Tuesday 13 October 2009

If I Knew You & You Knew Me - Nixon Waterman


If I knew you and you knew me,

If both of us could clearly see,

And with an inner sight divine,

The meaning of your heart and mine,

I'm sure that we would differ less,

And clasp our hands in friendliness;

Our thoughts would pleasantly agree,

If I knew you and you knew me.


- One L❤ve, One Heart, Lets get together and feel alright...

Friday 9 October 2009

The Journey - Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.


- 'When the voice inside you becomes louder and clearer than the voices around you, you've mastered your life' I can't quite remember who said this but it was in the dvd/book The Secret I leave to go to Australia in 2 weeks and I most definetly feel like I'm leaping in the hope that the net will appear. When I made the decision to do this I had to ask myself questions about what I wanted and the universe showed me that this would be my path. Too many things happened. The biggest thing that happened of all was that I followed my intuition. In this case I didn't want to hear the voices around me. I was able, in that moment, to envision myself going deeper into the world with a determination to better myself and be open to new experiences and a new culture. I'll let you know if it works out ;-) And so my love for this poem is centred around the idea of self. You have to follow where your heart leads you. Others won't always agree but sometimes you have to be still with solitude and listen to your intuition. Your life is a blank canvas until you paint it, don't let anyone else destroy that piece of art. It belongs to you and only you. I always add photos/pictures that I believe represent the poem. And seeing as the topic is about following your heart who better to portray that than....me! ;-)






Tuesday 29 September 2009

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - John Lennon & Sir Paul McCartney


Picture yourself in a boat on a river,

With tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.


Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she's gone.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Lucy in the sky with diamonds,
Ah... Ah...


Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain,
Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies.
Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers,
That grow so incredibly high.


Newspaper taxis appear on the shore,
Waiting to take you away.
Climb in the back with your head in the clouds,
And you're gone.


Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties.
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.


- I love this trippy, psychedelic Beatles song. Today marks the passing of the woman who is said to have inspired this song (Lucy Vodden). I chose to call myself 'the girl with kaleidoscope eyes' because I believe that if you have (metaphorically speaking!) kaleidoscope eyes, you are open-minded and have the ability to see the beauty in everything. In the same way you are able to look into a kaleidoscope and see many separate shapes and colours come together and form patterns that are constantly changing - poems are strung together with words, visions, ideas, metaphors - life is strung together with people, nature, language, ideas, truth, love. The girl with kaleidoscope eyes sees the beauty and poetry of the ever-changing world around her and wants everyone to see through her kaleidoscope ;-)



Friday 25 September 2009

Love After Love - Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

- As humans we spend so long looking for approval and love from other people that we forget ourselves. This reminds me of the song which goes 'learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all...' As I've said previously, I believe the most significant relationship you can have in your life is the one you have with yourself. You have to be willing to give yourself the love that you want others to give you. This process is a journey and I love how Walcott puts it 'the time will come, with elation...' suggesting you will be excited by yourself and proud when you look in the mirror, into your soul and who you really are.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Zero Circle - Rumi


Be helpless, dumbfounded,

Unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come from grace
to gather us up.


We are too dull-eyed to see that beauty.
If we say we can, we’re lying.
If we say No, we don’t see it,
That No will behead us
And shut tight our window onto spirit.


So let us rather not be sure of anything,
Beside ourselves, and only that, so
Miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero circle, mute,
We shall be saying finally,
With tremendous eloquence, Lead us.
When we have totally surrendered to that beauty,
We shall be a mighty kindness.




- I think the theme here is of 'giving in', there is great strength in knowing nothing if you allow there to be. See the beauty there is in embracing a world which you don't really understand...The term 'zero circle' is very interesting for a multitude of reasons. My own interpretation from Rumi's use of 'us' and 'we' is that he believes that surrender to our great creator invloves working together to create peace. If mankind were to unite in a circle that is everything - that is wholeness. A 'zero' circle is like a wheel that does not move in either direction...to lie in a zero circle is to unite as one and become 'mighty kindess' - to be still with everything and everyone.



Saturday 12 September 2009

Who Am I - Jason Mraz


I am not my face. I am not my hair.

