General Chat

Spanish eyes, Re "If questioning would make us wise"By Christopher Brennan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Il0JjMZWnQ

My all time Favorite is "Somewhere over the Rainbow" sung by Judy Garland,

However Loved this Singer :Connie Talbot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MndLRdPsuJE

I'm over 80 , I can Dream can't I ?.

Elizabeth. Nice Poems.

Bill in Oz .

'Intellectual knowledge was scorned in feudal times'.

In Memory Of My Mother
(by Patrick Kavanagh 1904-1967).

I do not think of you lying in the wet clay
Of a Monaghan graveyard; I see
You walking down a lane among the poplars
On your way to the station, or happily

Going to second Mass on a summer Sunday--
You meet me and you say:
'Don't forget to see about the cattle--'
Among your earthiest words the angels stray.

And I think of you walking along a headland
Of green oats in June,
So full of repose, so rich with life--
And I see us meeting at the end of a town

On a fair day by accident, after
The bargains are all made and we can walk
Together through the shops and stalls and markets
Free in the oriental streets of thought.

O you are not lying in the wet clay,
For it is harvest evening now and we
Are piling up the ricks against the moonlight
And you smile up at us -- eternally.

Hooked - the pressures of youth.

(A cautionary tale composed by a 12 year-old at our local school).

I am the kid who puts on a show;
Game for anything - never says ‘No’.

I am the kid who loves a good joke;
The ‘lad’, the ‘man’, the really good bloke.
I am the kid who wants to be cool;
Pressured to fight, to break every rule.
I am the kid who must be accepted;
Does what he’s told in case he’s rejected.

I am the kid so desperate to grow;
I am the kid who cannot say ‘no’.

I’m wanted & needed; the feeling’s so good;
My mates are hard; we’re so feared in the hood.
It started with weed; a bit of a smoke;
And ended with heroin, smack & some coke.
A knife for protection & then came a gun;
And life became different - no longer fun.

I am the kid who must go with the flow;
I am the kid too scared to say ‘No’.

I am the kid dependent on dope;
I’ll do anything for drugs - a life with no hope.
I steal, I fight, I do what I’m told.
My mates push me on - they’re cool & I’m bold.
And now that I’m hooked, along comes the day;
I must prove my worth & pay my way.

I was the kid, stoned out of his head;
Whose really cool mates just left him for dead.

I was the kid who did it for show;
Game for anything - just couldn’t say ‘No’.

"Translations"

Beautiful words caressed the air that evening
As I sat there entranced
Fragile creatures at the mercy of an outside force
Yet they had language to fall upon
A Gaelic tongue, Ovid Homer, Virgil too
A repose in time
That tries to thwart the sword that pierces the soul
The soul of their lives
Their existence
I was with them that night !!

“It's not that I want you to go, it's just that I don't want you to stay."

(China Sorrows - Derek Landy, Mortal Coil.)

Somewhere above my little dog waits,
She patiently sits at the glittering gate,
Her eyes once clouded are glistening and clear,
Her ears long deaf prick when my voice she hears,
When she sees me she'll bound high and low,
On legs that used to be stiff and slow.
Instead of a collar she wears a circle of light,
She'll welcome me home, all things will be right.

It was the best of times and the worst of times.... Tales to two cities

'In a really just cause, the weak conquers the strong'.

(Sophocles - an ancient Greek tragedian.)

Vera I love that poem

Goodness, there are some lovely poems here, so full of feeling - Here's one more short offering from Siefried Sasoon.

You smugfaced crowds
With kindling eye,
Who cheer when soldier lads go by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Another one of Edward Thomas. (Adlestrop is a village in Gloucestershire). There is a recording of Richard Burton reading this on:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0J1Ze5QXG8.


Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop -- only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire

I recently went to a talk about the poet Edward Thomas; someone I hadn't come across before. This very short poem seemed appropriate at a time when we are remembering WW1.

In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Missed So Dearly.

Missed in the morning of every day.
Missed in the evening as the light fades away.
Missed in a thousand & one little ways,
Around every corner a memory stays.

No one knows the pain we bear;
When we meet & you’re not there.
We talk, we laugh & we play our part.
But behind it all lie many broken hearts.

You gave us years of happiness.
Then sorrow came with tears.
You left us lovely memories,
We will treasure them through the years.

(Words penned by a colleague in honour of her late uncle.)

Loveliest of the trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a sore,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A Shopshire lad - A.E.Housman.

Oh, that's great SuffolkVera. I'm sorry about your friends cat and I hope the poem brings her some comfort. Ann, I learned The Donkey' as well, at school; I've always loved it, although 'the devils walking parody' always seemed to be to be a bit of a tough description of these lovely stoic creatures!!!

Dermot, The Donkey brought back memories for me as I had to recite that when I was about 13 at a church musical festival. :-)

How is this for a coincidence? I have just received an email from a friend in Canada. She is 82 and lives alone and has just had to have her beloved cat put to sleep. I've copied your poem out Magpie and sent it to her. It may give her a little comfort.

Thank you - It just hit the spot with me and summed up exactly how OH and I f felt.

What a lovely piece Magpie. It will strike a chord with so many people