The Vanguard [1]
While the crippled cruisers stagger where the blind horizon dips,
And the ocean ooze is rising round the sunken battle-ships,
While the battered wrecks, unnoticed, with their mangled crews drift past—
Let me fire one gun for Russia, though that gun should be the last.
’Tis a struggle of the Ages, and the White Man’s star is dim,
There is little jubilation, for the game has got too grim;
But though Russia’s hope seems shattered, and the Russian star seems set,
It may mean the Dawn for Russia—and my hope’s in IVAN yet!
Let the Jingo in his blindness cant and cackle as he will;
But across the path from Asia run the Russian trenches still!
And the sahib in his rickshaw may loll back and smoke at ease,
While the haggard, ragged heroes man the battered batteries.
’Tis the first round of the struggle of the East against the West,
Of the fearful war of races—for the White Man could not rest.
Hold them, IVAN! staggering bravely underneath your gloomy sky;
Hold them, IVAN! we shall want you pretty badly by-and-bye!
Fighting for the Indian empire, when the British pay their debt;
Never Britain watched for BLUCHER as he’ll watch for IVAN yet!
It means all to young Australia—it means life or death to us,
For the vanguard of the White Man is the vanguard of the Russ!
poem by Henry Lawson
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Skaal
While they struggle on exhausted,
While they plough through bog and flood,
While they drag their sick and wounded
Where the tracks are drenched with blood;
While the Fates seemed joined to crush her
And her bravest hearts lie low,
I might sing one song for Russia,
Even though she be our foe.
Still be generous to foemen,
And have charity for all—
Right or wrong, fill up the wine cup;
‘Skaal!’ unto all brave men—‘Skaal!’
While they suffer, cold and hungry,
All the heart-break of defeat,
And the twice heroic rearguard
Grimly holds the grim retreat;
While they fight the last alive on
Fields where countless corpses are,
We might drop one tear for Ivan,
Dead for Russia and the Czar!
Sullen grief of boorish brother,
Sister’s scalding tears that flow,
Choking grief of grey-haired mother,
Father’s stony face bent low:
Hopeless stare of wife or daughter,
And the sweetheart dumb and white,
And the far-off fields of slaughter
Where their Ivan lies to-night.
Even England feared disaster,
With all Europe in despair,
In the days when Europe’s master
Baited Bruin in his lair.
Greater nations made submission,
And a tyrant’s yoke they earned;
But The Man with curbed ambition
Staggered back while Moscow burned,—
Burned to save the world from ruin
That dark winter long ago;
Ah! the gaunt and hunted Bruin
Hugged the tyrant in the snow!
We can cry the crimes of Russia,
Who know naught of Russia’s work—
We who died to conquer freemen,
We who fought to save the Turk.
Ah! we well may cant and cackle,
In the streets and in the clubs,
While the Russia that we know not
Licks her wounds and feeds her cubs.
But the Fates for ever beckon—
Every nation has its debt,
And her foes may have to reckon,
Reckon with ‘der Russland’ yet.
Through long ages slept the Dragon,
We have roused the ugly beast—
Russia still may stand the vanguard
Of the West against the East.
And though Ivan sees no farther
Than to-night through lurid gloom
Every hour he holds Port Arthur
May postpone the White Man’s doom.
Right or wrong—whate’er in future
May this blundering world befall,
Human kindness will survive it—
Brothers! ‘Skaal!’ to brave men, ‘Skaal!’
poem by Henry Lawson
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The March of Ivan
Are you coming, Ivan, coming?—Ah, the ways are long and slow,
In the vast land that we know not—and we never sought to know.
We are watching through the daybreak, when the anxious night is done,
For the dots upon the skyline—black against the rising sun;
We are watching through the morning haze, and waiting through the night,
For the long, dark, distant columns that proclaim the Muscovite!
Are you coming, Ivan, coming? (Oh! the world is growing gray
With the terror of the future and the madness of to-day!)
Are you marching, Ivan—forward? (Oh! the world is dark’ning fast,
For the crimes of greater nations ’gainst the small ones in the past.)