I am not my family. I am not my care.


I am not my upbringing. I am not my mole.

I am not my receding gum. I am not my cold.


I am not my money. And I’m not my fame.

I’m not my hat. I’m not even my name.


I’m just an idea that happened upon love.

I am that I am and that I am is enough.


- Very beautiful poem. Even though Mraz has worldwide acclaim, he doesn't allow the fame to become him...he does not define himself by his money or his hat (he can often be seen wearing a hat!) The last lines "I'm just an idea that happened upon love. I am that I am and that I am is enough" are the most beautiful correlation of words I've seen in a poem. We all just began as an idea. In the grand picture we share oneness with all things. Spirit is eternal - his money, fame, hair, cold are not... Define yourself in that you are that you are...an idea which sprang into the world...like a poem or song from an artists mind.

A Dream Deferred - Langston Hughes


What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

- The imagery here is incredible - a raisin is already dry but left in the sun becomes inedible...leave your dream for too long and you will no longer remember or understand how your mind concieved of it. Once the dream is out there in the world, does it take on a mind of its own and run away from you if you stop giving it attention? In the end Hughes questions if a dream deferred can explode...by this I believe he is questioning whether or not putting off your dream can ultimately lead to your destruction, like a bomb exploding in your mind. Whatever it is you dream of doing - follow your heart...

Tuesday 1 September 2009

You're Beautiful - Simon Armitage


You're Beautiful because you're classically trained.

I'm ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation.

You're beautiful because you stop to read the cards in newsagents' windows about lost cats and missing dogs.

I'm ugly because of what I did to that jellyfish with a lolly-stick and a big stone

You're beautiful because for you, politeness is instinctive, not a marketing campaign

I'm ugly because desperation is impossible to hide.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


You're beautiful because you believe in coincidence and the power of thought.

I'm ugly because I proved God to be a mathematical impossibility

You're beautiful because you prefer home-made soup to the packet stuff.

I'm ugly because once, at a dinner party, I defended the aristocracy and wasn't even drunk.
You're beautiful because you can't work the remote control.

I'm ugly because of satellite television and twenty-four hour rolling news.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


You're beautiful because you cry at weddings as well as funerals.

I'm ugly because I think of children as another species from a different world.

You're beautiful because you look great in any colour including red.

I'm ugly because I think shopping is strictly for the acquisition of material goods.

You're beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets lined up to peep over the rim of your cradleand lay gifts of gravity and light at your miniature feet.

I'm ugly for saying 'love at first sight' is another form of mistaken identity and that the most human of all responses is to gloat.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


You' re beautiful because you've never seen the inside of a car-wash,

I'm ugly because I always ask for a receipt.

You're beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third world.

I'm ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of ex-girlfriends and the year Schubert was born.

You're beautiful because you sponsored a parrot in a zoo.

I'm ugly because when I sigh it's like the slow collapse of a circus tent.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


You're beautiful because you can point at a man in a uniform and laugh.

I'm ugly because I was a police informer in a previous life.

You're beautiful because you drink a litre of water and eat three pieces of fruit a day.

I'm ugly for taking the line that a meal without meat is a beautiful woman with one eye.

You're beautiful because you don't see love as a competition and you know how to lose.

I'm ugly because I kissed the FA Cup then held it up to the crowd.

You're beautiful because of a single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan.

I'm ugly because I said the World's Strongest Woman was a muscleman in a dress.

You're beautiful because you couldn't live in a lighthouse.

I'm ugly for making hand-shadows in front of the giant bulb, so when they look up, the captains of vessels in distress see the ears of a rabbit, or the eye of a fox, or the legs of a galloping black horse.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


Ugly like he is,

Beautiful like hers,

Beautiful like Venus,

Ugly like his,

Beautiful like she is,

Ugly like Mars.


- I love how Armitage has taken the simple concept of beauty and shown how 'true beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. That saying is one the modern society may dispute, proclaiming that beauty is how you have your hair/make-up/whatever done...In essence what this poem shows is that what really defines true beauty is what is within your heart and how you choose to live your life. What makes her beautiful is when she stops to look at the signs for the lost pets in the window, where he is poking a dead jellyfish - she cares about other living things, he doesn't. She believes in coincidence, where he uses reasoning to disprove God - she is open-minded, he isn't. She's never seen the inside of a car-wash, where he always asks for a receipt - she is innocent, he is cynical. She is beautiful in her spirit and that's what he admires about her. Beauty is something you choose to have...great, thought-provoking poem.

