it on the net. Ring any bells?

Papa T

[Streckman]

You should never laugh
When the hearse goes by
Cuz you may be the next to die
They wrap you up in a bloody red sheet
Andy bury you in a hole that's six feet deep
The worms crawl in
The worms crawl out
In your stomach
And out your mouth
Your face turns green
A sickly green
And your guts pop out
Like whipping cream

Known this one since I was a kid!!

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by Tony&Cheri

You are very right. In my limited exposure to Asian poetry I have found the structure often is as important as content in conveying the meaning of the words. Less is more seems to be the key.

BTW on a seperate topic...as you like the Beat poets I was wondering if you know of a poem by Kenneth Patchen I've been trying to locate. I don't know the name (yeah, I know that helps a lot ) but it is about (if I remember correctly) the need for connection to save the universal light. Something like: "if we were all seperate the light would fail". It was published on the inside of the back cover of the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971) and I have not been able to find it since (my copy of the catalog being buried in storage in San Francisco along with my Zap Comics and copies of the Berkley Barb). Can't find it on the net. Ring any bells?

Papa T

Sorry, it doesn't. Would you recognize the title? Here's a few online by Patchen from Poem Hunter:

http://www.poemhunter.com/kenneth-patchen/

I can also see the author lists online for that last issue, but it just says "poems by..." with no titles. Our U library has a big poetry archive, I'll do some hunting for you...

[Tony&Cheri]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Sorry, it doesn't. Would you recognize the title? Here's a few online by Patchen from Poem Hunter:

Poet: Kenneth Patchen - All poems of Kenneth Patchen

I can also see the author lists online for that last issue, but it just says "poems by..." with no titles. Our U library has a big poetry archive, I'll do some hunting for you...

Thanks for trying. No I don't know the title. And poemhunter as well as other Patchen sites haven't turned up anything. My recollection is that the first line is something like: "We never knew even when we were near" and the final lines are something like: If we were all seperate the light would end. But the light does not end. Hallelujah. Message ends." Or something like that.

Anyway, if you come across it in your travels let me know. Thanks again.

Papa T

[melliedee]

Bearhug


Griffin calls to come and kiss him goodnight
I yell ok. Finish something I’m doing,
then something else, walk slowly round
the corner to my son’s room.
He is standing arms outstretched
waiting for a bearhug. Grinning.

Why do I give my emotion an animal’s name,
give it that dark squeeze of death?
This is the hug which collects
all his small bones and his warm neck against me.
The thin tough body under the pyjamas
locks me like a magnet of blood.

How long was he standing there
like that, before I came?


by MICHAEL ONDAATJE
Excerpted from The Cinnamon Peeler
Published by Alfred A. Knopf

[melliedee]

I love this poem. Philip Levine:


They Feed They Lion

Out of burlap sacks, out of bearing butter,
Out of black bean and wet slate bread,
Out of the acids of rage, the candor of tar,
Out of the creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, wooden dollies,
They Lion grow.

Out of the gray hills
Of industrial barns, out of rain, out of bus ride,
West Virginia to Kiss My Ass, out of buried aunties,
Mothers hardening like pounded stumps, out of stumps,
Out of the bones' need to sharpen and the muscles' to stretch,
They Lion Grow.

Earth is eating trees, fence posts,
Gutted cars, earth is calling in her little ones,
"Come home, Come home!" From pig balls,
From the ferocity of pig driven to holiness
From the furred ear and the full jowl come
The repose of the hung belly, from the purpose
They Lion grow.

From the sweet glues of the trotters
Come the sweet kinks of the fist, from the full flower
Of the hams the thorax of caves,
From "Bow Down" come "Rise Up,"
Come they Lion from the reeds of shovels,
They grained arm that pulls the hands,
They Lion grow.

From my five arms and all my hands,
From all my white sins forgiven, they feed
From my car passing under the stars,
They Lion, from my children inherit,
From the oak turned to a wall, they Lion,
From they sack and they belly opened
And all that was hidden burning on the oil-stained earth
They feed they Lion and he comes.