Yours, in part, to make atonement, so remember what you are!
Ivan! Sing!—“The Slav is coming! On for Russia and the Czar!”
Ivan’s Song
“Yes, I’m coming, Ivan, coming—I am marching out again
On the weary roads of Russia, past the forest, marsh and plain;
Past the field and past the village, in the shine and in the rain—
By the cart-rut and the grass-track and the jolting cattle-train.
(And, maybe, some gleam of glory penetrates my sluggish brain)
I am marching out for Russia, and for Europe and for you—
But, maybe, I’m mainly marching just because they told me to.
“I have marched to many frontiers, in the pregnant days gone by,
When they told us where to march to, but they did not tell us why.
And they showed us whom to fight with, and they told us where to die.
I have seen our grey battalions to their Heaven—or Hades—hurled—
’Twas enough it was for Russia!—what cared we about the world?
“Did one moan of Ivan’s mother penetrate to other lands?
Did one prayer of Ivan’s father—with his old and knotted hands?
Did one sob from Ivan’s sweetheart, or one cry from Ivan’s wife?
Or a wail from Ivan’s children, for the loss of Ivan’s life?
Marching with the Wolf of Hunger—marching with the Bear of Strength!
We have marched for many winters—but the end is near at length!
“’Tis a long, long march from Plevna, when the Bear went to his den.
It is far from the Crimea; Oh! you did not want us then!
From the shambles of Port Arthur, ’twas a weary way and slow—
And our track was always dotted with the black dots on the snow.
By black dots and crimson splashes you may trace poor Ivan’s track—
And I think that Ivan’s banner should be red, and white and black.
“Ne’er was Present-blinded tyrant who learnt wisdom from the Past,
And there’s one forgot the errand that brought Ivan this way last!
‘To the frontier, and no further’ seemed our motto and our vow,
Since we marched from burning Moscow—but we’re marching further now!
Neighbour’s burning house—or city!—they are easy to forget;
But we lit a light for Europe that shall be rekindled yet!
“Never song of Ivan’s valour, or of ‘Russia’s Flag Unfurled!’
Or the Iron Cross of Russia, penetrates the Outer World.
Ye! who civilise and peddle, ye who hesitate and lag,
Never heard the Russian March and never saw the Russian flag!
You have called on us to save you, never saying why, or how,
But the samovar is boiling! and you’ll hear and see us now.
“From our garrets and our cellars—from the little all we had—
Where the winter brings the sleigh-bells to the streets of Petrograd;
From our huts and from our hutches—from wherever we may be—
From our goat’s-flesh and our mare’s milk and our black unsweetened tea,
From the silence of Siberia, and the strange, snow-deadened streets—
From the blazing banks of Jordan, where we dip our winding-sheets.
From our black bread and our vodka—asking naught, and undismayed—
From our never-empty cradles!—we are coming to your aid.
“Oh, we leave no bands behind us, blaring tunes of Tyranny,
And we wave no swords above us, yelling songs of Liberty;
And no blatant voice of ruler, as we tramp through dry and wet,
Blares: ‘Remember You are Russians!’—we’re not likely to forget.
There are some who have forgotten—merely men, like you and me—
And one object of our marching is to jog their memory.
“You shall hear us, you shall see us—save the dead and deaf and blind—
While the armour of our winter hardens thick and fast behind.
We are marching, we are coming, and we are not on the sea—
You shall see us on the furthest frontier of our enemy!
And while you fix up your frontiers, and remember what you are,
We shall march with Peace for Europe!—back to Russia and the Czar.”
poem by Henry Lawson
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Ivan, What Happened To Your Smile?
What happened to your smile?
Ivan, [that`s how I would like to call you]
Tell, where is your smile that bloomed on your face?
Ivan, I am afraid your smile has faded for ever.
In the midst of deafening roars and maddening songs,
Ivan, your smile had a musical charm over a season.
Your smile could be seen from places miles away,
Ivan, it had an aroma that winds would proudly carry.
I used to think about others who had solid faces,
Ivan, your face was an exception to all theirs.
The frost and the flame of my winter and summer
Ivan, you see, played hide and seek often; but your smile did not.