Saturday 29 August 2009

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep - Mary Elizabeth Frye


Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.


- To me this is such a beautiful and comforting poem which highlights the eternal spirit within all of us. We share oneness with all living things, eventually we die physically but we will always be part of the world. Part of that which is everlasting...the wind, the snow, the rain, the stars...When you are born into the world you are given nature as a gift, it is therefore part of you. It reminds me of Emily Brontes words in her poem 'Last Lines'..."thou art being and breath and what thou art can never be destroyed".

Saturday 1 August 2009

The World Is Against Me - Edgar A. Guest


"The world is against me," he said with a sigh.

"Somebody stops every scheme that I try.


The world has me down and it's keeping me there;

I don't get a chance. Oh, the world is unfair!

When a fellow is poor then he can't get a show;

The world is determined to keep him down low."


"What of Abe Lincoln?" I asked. "Would you say

That he was much richer than you are to-day?

He hadn't your chance of making his mark,

And his outlook was often exceedingly dark;

Yet he clung to his purpose with courage most grim

And he got to the top. Was the world against him?"


"What of Ben Franklin? I've oft heard it said

That many a time he went hungry to bed.

He started with nothing but courage to climb,

But patiently struggled and waited his time.

He dangled awhile from real poverty's limb,

Yet he got to the top. Was the world against him?

"I could name you a dozen, yes, hundreds, I guess,

Of poor boys who've patiently climbed to success;

All boys who were down and who struggled alone,

Who'd have thought themselves rich if your fortune they'd known;

Yet they rose in the world you're so quick to condemn,

And I'm asking you now, was the world against them?"


- I love the rhythm of this poem, but more importantly its message. Great things are achieved by riding the storm and always looking for the rainbow. I believe the only thing that stands between you and your dreams is yourself. If you want something enough you can have it, there's never any need to make excuses that 'the world' won't let you have it. You are the master of your own destiny.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

I'm Alive, I Believe in Everything - Lesley Choyce


Self. Brotherhood. God. Zeus. Communism.

Capitalism. Buddha. Vinyl records.

Baseball. Ink. Trees. Cures for disease.

Saltwater. Literature. Walking. Waking.

Arguments. Decisions. Ambiguity. Absolutes.

Presence. Absence. Positive and Negative.

Empathy. Apathy. Sympathy and entropy.

Verbs are necessary. So are nouns.

Empty skies. Dark vacuums of night.

Visions. Revisions. Innocence.

I've seen All the empty spaces yet to be filled.

I've heard All of the sounds that will collect

at the end of the world.

And the silence that follows.


I'm alive, I believe in everything

I'm alive, I believe in it all.


Waves lapping on the shore.

Skies on fire at sunset.

Old men dancing on the streets.

Paradox and possibility.

Sense and sensibility.

Cold logic and half truth.

Final steps and first impressions.

Fools and fine intelligence.

Chaos and clean horizons.

Vague notions and concrete certainty.

Optimism in the face of adversity.


I'm alive, I believe in everything

I'm alive, I believe in it all.


- I believe in living, breathing, myself, love, learning...many things actually. To me this poem is about yin and yang, and having an open mind. By virtue of being alive, Choyce chooses to believe in everything there is in the world - the good and bad, you can't have one without the other. By freeing your mind to endless possibilities and accepting life you grow as a person.

Thursday 25 June 2009

Still I Rise - Maya Angelou


You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.


Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.


Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.


Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.


Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.


You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.


Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?


Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.


- I love the self-belief this poem has. Angelou shows that no matter what someone says or does to you all that matters is that you believe in yourself. She will continue to rise regardless of anyones negativity because those thoughts are that persons problem, not hers. Her belief is quite infectious when you read the poem - I feel empowered just reading her words. "I rise I rise I rise" is an affirmation to strengthen the soul.