[Kirbyfan]

I am more of an Andrew Dice Clay poetry kinda guy. Can I post some of his?

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by Kirbyfan

I am more of an Andrew Dice Clay poetry kinda guy. Can I post some of his?

No poetry snobs here. Post anything you find inspiring or just plain old funny. I think a lot of good comedians approach a kind of spoken word approximation of poetry. Same with song lyrics.

Join us, KF!

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by Tony&Cheri

Thanks for trying. No I don't know the title. And poemhunter as well as other Patchen sites haven't turned up anything. My recollection is that the first line is something like: "We never knew even when we were near" and the final lines are something like: If we were all seperate the light would end. But the light does not end. Hallelujah. Message ends." Or something like that.

Anyway, if you come across it in your travels let me know. Thanks again.

Papa T

Tony, I think I found it, but still no title. The index says that the inside back cover quote is excerpted from Patchen's Collected Poems. Here it is:


Who is nothing Hear that!
Meaning:
The stars sing
Because it's always all right!
So far you've
Not been near except when
You didn't know. Night's day
Was everywhere. No one is
Ever separated from every other
For then the world would die.

And the world does not die!
O Glory, Glory of the Light!

We live one life. Message ends





Is this it? I ordered the last Whole Earth Catalog from our U's library network and can keep it for two weeks. I've never seen anything like it. The last time someone else checked it out was August 5, 1976! What the heck kind of catalog is this? When you first mentioned it I thought it was a literary magazine. I can't wait to take a look at it this weekend.

[Tony&Cheri]

Originally Posted by melliedee

Tony, I think I found it, but still no title. The index says that the inside back cover quote is excerpted from Patchen's Collected Poems. Here it is:


Who is nothing Hear that!
Meaning:
The stars sing
Because it's always all right!
So far you've
Not been near except when
You didn't know. Night's day
Was everywhere. No one is
Ever separated from every other
For then the world would die.

And the world does not die!
O Glory, Glory of the Light!

We live one life. Message ends





Is this it? I ordered the last Whole Earth Catalog from our U's library network and can keep it for two weeks. I've never seen anything like it. The last time someone else checked it out was August 5, 1976! What the heck kind of catalog is this? When you first mentioned it I thought it was a literary magazine. I can't wait to take a look at it this weekend.

I just now saw this post. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Yes, that is the poem. You are a real sweetheart to go through that much trouble. I have always loved that poem.

As for the "Whole Earth Catalog" it is simply the Sixties between covers. Back in the early days of hippies, Yippies and Pranksters, Stewart Brand (one of Ken Keseys original Merry pranksters) decided to start an interactive (before the internet) book where people could recommend "tools". Tools were anything that made life better, with better being defined as smaller, greener, more peaceful, more drug/spiritual oriented. That included books on peyote use and machines for organic composting and everything in between. It was the alternative/revolution/political/rock'n'roll/i want to move to the country and live in a commune bible/blog. It had the wonderful philosophy that we could be better than we are without destroying the planet or ourselves. No dorm room or crashpad was complete without the Whole Earth. Eventually it became a mail order clearing house to get the stuff talked about in the catalog. Finally Brand brought it to a halt to pursue other interests. The Last Whole Earth Catalog was published in 1972 and contained the poem you found for me. It also has a serialized story running through it called "Devine Right's Trip" by Gureny Norman, another of Kesey's Pranksters. It tells the story of DR (Devine Right) sort of an EveryHippie (although we called ourselves "Freaks" never hippies) as he travelled the world in search of good dope, love and the key to happiness. It is worth reading. The final pages describing DR's wedding to the woman he loves is as picture perfect a recitation of the people and values of the counterculture as anything written, IMHO.

I envy you your first look through this book. I'm sure it will be at first a time period piece providing some humorous glimpses into the past. But if you take your time I think you will see it less as a catalog of things to buy and more a catalog of ideas and values many of which still hold true today.

Thank you again.

