I simply love Ogden Nash. He's best know for his light verse and "pun-like" rhymes. My favorite is "I Did Not Go to Church Today"...
I didn't go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done
We'll have plenty of time together.
I like poetry. It´s difficult to say what´s my favorite of all time, because I like tings coming from Ancient Grece to today. Also, I am not really sure if some of the great poets who write in Portuguese have a good translation, and I don´t have english level to dare to translate poetry. Fernando Pessoa, for example, is a brilliant Portuguese poet.
I love poetry. I use to write when I was younger. I had an Uncle that I was very close to die of AIDS a week before my birthday it was a good coping thing for me. I wonder if I can find any of my poems............. to the storage unit I go this weekend!
Wow Marisa, sounds fun! I need to see if I can find a cheap copy in Brazil, or put in my wishlist for when I finally get my e-book reader (hope to get it for my b-day in June)
I have lots of favorite poems, but my blurted answer is Invictus. I don't know why I would choose it over the others, but as a true favorite, it's the first one I want to say. Most know it, but I don't think everyone knows it by the title, so ...
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Have loved this since I first read it in high school...
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I wrote poetry like a mad woman in high school, have a whole notebook full...most love related but some were fun a quirky too! I wish i could get back into it but I lost that kind of creativity....
I wrote poetry like a mad person in high school also - notebooks and notebooks and notebooks of it! I still have some of them here in my garage somewhere, I'll have to see what I can find!
Thanks for sharing your favorite poems with me everyone!
My favourite poem is "Somebody should have taught him" from chicken soup for the teenage soul as retold by Jane Watkins.
Its sad but super powerful.
I went to a birthday party
But I remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink at all,
So I had a Sprite instead.
I felt proud of myself,
The way you said I would,
That I didn’t choose to drink and drive,
Though some friends said I should.
I knew I made a healthy choice
And your advice to me was right
As the party finally ended
And the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car,
Sure to get home in one piece,
Never knowing what was coming,
Something I expected least.
Now I’m lying on the pavement,
I can hear the policeman say
“The kid that caused this wreck was drunk”.
His voice seems far away.
My own blood is all around me,
As I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the paramedic say,
“This girl is going to die.”
I’m sure the guy had no idea,
While he was flying high,
Because he chose to drink and
Drive that I would have to die.
So why do people do it,
Knowing that it ruins lives?
But now the pain is cutting me like
A hundred stabbing knives.
Tell my sister not to be afraid,
Tell daddy to be brave,
And when I go to heaven to put
“Daddy’s Girl” on my grave.
Someone should have taught him
That it is wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his mom and dad had
I’d still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter,
I’m getting really scared.
These are my final moments,
And I’m so unprepared.
I wish that you could hold me mom,
As I lie here and die.
I wish that I could say I love you
And good-bye.
Is it cheating if I say that my favorite poem is one I wrote? It's from January 2000, a couple of weeks after my daughter was born. Here it is...
Birthwarrior
Like the crashing waves on the beach
the crescendo of rushes waits
for nothing
as I silently implore them --
"I'm not ready! It's too soon!"
But, of course, it isn't.
Marking their own time,
demanding that I
LISTEN
FOCUS
WORK...
Overwhelming in their ferocity,
these rushes inspire such strength
as I have rarely drawn from...
COLLEEN will be here soon
Colleen WILL BE here soon
Colleen will be HERE soon
Colleen will be here SOON
HEAR the children playing in the park,
laughing in their innocence,
oblivious
to the seriousness of events
unfolding here.
IT will be over soon
It WILL BE over soon
It will be OVER soon
It will be over SOON
LOOK at the wallpaper border
peeling in the corner.
FEEL the warm water
Enveloping
Soothing
Relaxing
I can do this
i CAN do this
i can DO this
i can do THIS
Urgency necessitates the Wild Woman,
the Birth Warrior,
emerge from her dwelling place.
She rises from my psyche
Strong
Beautiful
Keeping me going when
I think I am done.
"The cord is around her neck.
This must be over now."
This bit of wisdom whispers from...
I don't know where...
Bearing down
Drawing on the Wild Woman within
...the dignity of sharing life
with one who will break
my heart
and mend it in so many ways.
Little big head
Shoulders one day
carrying the weight of the world
Struggling to be free --
the first of many struggles
to be free of me.
I did it!
She's here!
I did it!
So blue...
But a fire from within
gasps for air...
Relief!
Eyes wide open
after the shock of it all.
All is quiet...
the Birth Warrior
and her little girl
drink each other in.
There are tons of them I love on my native. But hard to translate to English But in English, I love the poem Annabel Lee from Edgar Allan Poe. It has also an unbelievable Turkish translate which written down by a gigantic Turkish poet. And this translate is more beautiful the original poem.
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
I simply love Ogden Nash. He's best know for his light verse and "pun-like" rhymes. My favorite is "I Did Not Go to Church Today"...
I didn't go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done
We'll have plenty of time together.