Tuesday 16 June 2009

Miracles - Walt Whitman


Why! who makes much of a miracle?

As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the

water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love--or sleep in the bed at night with

any one I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with my mother,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive, of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds--or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sun-down--or of stars shining so quiet

and bright,

Or the exquisite, delicate, thin curve of the new moon in spring;

Or whether I go among those I like best, and that like me best--

mechanics, boatmen, farmers,

Or among the savans--or to the soiree--or to the opera,

Or stand a long while looking at the movements of machinery,

Or behold children at their sports,

Or the admirable sight of the perfect old man, or the perfect oldwoman,

Or the sick in hospitals, or the dead carried to burial,

Or my own eyes and figure in the glass;

These, with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring--yet each distinct, and in its place.

To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,

Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the

same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same;

Every spear of grass--the frames, limbs, organs, of men and women,

and all that concerns them,

All these to me are unspeakably perfect miracles.

To me the sea is a continual miracle;

The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships,

with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?


- Every thing is miraculous! To me the miracle of birth and the possibility of giving life to another human being is lifes greatest miracle. Whether it be standing under a tree or sleeping in bed with the one you love...everything is divine - nothing is greater or lesser than anything or anyone else. We are all made of the same stuff, all dwelling in a beautiful world don't really understand, all dwelling in a body made of skin and bones that we never asked to be born into. It's all about what you choose to focus your attention on. The miracle that is 'you' is part of an even bigger miracle. Choose love. Choose Peace. Choose to be inspired and to inspire others.
The quote attached to this wonderous photograph is by Albert Einstein. He says:
"There are two ways to live your life. One as though nothing is a miracle. The other as though everything is a miracle."

Friday 12 June 2009

A Dream Within A Dream - Edgar Allan Poe


Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.


I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep- while I weep!

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?


- This poem highlights the transitory nature of life. Standing on the shore, Poe is looking back on his life and wondering if it has all been a dream. He realises that nothing lasts forever, everything is constantly changing. He cannot even hold onto a grain of sand before it is swept away to sea (possibly a symbol of nature ever changing - the grains of sand could symbolise his loved ones slipping away from him and going 'home'). I think this poem serves as a reminder to treasure what you have right here, right now in this moment.

Thursday 11 June 2009

Poetry - Edmund Vance Cooke


To deftly do what many dimly think;

To fund a feeling for the world to borrow;

To turn a tear to printer's ink;

To make a sonnet of a sorrow.


- I love poems about poetry - poets writing about what it means to write. For me personally, when I write its because I don't know how not to write - a word, a picture, a feeling comes to me and I pick up pen and paper in the same way I breathe in and out. You are a special soul if you can make your words and experiences a source of inspiration to another and if you make the choice to 'turn a tear to printer's ink'.

Wednesday 10 June 2009

Storms - Margie DeMerell


There will be storms, child

There will be storms

And with each tempest

You will seem to stand alone

Against cruel winds

But with time, the rage and fury

Shall subside

And when the sky clears

You will find yourself

Clinging to someone

You would have never known

But for storms.


- So true. The storm-clouds have a silver lining that's sometimes very hard to see, especially if you are in the eye of the storm. When the tough times in your life pass - you are able to look back and see what or who you gained from having weathered the storm.

Just One - Poet Unknown


One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream.
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.
One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal
One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.
One step must start each journey.
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.
One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what's true,
One life can make a difference,
You see, it's up to you!

- What difference are you going to make to the world today?

Monday 8 June 2009

Dreams - Langston Hughes


Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.


- Imagination is everything, its a preview of lifes coming attractions. Our dreams are what make us who we are. This poem tells me to have faith and believe in the possibilities of dreams coming true. When you lose faith you are not fulfilling your life purpose - "a broken-winged bird that cannot fly". Stay strong. Believe.

Friday 5 June 2009

Are You The New Person Drawn Toward Me? - Walt Whitman



Are you the new person drawn toward me?


To begin with take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;


Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?


Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?


Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?


Do you think I am trusty and faithful?


Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant


manner of me?


Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?


Have you no thought O dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?




