What the heck! POETRY FRIDAY,anyone?

Maybe we can get some more fans to post something they find inspiring or that they just plain like. 

I love W.H. Auden, and this one is entitled, "As I Walked Out One Evening". The parts in red always make me think about my vital daily support system (my DH)! 

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror?
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

Redo this one- it came out wonky. I love it, too.

And I do love and appreciate my daily life-giving support system of 31 years also. He is pretty amazing. In the beginning I couldn't understand why he loved me, and then I decided I liked his opinion of me better than mine. So I started working on my self-esteem.

 Should be okay now.

Just once before I die
I want to climb up on a
tenement sky
to dream my lungs out till
I cry
then scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.

So let me sing my song tonight
let me feel out of sight
and let all eyes be dry
when they scatter my ashes thru
the Lower East Side.

From Houston to 14th Street
from Second Avenue to the mighty D
here the hustlers & suckers meet
the f-----ts & freaks will all get
high
on the ashes that have been scattered
thru the Lower East Side.

There's no other place for me to be
there's no other place that I can see
there's no other town around that
brings you up or keeps you down
no food little heat sweeps by
fancy cars & pimps' bars & juke saloons
& greasy spoons make my spirits fly
with my ashes scattered thru the
Lower East Side . . .

A thief, a junkie I've been
committed every known sin
Jews and Gentiles . . . Bums & Men
of style . . . run away child
police shooting wild . . .
mother's futile wails . . . pushers
making sales . . . dope wheelers
& cocaine dealers . . . smoking pot
streets are hot & feed off those who bleed to death . . .

all that's true
all that's true
all that is true
but this ain't no lie
when I ask that my ashes be scattered thru
the Lower East Side.

So here I am, look at me
I stand proud as you can see
pleased to be from the Lower East
a street fighting man
a problem of this land
I am the Philosopher of the Criminal Mind
a dweller of prison time
a cancer of Rockefeller's ghettocide
this concrete tomb is my home
to belong to survive you gotta be strong
you can't be shy less without request
someone will scatter your ashes thru
the Lower East Side.

I don't wanna be buried in Puerto Rico
I don't wanna rest in Long Island Cemetery
I wanna be near the stabbing shooting
gambling fighting & unnatural dying
& new birth crying
so please when I die . . .
don't take me far away
keep me near by
take my ashes and scatter them thru out
the Lower East Side . . .

-Miguel Pinero

ETA: Pinero was a co founder of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and wrote about his experiences with prison, poverty, social injustice.

Wow! Thanks!

You're welcome. I'm a huge poetry fan. I could probably turn this into a three page thread with little to no effort. I think it'll be more interesting to let other people share though.

I wrote this poem a few years prior to having my weight loss surgery...I wanted to be as free and lovely as a butterfly...Its called * Fly away little butterfly*

 Fly away little butterfly
So beautiful and free
You live the kind of life
That I would love to be

Fly away little butterfly
Colors of yellow and of blue
Wouldn't it be so nice
To be as lovely as you

Fly away little butterfly
As graceful as can be
Your life is so unknown
To humans just like me

Fly away little butterfly
So everyone else can see
The beauty that God gave you
A life, so gentle and free

I don't understand OH. Or, I understand them LESS. This was their moderation message regarding my FIRST posted poem. Why tell me to repost my FIRST, instead of the second?

And we can't have more than ONE thread about POETRY? I didn't know that there was a LIMIT to the NUMBER . . . is that laid out in the TOS? The OH world grows sillier and sillier.

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