Preface
First, plain speech in the mother tongue.
Hearing it, you should be able to see
Apple trees, a river, the bend of a road,
As if in a flash of summer lightning.
And it should contain more than images.
It has been lured by singsong,
A daydream, melody. Defenseless,
It was bypassed by the sharp, dry world.
You often ask yourself why you feel shame
Whenever you look through a book of poetry.
As if the author, for reasons unclear to you,
Addressed the worse side of your nature,
Pushing aside thought, cheating thought.
Seasoned with jokes, clowning, satire,
Poetry still knows how to please.
Then its excellence is much admired.
But the grave combats where life is at stake
Are fought in prose. It was not always so.
And our regret has remained unconfessed.
Novels and essays serve but will not last.
One clear stanza can take more weight
Than a whole wagon of elaborate prose.
poem by Czeslaw Milosz
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Related quotes
Right Across The River Bend
Right across the river bend there’s a warm gentle breeze.
Right across the river-bend are trees with yellow leaves.
Right across the river bend the water reflects the sun.
Right across the river bend is a smell of innocence.
Right across the river bend a robin’s egg is broken.
Right across the river-bend are peaceful mountain valleys.
Right across the river bend a dandelion is carried.
Right across the river bend are fields of shiny green grass.
Right across the riverbend are memories made to last.
poem by Alicia Page
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Storm...
i remember
i did not stop the car
as i brace myself
for the well announced
storm
large drops of rain
hitting the windshield
there is no
road visible
lightning and thunder
hitting the trees
with a flash of
ghostly images
i was always
ready
i had no one
and no one
had me....
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Summer And Lightning
I have waited
For your love
For so long
How do I go on?
I have told you
So many times
It's no good
You're treating me so wrong
Out there so far away
Above the sky will say
For you
Here it comes again
It's all around me
It must be magic
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I can see you
In my mind
The lost time
That you're saving
I could reach out
And touch you
What can I do?
The sun ain't shining
Out there so far away
Above the sky will say
For you
Only for you
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
It's all around me (summer and lightning)
It must be magic (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Here it comes again
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
It's all around me (summer and lightning)
It must be magic (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
I can feel it (summer and lightning)
It's all around me (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
song performed by by Electric Light Orchestra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Summer & Lightning
I have waited
For your love
For so long
How do I go on?
I have told you
So many times
Its no good
Youre treating me so wrong.
Out there so far away
Above the sky will say
For you...
Here it comes again
Its all around me
It must be magic
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can see you
In my mind
The lost time
That youre saving
I could reach out
And touch you
What can I do?
The sun aint shining.
Out there so far away
Above the sky will say
For you...
Only for you.
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
Its all around me (summer and lightning)
It must be magic (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here it comes again.
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
Its all around me (summer and lightning)
It must be magic (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here it comes again (summer and lightning)
I can feel it (summer and lightning)
Its all around me (summer and lightning)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
song performed by by Electric Light Orchestra
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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We Keep You Going
not just me
but we, we keep you going
riding on that train
the images meeting you
in a flash
of lightning
without the sound
of muscular thunder
the white wings
of solitude
heigtened in your haiku
the clouds of the
dry land
the rain trying to
make a new river
on that dry
bed
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Apple
red shiny apple
in your
throat, do you still breathe inside your heart?
red shiny apple
between my legs these friends of my thighs
i am a tree and you are that woman
craving for the red shiny apple
in my garden
i do not claim innocence for my wanton actions
before the snake and
my God
i will say i will always love you
bend over me woman and i will lay open my mouth
fill it with your tongue
pour in the drops of apple juice
to my cracking lips
water my garden and fill it with flowers from your hair
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Summer Light...
Summer Light -Thru the Trees
Summer Light - Spotted Me
Summer Light - Palest Gold
Summer Light - Bright and Bold
I Saw Summer Light Descend
Summer Light, Made Shadows Bend
Summer Light, On An Emerald Pond
I Reached Out… It Touched My Palm
Summer Light, It Fell Like Powder
Or a Floating Incandescent Feather
Came Down, Like A Sheer, White Swan
Summer Light – Lifted Wing-Like Arms
So Sunrays Slanted – Shone-Misty
Summer Light-Beams, Embraced Me
Warm, Wonderful Summer Light
Touch Me Tender, Solar- Might
Summer Light, When I Was Lost
Summer Light, Found Me Before Frost
Summer Light - None Else Looked For Me…
Summer Light Said, “I Always See…”
I Love Summer Light
poem by MoonBee Canady
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Theatrics Of The Mind
rain-lightning-thunder
sping-summer-autumn- winter
speech-mind
passion-love-hurt-tears
the one thing
weather does school
is the theatric of mind
speech - crystal clear as
wordsworth's azure sky
loud as emperor's qin's chariots
thundering through the wild
cold as hitler's murderous command
unnerving the jewish souls
hot and passionate as yang kui fei
tearing down the tang emperor's swathes
brown and poignant as Clare's autumnal love
speech - the pranks of life
in all colours
spring, summer, autumn, winter
sincerity, lies
mechanism to the heart of the soul
just listen to the wind, storm, thunder, lightning
children run through a school
in the field
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Oranges On Apple Trees
Oranges on apple trees
Birds that mate with bumblebees
Oranges on apple trees
Water comes and water goes
Where it ends up no one really knows
Water rises, water falls
Where it comes from no one knows for sure
It seeps from every pore
We have seen the rain before
Not like this - its flooding every shore
People come and people go
I can hear their laughter through the door
But no ones keeping score
Oranges on apple trees
Birds that mate with bumblebees
One big happy family
Endless possibilities
(yeah and more)
Oranges and apple trees
I see your face in front of me
Cant believe what no one else could see
I feel it deep inside of me
Everything we love shall be released
And everyone will see
Oranges on apple trees (for sure)
I used to be the only one
Not now since youve come
You and I have seen the signs
Thats why the wind died
The wind died
Thats why oranges on apple trees
Birds that mate with bumblebees
Endless possibilities (now)
Oranges on apple trees
All the things that we can see
Multi-gender wannabes
Oranges on apple trees
Birds that mate with bumblebees
One big happy family
Endless possibilities (yeah yeah yeah)
Oranges on apple trees (for sure)
song performed by by A-Ha
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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From the Green Eye
Eye the river which is formed by why.