- Awesome. When we start to like someone we build up an idea in our head of the kind of person they are. We build up images of what a relationship with this person would be like and live out scenarios in our mind. Whitman tries to beware the 'dreamer' of getting carried away in a land of make-believe (maya = illusions of the universe). When we fall in love we only see all the amazing qualities about that person. The poet suggests he doesn't want to be put on a pedestal.

I Am Not Yours - Sarah Teasdale


I am not yours, not lost in you,

Not lost, although I long to be

Lost as a candle lit at noon,

Lost as a snowflake in the sea.


You love me, and I find you still

A spirit beautiful and bright,

Yet I am I, who long to be

Lost as a light is lost in light.


Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out

My senses, leave me deaf and blind,

Swept by the tempest of your love,

A taper in a rushing wind.


- I absolutely love reading different peoples takes on love and what it means to them to long for someone. I love Teasdales passion and yearning to be fully absorbed in the object of her affection "Oh plunge me deep in love...leave me deaf and blind". I think "Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea" perfectly describes her desire to be one entity with her love. There is no rhyme or reason when it comes to true love.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Seeker of Truth - E.E Cummings


seeker of truth


follow no path

all paths lead where


truth is here


- Beautifully short and to the point. There is a great Zen saying this makes me think of...


"The only Zen you find on the tops of the mountains is the Zen you bring up there"


Truth isn't something that comes to you in the form of a person, place or thing - its something you have to find within yourself whatever path you choose in life...

Tuesday 2 June 2009

Solitude - Ella Wheeler Wilcox


Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone.

For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;

Sigh, it is lost on the air.

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.


Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

Be sad, and you lose them all.

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life's gall.


Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.


- I love and hate how true this poem is. People are more than happy to share in your happiness and its when the hard times hit you may find the 'bestest' of friends actually don't care about you at all unless you have a smile on your face. "They want full measure of your pleasure but do not need your woe". Its so apt - everyone is striving for the ultimate happiness and will try to find this at the expense of someone elses sadness. I thank the tough times in my life for showing me who deserves my friendship and who doesn't...


one love...one heart...lets get together and feel alright...

Wednesday 6 May 2009

The 6 o'clock News - Tom Leonard


this is thi

six a clock

news thi

man said n

thi reason

a talk wia

BBC accent

iz coz yi

widny wahnt

mi ti talk

aboot thi

trooth wia

voice lik

wanna yoo

scruff. if

a toktaboot

thi trooth

lik wanna yoo

scruff yi

widny thingk

it wuz troo.

jist wanna yoo

scruff tokn.

thirza right

way ti spell

ana right way

to tok it. this

is me tokn yir

right way a

spellin. this

is ma trooth.

yooz doant no

thi trooth

yirsellz cawz

yi canny talk

right. this is

the six a clock

nyooz. belt up.


- I wiz hinking aboot this alot like. I hink Leonard is trying tae say that everywan shud speak posh n that... He says if newsreaders spoke in a more common accent people would not believe the news anymore. The Glasgow-born poet is defending his roots by saying the truth is the truth regardless of how it is spoken or who it is told by.

Saturday 2 May 2009

Auguries Of Innocence - William Blake


To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.


- This is an excerpt which I think holds its own as a poem. Look at the world as if it was brand new again! As we grow into adults, we become so used to the world we forget to be amazed by something as seemingly simple as a flower, even though we don't understand what makes that flower grow. It is the same Source and Energy which keeps our hearts beating and wakes us into the world each day. The sand, the flowers are a tiny spark of the divine mystery...and so are we.

Wednesday 29 April 2009

All is Vanity - Lord Byron


Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,

And health and youth possessed me;

My goblets blushed from every vine,

And lovely forms caressed me;

I sunned my heart in beauty’ eyes,

And felt my soul grow tender;

All earth can give, or mortal prize,

Was mine of regal splendour.


I strive to number o’er what days

Remembrance can discover,

Which all that life or earth displays

Would lure me to live over.

There rose no day, there rolled no hour

Of pleasure unembittered;

And not a trapping decked my power

That galled not while it glittered.

The serpent of the field, by art

And spells, is won from harming;

But that which soils around the heart,

Oh! who hath power of charming?

It will not list to wisdom’s lore,

Nor music’s voice can lure it;

But there it stings for evermore

The soul that must endure it.


