I don't think it's by accident that I was first attracted to translating two French women poets.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I was always interested in French poetry sort of as a sideline to my own work, I was translating contemporary French poets. That kind of spilled out into translation as a way to earn money, pay for food and put bread on the table.
quote by Paul Auster
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter LXXXII: Accident
It’s not a terrorist attack
It’s not a battle of war
It’s just an accident
It’s not natural disaster
It’s not global tragedy
It’s just an accident
It’s not a conspiracy theory
It’s not a character murder
It’s just an accident
It’s not a careless mistake
It’s not a wrong decision
It’s just an accident
It’s not a misfortune
It’s not a twisted fate
It’s just an accident
It’s not a planned piracy
It’s not a suicide party
It’s just an accident
It’s not a mechanical failure
It’s not a human error
It’s just an accident
It’s not a crash
It’s not a downfall
It’s just an accident
poem by Maria Sudibyo
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Good Poets and Bad Poets
Some poets get awards and think they are good poets.
Some poets never get awards and think they are bad poets.
Some poets think they are good poets only in their own mind
Some poets think they are bad poets in somebody's else mind.
Some poets think they are good poets in somebody else mind.
Some poets think others think they are good poets but they don't in their hearts.
Some poets think they are good poets in their hearts but not in anyone else's mind.
All are insecure, except those who get security from the opinions of others and that, alas, doesn't last and isn't real.
Some poets have left the entire scene and live only in their mind.
Some poets take criticism and don't mind.
Some poets avoid criticism and do mind.
Some poets write poetry to get love.
Some poets love to write poetry.
Some poets are ahead of their time, in their mind
Some poets spend a lifetime feeling like failures in their mind
Some poets live only after they die.
Some poets have much to say but can't articulate
Some poets retreat, believing others don't understand
So which one of these am I?
I guess I am all of these and none of these
and no matter what my description
I intend to keep doing what I do:
Write. Right
poem by Lonnie Hicks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I'M TIRED OF WOMEN...by talile ali
I'M TIRED OF WOMEN
I'M TIRED OF STRIFE
TIRED OF LOVING
TOO HIGH OF A PRICE
I'M TIRED OF SMOOTCHIN
I'M TIRED OF HUGS
I'M TIRED OF EYE GLANCES
I WANT MORE OF THOSE SHRUGS
ALL OF YOU WOMEN
THINK MEN ARE SO BLIND
TREAT US ALL LIKE CATTLE
TO MILK AND ENTWINE
I TIRED OF DEALIN WITH DUCKED UP WOMEN
I'M SIGNING OFF WOMEN
GIVEN THEM UP INSTEAD
I'D RATHER BE SANE NOW
DON'T WANNA BE DEAD
SO IF YOU'RE ATTRACTED
TO ME WHILE IM OUT
I'M TELLING YOU WOMEN
AS LOUD AS I CAN SHOUT
I'M TIRED OF YOU WOMEN
OF ALL THE ABUSE
OF ALL THE LOST MOMENTS
OF ALL THE SPENT TRUTHS
DON'T WANNA BE YOUR CONFIDANT
DON'T WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND
STAY AWAY FROM ME WOMEN
YOUR DESIRE WILL BE MY END
SO AS I MARCH ON
STAY OUTTA MY WAY
I'M TIRED OF YOU WOMEN
GET AWAY FROM ME,
OK?
poem by Talile Ali
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I have a prejudice against people who print things in a foreign language and add no translation. When I am the reader, and the other considers me able to do the translating myself, he pays me the quite a nice compliment-- but if he would do the translating for me I would try to get along without the compliment. (A Tramp Abroad,1880)
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I think that the day you've figured out the differences between women and men is the day that you're no longer attracted to women. It's the difference that is so fantastic and frustrating and angering, and really sexy.
quote by Kiefer Sutherland
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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In the world of poetry there are would-be poets, workshop poets, promising poets, lovesick poets, university poets, and a few real poets.
quote by James Broughton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My sisters were going out with artists and poets, and eventually it was the creative world which attracted me.
quote by Luc Ferrari
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I was as repelled by the French as I was attracted by their country.
quote by Margaret Anderson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Li Po (Li Bai) and Uriah
Dear Li Po,
strange things happen to poets
during their life,
especially those who like wine.
But now, more than a thousand years
after your suicide,
men have named a crater on
the planet Mercury with your name…
Mercury, the planet the Greeks called
Hermes Apollo, messenger of gods and poets;
the shining one;
although men have not been there yet.
When they do, they may find you
sitting in your crater, watching the Moon
(we think it will appear to you
two times a day instead of once…)
and drinking wine with Uriah;
(and your shadows will be there too,
tall on the crater’s slope…)
you’re teaching him Chinese;
he’s translating your poems into English
with your approval.
He’d like that. We hope you would.
A strange place for immortals to drink wine;
but poets do and say strange things;
that’s why we love them, just as
children love surprises,
dear Li Po.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Reggae Accident
Reggae accident
By: lucas p. gravell
1993
-- spoken:
Okay now, get ready heres your part. now listen to me.