Papa T


p.s. Isn't it a great poem?

[popeye]

Wow, some really educational and beautiful stuff on here! Thanks!

OK, kind of corny but I swear, I wrote this thing this morning ( I do not do this - my expressions are done with a brush )


Early Morning
Barry Launius

In the wee wee hours
Of the morning mist
I gaze across these crumpled sheets
And wonder how you sleep.

Without pain and chaos
Is it calm like the morning star
Is it full of dancing fairies
That rest on far off shores
Of white sand beaches and pretty shells
That float from days of yore?
Or is it simply darkness
And just a time to snore?

These things I wonder
As I rise anew
And slip onto my knees-each and every day
Are really not important
I hear my soul decree
As answers rain upon me
That simply you’re with me.

[T.J.]

I admit that I am not an expert of Poetry... But I do like Robert Frost.

I have always loved this one.



Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by: Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

[melliedee]

Originally Posted by Tony&Cheri

I just now saw this post. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Yes, that is the poem. You are a real sweetheart to go through that much trouble. I have always loved that poem.

As for the "Whole Earth Catalog" it is simply the Sixties between covers. Back in the early days of hippies, Yippies and Pranksters, Stewart Brand (one of Ken Keseys original Merry pranksters) decided to start an interactive (before the internet) book where people could recommend "tools". Tools were anything that made life better, with better being defined as smaller, greener, more peaceful, more drug/spiritual oriented. That included books on peyote use and machines for organic composting and everything in between. It was the alternative/revolution/political/rock'n'roll/i want to move to the country and live in a commune bible/blog. It had the wonderful philosophy that we could be better than we are without destroying the planet or ourselves. No dorm room or crashpad was complete without the Whole Earth. Eventually it became a mail order clearing house to get the stuff talked about in the catalog. Finally Brand brought it to a halt to pursue other interests. The Last Whole Earth Catalog was published in 1972 and contained the poem you found for me. It also has a serialized story running through it called "Devine Right's Trip" by Gureny Norman, another of Kesey's Pranksters. It tells the story of DR (Devine Right) sort of an EveryHippie (although we called ourselves "Freaks" never hippies) as he travelled the world in search of good dope, love and the key to happiness. It is worth reading. The final pages describing DR's wedding to the woman he loves is as picture perfect a recitation of the people and values of the counterculture as anything written, IMHO.

I envy you your first look through this book. I'm sure it will be at first a time period piece providing some humorous glimpses into the past. But if you take your time I think you will see it less as a catalog of things to buy and more a catalog of ideas and values many of which still hold true today.

Thank you again.

Papa T


p.s. Isn't it a great poem?

It is. I love the last line. I've not read any Patchen before and now want to check him out.

At the front of the catalog its purpose is described: "...personal power is developing--power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and provided by the Whole Earth Catalog."

Trout fishing, VW bus repair, camping equipment, and poems scattered throughout. Very cool. It's like a time capsule.

Popeye, thanks for sharing an original poem! I've always thought visual artists make good writers because of their inner eye and focus on imagery.

TJ, I love that Frost poem too. The mystery of the ending always gets me.

[Ginger]

On Anothers Sorrow by William Blake
Can I see anothers woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see anothers grief,
And not seek for kind relief.

Can I see a falling tear.
And not feel my sorrows share,
Can a father see his child,
Weep, nor be with sorrow fill'd.

Can a mother sit and hear.
An infant groan an infant fear--
No no never can it be,
Never never can it be.

And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small.
Hear the small bird's grief & care
Hear the woes that infants bear--

And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast.
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infant's tear.

And not sit both night & day.
Wiping all our tears away.
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

He doth give his joy to all,
He becomes an infant small,
He becomes a man of woe
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not. thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy maker is not by.
Think not, thou canst weep a tear,
And thy maker is not near.

O! he gives to us his joy.
That our grief he may destroy
Till our grief is fled & gone
He doth sit by us and moan

[Cuff]

Barry,

I just saw your post.
Nicely done, sir!