- My interpretation of this is that a life can be filled with what appears to be wonderful 'things', fame and power etc. You can feel like you have everything however 'it will not list to wisdom's lore, nor music's voice can lure it' if it is all vanity and goes no deeper in your soul. This vanity curses your life hence 'it stings for evermore the soul that must endure it'. It is better for humans to live a life which is honest and real even if it is not perfect as those who have the glamorous lives everyone so aspires to have. It is harder to determine who and what is real in a world filled with vanity.

Thursday 23 April 2009

Fiction and the Reading Public - Philip Larkin


Give me a thrill, says the reader,

Give me a kick;I don't care how you succeed, or

What subject you pick.

Choose something you know all about

That'll sound like real life:

Your childhood, your Dad pegging out,

How you sleep with your wife.


But that's not sufficient, unless

You make me feel good -

Whatever you're 'trying to express'

Let it be understood

That 'somehow' God plaits up the threads,

Makes 'all for the best',

That we may lie quiet in our beds

And not be 'depressed'.


For I call the tune in this racket:

I pay your screw,

Write reviews and the bull on the jacket -

So stop looking blue

And start serving up your sensations

Before it's too late;

Just please me for two generations -

You'll be 'truly great'.


- Larkin is brilliant! This highlights his pressure as a writer from the readers who he feels want to take something of his experience from him. He views the public as being demanding of him and I feel the poem grudges the public and how critical they can be of anothers experience. If they are not entertained somewhat by it then they don't want to hear about it.

Sunday 1 March 2009

Implications Of One Plus One - Marge Piercy


Sometimes we collide, tectonic plates merging,

continents shoving, crumpling down into the molten

veins of fire deep in the earth and raising

tons of rock into jagged crests of Sierra.


Sometimes your hands drift on me, milkweed's

airy silk, wingtip's feathery caresses,

our lips grazing, a drift of desires gathering

like fog over warm water, thickening to rain.


Sometimes we go to it heartily, digging,

burrowing, grunting, tossing up covers

like loose earth, nosing into the other's

flesh with hot nozzles and wallowing there.


Sometimes we are kids making out, silly

in the quilt, tickling the xylophone spine,

blowing wet jokes, loud as a whole

slumber party bouncing till the bed breaks.


I go round and round you sometimes, scouting,

blundering, seeking a way in, the high boxwood

maze I penetrate running lungs bursting

toward the fountain of green fire at the heart.


Sometimes you open wide as cathedral doors

and yank me inside. Sometimes you slither

into me like a snake into its burrow.

Sometimes you march in with a brass band.


Ten years of fitting our bodies together

and still they sing wild songs in new keys.

It is more and less than love: timing,

chemistry, magic and will and luck.


One plus one equal one, unknowable except

in the moment, not convertible into words,

not explicable or philosophically interesting.

But it is. And it is. And it is. Amen.


- This really caught my eye...implications of one plus one suggests a mathematical equation where she tries to understand the consequence of adding two human beings together and what this can equate too. The poem suggests she knows deep down that love goes beyond maths "chemistry, magic and will and luck"... The one word "Amen" at the end is very poignant...a prayer cannot be rationialised, when we pray we have faith in a higher power. When we fall in love we also have faith in a power beyond ourselves...love it...I also love the powerful sexual imagery throughout.

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Funeral Blues - W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,


Silence the pianos and with muffled drum


Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.





Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead


Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.


Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,


Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.





He was my North, my South, my East and West,


My working week and my Sunday rest,


My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;


I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.





The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,


Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,


Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;


For nothing now can ever come to any good.





- Beautifully tragic. This poem captures the unbearable feeling of loss which consumes every fibre of our being. Auden has rawness that could bring me to tears and portrays loss as gut-wrenchingly horrific as it feels...

Monday 5 January 2009

Giving Up Smoking - Wendy Cope


There’s not a Shakespeare sonnet

Or a Beethoven quartet

That’s easier to like than you

Or harder to forget.


You think that sounds extravagant?

I haven’t finished yet –

I like you more than I would like

To have a cigarette.


- Cope says that no-one can understand what an intense love poem this is unless they have been addicted to nicotine and I totally agree.