General Chat

IF.....

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

From Les Miserables

You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.
The great acts of love, are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.
We pardon to the extent that we love.
Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again.
Great happiness of life, is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, and even in spite of ourselves.

Just don't do something! Sit there!

'Marrige is a wonderful thing. I've been in love with the same woman for 30 yrs.

If my wife ever finds out, she will kill me '.

That would be an Irish mile I suppose. The Irish give you good value for your walking!

"Before you abuse, criticize, and accuse, walk a mile in my shoes."

Catholic Vocabulary. (Anon).
----------------------------

Amen: The only prayer that everyone knows.

Bulletin: Parish information to be read only during the homily & to act as your receipt for attending Mass.

Choir: A group of people whose singing allows the rest of the congregation to lip-sync.

Holy Water: A liquid whose family is H2OLY

Hymn: A song of praise usually sung in a key three octaves higher than that of the congregation’s range.

Hymn (Recessional): The last song at Mass, often sung a little more quietly since most of the people have left.

Incense: Holy smoke!

Jonah: The original ‘Jaws’ story.

Justice: When children have children of their own.

Kyrie Elleison: The only Greek words that most Catholics can recognise besides gyros & balaclava.

Manger: Where Mary gave birth to Jesus because Joseph wasn’t covered by the NHS.

Pew: A medieval torture device still found in Catholic Churches.

Procession: The ceremonial formation at the beginning of Mass, consisting of alter servers, the Priest & late arrivals looking for seats.

Relics: People who have been going to church for so long they actually know when to sit, kneel or stand.

Ushers: The only people in the parish who don’t know the seating capacity of a pew.

Dermot

What would we do without reading your abundance of poems and Sayings. I cannot say which I have enjoyed the most as I have read them all several times.

Thank you.

Life After School - by David Prowse
(Published in The Western Morning News - January 2011).
----------------------------------

At school, I talked with classmates with their plans already made
As to how they'd make a living and the nature of their trade.

They seemed to know exactly how their aims would be achieved
While I lacked every semblance of the order they perceived.

I was too much of a dreamer and already growing tired
Of the academic disciplines their strategies required.

My mind cried out for freedom and my heart demanded more
Than playing to a tune where I already knew the score.

By natural inclination, I had farming in my blood
But my father's meagre acres killed the blossom in the bud.

So a voyage of discovery seemed the only thing to do,
I was young, the world was waiting and my basic needs were few.

Dockyard worker, labourer, delivering milk and bread
In Kensal Rise and Cricklewood while the birds were still in bed.

Writing home to Mother, saying all was going well
In Edgware, Harlseden, Neasden, or the Cumberland Hotel.

I could always find employment, I could always pay my way
And I met folks I'll recall as friends until my dying day.

I mixed with all complexions while discovering within
There was common ground between us caring nothing for our skin.

That was my apprenticeship and when its course was run,
I packed my few possessions and I knew that it was done.

The innocent had tasted life, he'd seen the other side
And learned more through the span of it than volumes could provide.

There are aspects of development that text-books cannot teach,
They can only offer theories of a world that's out of reach.

It's cold and unforgiving out beyond the campus gate
Where lessons learned the hard way can be lessons learned too late.

A gap-year for a student seems indulgent and benign
But I see it as essential to careers along the line.

It's a time of self-discovery with reminders in its wake
That learning has no purpose if it's just for learning's sake.

Be bold, brave youth, go stretch your wings, be not afraid to fly
For never more will you be young beneath an open sky.

However vast the library of books you leave behind,
Experience is knowledge of a more enduring kind.

Sometimes (by Sheenagh Pugh)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes things don't go at all,
from bad to worse. Some years muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives;the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man; decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

"Far Hiv Ye Bin?" = "Where have you been? "
(Doric Dialect)

Dermot

How powerful this poem is?! I have read twice now and without a doubt I shall add this to my personal list of wonderful poems.

Thank you for posting it.

Bridget

Refugee Blues by W H Auden (1939) .

--------------------

Say this city has ten million souls,
Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:
Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair,
Look in the atlas and you'll find it there:
We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

In the village churchyard there grows an old yew,
Every spring it blossoms anew;
Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.

The consul banged the table and said:
"If you've got no passport you're officially dead";
But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go today, my dear, but where shall we go today?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said:
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread";
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was Hitler over Europe, saying: "They must die";
We were in his mind, my dear, we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin,
Saw a door opened and a cat let in:
But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.