Eye as for the river my mind has been formed by the why.
From the green eye which is older than the last bend now strait.
Eye of the blood from one person the river of ancient times.
And as human as the world,
like the river you were brought up why deeply.
The dawn is young, for you why me who she is and I.
When hearing, rising up from the mud and singing.
The river which is formed by the first ancient why.
Ancient times, dusky river filled over in mist.
Eye for my mind,
like the river you were brought up to rise deeply, bloody why.
poem by Is It Poetry
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Prisoners
Though the road turn at last
to death’s ordinary door,
and we knock there, ready
to enter and it opens
easily for us,
yet
all the long journey
we shall have gone in chains,
fed on knowledge-apples
acrid and riddled with grubs.
We taste other food that life,
like a charitable farm-girl,
holds out to us as we pass—
but our mouths are puckered,
a taint of ash on the tongue.
It’s not joy that we’ve lost—
wildfire, it flares
in dark or shine as it will.
What’s gone
is common happiness,
plain bread we could eat
with the old apple of knowledge.
That old one—it griped us sometimes,
but it was firm, tart,
sometimes delectable ...
The ashen apple of these days
grew from poisoned soil. We are prisoners
and must eat
our ration. All the long road
in chains, even if, after all,
we come to
death’s ordinary door, with time
smiling its ordinary
long-ago smile.
poem by Denise Levertov
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The Wavering Grain
Just as smoke from the fire
rises to the canopy of pine,
my eyes believe,
'thine beauty is mine.'
Observing the embers,
as they flash and die.
Through the air,
so clear and fine.
My eyes conceive.
'thine beauty is mine.'
These sights alone,
have led me to the road,
covered in gravel,
isolated in it's own
Walking past the house of the owner,
down to the river,
I studder.
For even in darkness,
a cerulean sky is above.
With a snowflake shape light,
made with stars through the night.
Gazing upon further,
a shooting star,
then,
no longer.
Like a flicker,
through a shutter,
until I have come to find,
tis not divine,
'thine beauty is mine'
And on my path back home,
a road tempts me,
but not my own.
And it sounds as if, or nay,
that the sound of life
has refrained from it today.
But I choose not to go,
for thine beauty is mine
and this night has allowed it to be so.
Plain and plentiful,
the wavering grain.
Breathes and recedes.
Through morning dew,
summer heat,
and magenta sky.
-
As dusk approaches-
its breathing subsides,
but it does not die.
For like I,
the grain,
plain and plentiful,
finds solace
in the night sky.
poem by Joseph Ostapiuk
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In Winter... I Think Of Summer
In Winter
I think of summer…
Of feverish glow
Of summer sunburn…
Of sunshine seined
Through disordered trees…
Of summer sun
The color of
Undercooked egg yolks
cool and warm
Both at once…
Of growing tree roots
Gently tilting sidewalks
And warm raindrops forming
Crystal necklaces
On the nape of the wind…
Of haloes round the moon
And rain rings on the river…
Silvered, tranquil surface, dimpled
By frogs, fry, and turtles…
Moss…
dark as old meringue
Draped close up
To cat tails…in their turn
Bearing the bright blossoms
Of red-winged blackbirds…
The rich melange
of manure and clover,
Faery rings of toadstools
Of butterflies and bumblebees…
The feel of air as thick
As a wool blanket, rasping
Upon one’s skin…
Roseate warm sunrises
Seasoned with the pepper
Of starlings…
Of lightning veined thunderclouds
And lingering images, blood red
Fading to black… strobing
Through closed eyelids…
Of hair shimmering
With unholy highlights
In the high heat
Of the summer sun…
In winter I think
At times…of Spring
And at times of Fall…
In summer
I think of winter slumber
…yet in winter…
I think of summer…
most of all
poem by David Whalen
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Unharvested
A scent of ripeness from over a wall.
And come to leave the routine road
And look for what had made me stall,
There sure enough was an apple tree
That had eased itself of its summer load,
And of all but its trivial foliage free,
Now breathed as light as a lady's fan.