It was a reggae accident
I said a reggae accident
I cant here you
A reggae accident
A reggae accident
A reggae accident
Now make room for the band
A reggae accident
Here they come here they come
A reggae accident
I say make room for them
A reggae accident
Ha ha, look out now
It was a reggae accident
A reggae accident
This is not a political statement
Nor is it a farce
In the land of the great bald bird
The rasta man is sparse
He does not like our urban jungle
Or our capitalistic nightmare
He does not believe in auto insurance
Mon I dont believe that is fair
It was a reggae accident
Four rastas in a rambler
A reggae accident
They came from out of nowhere
A reggae accident
They were smoking some spliff cigars
A reggae accident
They totaled out my car
I lost the case that sealed my fate
Last week in municipal court
The judge ruled for rasta restitution
Of a most peculiar sort
Now theres four stoned faces at my dinner table
And my wife wonders how come
She does not mind the extra mouths to feed
As much as she minds those after dinner drums
We sing was a reggae accident
Four rastas eating pasta
A reggae accident
Pass the parmesan please
A reggae accident
How does a rasta spell relief
A reggae accident
No problem mon, pass the spliff
Oh reggae down...
Now the sun shines on the isle of jamaica
As its done since time began
No problem says the rasta mon
When I asked to join his band
You see I sold my house I quit my job
I left that narrow-minded wife
And I moved to the island of jamaica ya
Just to live that rasta life
It was a reggae accident
Four rastas in a rambler
A reggae accident
They came from out of nowhere
A reggae accident
They were smoking some spliff cigars
A reggae accident
Now Ive become a rasta star
It was a reggae accident
Look out world
A reggae accident
You know the harder they come
A reggae accident
The harder they fall one and all
A reggae accident
It was just an accident one day
A reggae accident
A reggae accident
A reggae accident
A reggae accident
-- spoken:
Come back, come back to jamaica
Come back to the way things used to be
Ya, ya lets play some dominoes now mon
Come on...
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn't that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I'd already been translating French poetry, I'd been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went.
quote by Paul Auster
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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French women have been made beautiful by the French people - they're very aware of their bodies, the way they move and speak, they're very confident of their sexuality. French society's made them like that.
quote by Charlotte Rampling
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The earth? A cosmic accident. The life? A chemical accident. The man? A biological accident.
aphorism by Valeriu Butulescu, translated by Dan Costinaş
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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I tend to like very bitchy women. I find myself most attracted to smart, sarcastic, bitchy women.
quote by Lea DeLaria
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I don't know what women are attracted to. I can't tell, but certainly I have no notion of having sex appeal or being seductive in any way.
quote by Omar Sharif
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
quote by T.S. Eliot (1920)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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0005 Totally Boring Poem
I’m totally bored by:
poems that sound like other poems
poems that try to sound unlike any other poems
poets who never take risks
poets who think that taking risks
makes them good poets
poems with 'meaning'
poems with no meaning
poets who slag off other poets
as if that achieves something
poets that tell you that rhyme
is not for an age but for all time
poets that tell you that rhyme is outmoded and boring
poets who think that the poetry of 'the past'
is greater than that of 'the present'
poets who think that the poetry of 'the present'
is greater than that of 'the past'
poems that tell you the poet's the first to discover sex
poets that tell you they’re the best sex you’ll ever have
although you’ll never meet them to find out
poets that tell you they’ve been dumped
poets who've never known love and being dumped
poets who are ambitious
poets who are unambitious
poets who tell you all about higher things
poets who reject higher things
poets who think life’s just a joke
poets who think life’s no joke
poets who sit on the fence
poets who have no sense of balance
poets who despise 'the middle ground'
poets who talk about technique
poets with no technique
poets who just throw down their thoughts
poets who 'work up' their poems to a self-satisfied polish
poets who list what they like (who cares?)
poets who list what don’t like (who cares?)
poets who write about extreme states
poets who think they’re immune to extreme states
poets who tell you why they’re bored
poets who have opinions
poets who seem to have no opinions at all
poets who have boring opinions to air - why choose poetry?
poets who comment on others' poems
as if it's the last word
poets who never bother to comment
on others' poems
poets who don't love poetry passionately
poets who tell you they 'love poetry passionately'
poets who – oh I’m too bored to go on reading this,
how about you?
I suppose you have boring opinions too?
another time perhaps
and oh yes I'm most of all bored by
those who waste their precious time on this earth
being bored
well I feel better for that.
how about you?
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The irony is that the more unapologetically sexist men are in movies, the more women tend to be attracted to them in person.
quote by Jon Favreau
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We As Poets
We as poets must command a sacred accent over a language of our choice,
We as poets must gift the minds of a failing generation,
We as poets must demand a clear explanation and a fair occupation,
We as poets must dissolve into particles and dust if we have not known enough,
We as poets must destroy the living standards of low quality,
We are to be the poetry of utmost perception and suffering.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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