I like poetry. It´s difficult to say what´s my favorite of all time, because I like tings coming from Ancient Grece to today. Also, I am not really sure if some of the great poets who write in Portuguese have a good translation, and I don´t have english level to dare to translate poetry. Fernando Pessoa, for example, is a brilliant Portuguese poet.
I love poetry. I use to write when I was younger. I had an Uncle that I was very close to die of AIDS a week before my birthday it was a good coping thing for me. I wonder if I can find any of my poems............. to the storage unit I go this weekend!
@Lorien: Not related to poetry except that this novel by Laurie King has a fictionalized Fernando Pessoa.
Wow Marisa, sounds fun! I need to see if I can find a cheap copy in Brazil, or put in my wishlist for when I finally get my e-book reader (hope to get it for my b-day in June)
I have lots of favorite poems, but my blurted answer is Invictus. I don't know why I would choose it over the others, but as a true favorite, it's the first one I want to say. Most know it, but I don't think everyone knows it by the title, so ...
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Have loved this since I first read it in high school...
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
I wrote poetry like a mad woman in high school, have a whole notebook full...most love related but some were fun a quirky too! I wish i could get back into it but I lost that kind of creativity....
@Jodi: I was going to post that one! LOL (great minds think alike) Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets...
I wrote poetry like a mad person in high school also - notebooks and notebooks and notebooks of it! I still have some of them here in my garage somewhere, I'll have to see what I can find!
Thanks for sharing your favorite poems with me everyone!
My favourite poem is "Somebody should have taught him" from chicken soup for the teenage soul as retold by Jane Watkins.
Its sad but super powerful.
I went to a birthday party
But I remembered what you said.
You told me not to drink at all,
So I had a Sprite instead.
I felt proud of myself,
The way you said I would,
That I didn’t choose to drink and drive,
Though some friends said I should.
I knew I made a healthy choice
And your advice to me was right
As the party finally ended
And the kids drove out of sight.
I got into my car,
Sure to get home in one piece,
Never knowing what was coming,
Something I expected least.
Now I’m lying on the pavement,
I can hear the policeman say
“The kid that caused this wreck was drunk”.
His voice seems far away.
My own blood is all around me,
As I try hard not to cry.
I can hear the paramedic say,
“This girl is going to die.”
I’m sure the guy had no idea,
While he was flying high,
Because he chose to drink and
Drive that I would have to die.
So why do people do it,
Knowing that it ruins lives?
But now the pain is cutting me like
A hundred stabbing knives.
Tell my sister not to be afraid,
Tell daddy to be brave,
And when I go to heaven to put
“Daddy’s Girl” on my grave.
Someone should have taught him
That it is wrong to drink and drive.
Maybe if his mom and dad had
I’d still be alive.
My breath is getting shorter,
I’m getting really scared.
These are my final moments,
And I’m so unprepared.
I wish that you could hold me mom,
As I lie here and die.
I wish that I could say I love you
And good-bye.
Is it cheating if I say that my favorite poem is one I wrote? It's from January 2000, a couple of weeks after my daughter was born. Here it is...
Birthwarrior
Like the crashing waves on the beach
the crescendo of rushes waits
for nothing
as I silently implore them --
"I'm not ready! It's too soon!"
But, of course, it isn't.
Marking their own time,
demanding that I
LISTEN
FOCUS
WORK...
Overwhelming in their ferocity,
these rushes inspire such strength
as I have rarely drawn from...
COLLEEN will be here soon
Colleen WILL BE here soon
Colleen will be HERE soon
Colleen will be here SOON
HEAR the children playing in the park,
laughing in their innocence,
oblivious
to the seriousness of events
unfolding here.
IT will be over soon
It WILL BE over soon
It will be OVER soon
It will be over SOON
LOOK at the wallpaper border
peeling in the corner.
FEEL the warm water
Enveloping
Soothing
Relaxing
I can do this
i CAN do this
i can DO this
i can do THIS
Urgency necessitates the Wild Woman,
the Birth Warrior,
emerge from her dwelling place.
She rises from my psyche
Strong
Beautiful
Keeping me going when
I think I am done.
"The cord is around her neck.
This must be over now."
This bit of wisdom whispers from...
I don't know where...
Bearing down
Drawing on the Wild Woman within
...the dignity of sharing life
with one who will break
my heart
and mend it in so many ways.
Little big head
Shoulders one day
carrying the weight of the world
Struggling to be free --
the first of many struggles
to be free of me.
I did it!
She's here!
I did it!
So blue...
But a fire from within
gasps for air...
Relief!
Eyes wide open
after the shock of it all.
All is quiet...
the Birth Warrior
and her little girl
drink each other in.
~LWZ (c) 2000
There are tons of them I love on my native. But hard to translate to English
But in English, I love the poem Annabel Lee from Edgar Allan Poe. It has also an unbelievable Turkish translate which written down by a gigantic Turkish poet. And this translate is more beautiful the original poem.
I carry your heart by E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
I am an Alice in Wonderland fanatic so mine is Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.
Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
gardener
We gave you a chance
To water the plants.
We didn't mean that way --
Now zip up your pants.
Shel Silverstein