For there had been an apple fall
As complete as the apple had given man.
The ground was one circle of solid red.
May something go always unharvested!
May much stay out of our stated plan,
Apples or something forgotten and left,
So smelling their sweetness would be no theft.
poem by Robert Frost
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Red Apple, Red Apple
Red apple
Red apple
sitting on the ledge
savouring its nutrients
for a few moments longer
Red apple
Red apple
Savouring its time
That is has left
As a whole
Red apple
Red apple
Traveled such a
Long way, from the store?
Farm? another country?
Red apple
Red apple
Haunting me by
The curiosity of
How juicy you taste
Red apple
Red apple
Shine on,
Red apple
poem by John McAdam
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The Road That Runs Beside The River
follows the river as it bends
along the valley floor,
going the way it must.
Where water goes, so goes the road,
if there's room (not in a ravine,
gorge), the river
on your right or left. Left is better: when you're driving,
it's over your elbow across
the road.
You see the current, which is
what the river is: the river
in the river, a thing sliding fast forward
inside a thing sliding not so fast forward.
Driving with, beside, the river's flow is good.
Another pleasure, driving against it: it's the same river
someone else will see
somewhere else downstream -- same play,
new theater, different set.
Wide, shallow, fairly fast,
roundy-stone streambed, rocky-land river,
it turns there or here -- the ground
telling it so -- draining dull
mountains to the north,
migrating, feeding a few hard-fleshed fish
who live in it. One small sandbar splits
the river, then it loops left,
the road right, and the river's silver
slips under the trees,
into the forest,
and over the sharp perpendicular
edge of the earth.
poem by Thomas Lux
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U Mess Up The Summer
u mess up the summer year around
u mess up the summer u made me frown
u mess up the summer with your rules
comeing in at 8: 00 is not cool
u mess up the summer with your games
u mess up the summer it is now plain
u mess up the summer cause you are my morther
but i am gald that we still got each other
i love you mother
L& H
poem by Moriah Puriefoy
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Yvonne of Brittany
In your mother's apple-orchard,
Just a year ago, last spring:
Do you remember, Yvonne!
The dear trees lavishing
Rain of their starry blossoms
To make you a coronet?
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
As I remember yet?
In your mother's apple-orchard,
When the world was left behind:
You were shy, so shy, Yvonne!
But your eyes were calm and kind.
We spoke of the apple harvest,
When the cider press is set,
And such-like trifles, Yvonne,
That doubtless you forget.
In the still, soft Breton twilight,
We were silent; words were few,
Till your mother came out chiding,
For the grass was bright with dew:
But I know your heart was beating,
Like a fluttered, frightened dove.
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
That first faint flush of love?
In the fulness of midsummer,
When the apple-bloom was shed,
Oh, brave was your surrender,
Though shy the words you said.
I was glad, so glad, Yvonne!
To have led you home at last;
Do you ever remember, Yvonne,
How swiftly the days passed?
In your mother's apple-orchard
It is grown too dark to stray,
There is none to chide you, Yvonne!
You are over far away.
There is dew on your grave grass, Yvonne!
But your feet it shall not wet:
No, you never remember, Yvonne!
And I shall soon forget.
poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson
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Winter's Snowstorm
Nature hires her white winter coats
To still trees starkly dressed
Motion to the scene as wildlife notes.
Snowflakes settle on a Robins head blessed.
He pouts his red chest, not to blush
Rabbit stops wiggles his nose whisking snow,
Fuelled by the icy breeze’s push,
A flash from his eye’s and off he goe’s,
Synchronous vibrations of Mother Nature gropes
unleashing the resonant howls as the driving winds,
Fuel a snowstorm down the mountain slopes,
‘Neath overhang rocks the wolf packs huddle begins.
Unseen the movement of time holds its breath
For bears the whole winter in slumber,
Oblivious to an icy freezing death
Kept alive by their hibernating Jumper,
Clouds rush by with a lightning flash
As snow and sleet feeds the weathers vice,
Trees bend and fall with a splintered crash.
With several birds sealed in posterities ice.
Thunder cracks the whip in this freezing scene,
Thor declares enough is enough from the mountain tops,
Rumbles in the distance grow softer for white to go green,
Heralding a shaft of light appearing and the snow stops,
And a bird sings.
poem by Ken e Hall
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The Lightning
I am lightning
A light here then gone
I am lightning
A flash quick and strong
I am lightning
My life to short to tell
I am lightning
The ground scorched where I fell
I am lightning
I never strike in twos
I am lightning
I shatter your light's fuse
I am lightning
Destroying what I touch
I am lightning
And I live as such
A storm has come upon me
The lightning I am strong
The rain falls around me
Makes my arc trails long
I fall from the heavens
Crashing to the earth
Though your call it beckons
I cannot stay by hearth
Though the fire warms me
I'm gone to fast to tell
Though the air, it fights me
I ring true the bell
This ground I've hit before
If not here then there
But it is the same ground
If not the same exchange
The moment I can stand
I'm tossed back to the sky
On the ground I'll never be
Not till the day I die
poem by John Dillenger II
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