Went down to the harbour and stood upon the quay,
Saw the fish swimming as if they were free:
Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;
They had no politicians and sang at their ease:
They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors,
A thousand windows and a thousand doors;
Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow;
Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro:
Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

I just thought that I must find another poem or saying so that I can add to my thread.

I am so amazed that this thread has lasted so long and feel that I must say " Well done everyone,I never anticipated who successfully this would be. Welcome to people who have joined us recently, I look forward to more sayings etc.
If anyone has any ideas to help getting our brain stems working to either expand or add to this thread please feel free to tell us.

Now I must go and feed my Cocker Spaniels, jet and Zoe, plus my OH.

Enjoy your day
:-)

These Dog Days - Poem.
-----------------------------------

These Dog Days are long and hot
Makes me wish to find a spot
To cool off, maybe find a breeze
Under the shade of some giant trees.

To lay back and rest a bit
Or grab a cool drink and just sit
Pondering some cooler days,
And avoid the sun’s blistering rays.

Feeling lazy in this heat
Cooling the bottoms of my feet
After dashing across a burning walk
It’s just too humid to even talk.

Watching the sun slide down the sky
While ice cream melts, despite how I try
To lick the cone quick and clean
The gooey liquid runs in a stream

Down my hands and arms and stays
Stuck like glue on these Dog Days.

I'm not too sure if I'm indecisive.

I have read all the recent entries and remain delighted at how so many new people are joining us with fresh and new entries and so happy that those who were with me right at the beginning of this thread.

I must ask my granddaughter E if she has any special poems or sayings.

Bye for now from a very hot Bridget, hot because our temp outside is now 34 and no breeze whatsoever!

Does anyone know a poem about Heat???

Bridget

Something I recently read in a book of words for "seniors":

What if the Hokey-Cokey really IS what it's all about?

I love The Highwayman.

JUDGED BY THE COMPANY ONE KEEPS.
Unknown

One night in late October,
When I was far from sober,
Returning with my load with manly pride,
My feet began to stutter,
So I lay down in the gutter,
And a pig came near and lay down by my side;
A lady passing by was heard to say:
"You can tell a man who boozes,
By the company he chooses,"
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.





SLEEPIN' AT THE FOOT O' THE BED
Luther Patrick

Did ye ever sleep at the foot o' the bed
When the weather was whizzen cold,
When the wind wuz a-whistlen aroun' the house
And the moon wuz yeller ez gold,
An give yore good warm feathers up
To Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Fred-
Too many kinfolks on a bad, raw night
And you went to the foot o' the bed-
Fer some dern reason the coldest night o' the season
An' you wuz sent to the foot o' the bed.

I could allus wait till the old folks et
An' then eat the leavin's with grace,
The teacher could keep me after school,
An' I'd still hold a smile on my face,
I could wear the big boys' wore-out clothes
Er let sister have my sled,
But it allus did git my nanny goat
To have to sleep at the foot o' the bed;
They's not a location topside o' creation
That I hate like the foot o' the bed.

'Twuz fine enough when the kinfolks come-
The kids brought brand-new games,
You could see how fat the old folks wuz,
An' learn all the babies' names,
Had biscuits an' custard and chicken pie,
An' allus got Sunday fed,
But you knowed durn well when night come on
You wuz headed fer the foot o' the bed;
You couldn't git by it, they wuz no use to try it,
You wuz headed fer the foot o' the bed.

They tell me that some folks don't know whut it is
To have company all over the place,
To rassel fer cover thru a long winter night
With a big foot settin' in your face,
Er with cold toenails a-scratchin' yore back
An' a footboard a-scrubbin' yore head;
I'll tell the wide world you ain't lost a thing
Never sleepin' at the foot o' the bed;
You can live jest as gladly an' die jest as sadly
'N' never sleep at the foot o' the bed.

I've done it, an' I've done it a many uv a time
In this land o' brave an' the free,
An' in this all-fired battle of life
It's done left it's mark upon me,
Fer I'm allus a-strugglin around at the foot
Instead of forgin' ahead,
An' i don't think it's caused by a doggone thing
But sleepin' at the foot o' the bed;
I've lost all my claim on fortune an' fame,
A-sleepin' at the foot o' the bed.

Ruby and Dermot, thank you for your entries, I had not read either of these two before .
I must put my brain into action and try to recall another entry.

Bridget :-D