Retrieve your smile please for I need to see it
Ivan, your smile speaks volumes about what you are indeed.
In the midst of these homosapians I search for my face
Though I had lost my smile long before you were born Ivan.
poem by M.d Dinesh Nair
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Mother Russia
Mother russia how are you sleeping
Middle winter cold winds blow
From the trees the snowflakes drifting
Swirling round like ghosts in the snow
Mother russia poetry majestic
Tells the time of a great empire
Turning round the old man ponders
Reminiscing an age gone by
Mother russia
Dance of the tsars
Hold up your heads
Be proud of what you are
Now it has come
Freedom at last
Turning the tides of history
And your past
Mother russia
Dance of the tsars
Hold up your heads
Remember who you are
Can you release
The anger the grief
Can you be happy
Now your people are free
song performed by by Iron Maiden
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My strange dream; A Mudlark sings on an Eucalyptus tree in Victoria!
The Magpie like bird sang something
But still I remember this 'Ivan Rebroff' and the rest faded, .
And I referred Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia!
Ivan Rebroff a German singer
Allegedly of Russian Ancestry
He was born in Berlin,31, July,1931
As Hans-Rolf Rippert.
He became a citizen of Greece
And lived on the Greek Island of Skopelos in the Soprades.
He died as a Bachelor on February 27,2008 in Frankfurt, Germany.
* I received a call from my daughter in Australia and after finishing few pages of Chekhov's short-story straight away jumped to bed, and still I am wondering of this dream!
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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Ivan Ivan
Did you ever find out who planted those apples
Those apples dancing gravity falling out of the carriage
Hitting ground behind the horses
Shiny red apples like eyeballs of knowledge
Eat eat the breakfast of your life
Their drumming beat
Against your heart
Ivan Ivan
A child of revenge
Ever plunged within the moonlit lake you shattered with a pebble
When moonlight hit your eyes like thunder weeping silence
Just a drip dropp drip dropp drip dropp across your heart
Water weapon armored pain
In an ambush against the enemy
Who was the enemy Ivan
Ivan Ivan
You crossed the moonlight to water walk stars
Earthly dresses shattered naked you stood
Where naked all of us at one point will stand
Like a truth naked hidden by heart shed in the light
Laughter swelled boy in innocence encroaching lands
Spring your soul afar spring your heart in pain
History foretold freedom redeemed
Its drumming beat the wings of your flight
Inspired by Ivan's Childhood, a Tarkowsky film
poem by Miroslava Odalovic
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Nemesis
It is night-time when the saddest and the darkest memories haunt,
When outside the printing office the most glaring posters flaunt,
When the love-wrong is accomplished. And I think of things and mark
That the blackest lies are written, told, and printed after dark.
’Tis the time of “late editions”. It is night when, as of old,
Foulest things are done for hatred, for ambition, love and gold.
Racing from the senseless city down the dull suburban streets,
Come again the ragged newsboys yelping with their paltry sheets—
Lying posters meaning nothing, double columns meaning less,
Twisted facts and reckless falsehoods—dodges of the Daily Press.
In the town the roar and rattle of the great machines once more,
Greedy for the extra penny, while the “Public” howls for war.
War because of one poor blunder made in panic far away,
While a thousand men were lying on the battlefield to-day:
Dead heaped on the helpless dying, blinded eyes and brains that swim,
Parched or choked with their own life-blood, battered head and broken limb.
Wounds too ghastly to be pictured. Things to seem like men no more,
Crying out to Christ for water, and oblivion—that is war.
And the poets of the nation—singing-birds or carrion-birds—
Bluff with cheap alliteration and the boom of empty words,
Catch the crowd with cheating phrases, as a jingo laureate flings
Recklessly his high defiance in the “grinning teeth of Things”.
They pretend to lead who follow this day’s crowd with lying tact;
Let them fling their high defiance in the stony face of Fact.
And so Russia, maimed and baited, seeing nought but storm to come,
Sailed upon a desperate venture, cursed by treachery at home;
Seeing danger in each shadow, thinking doubtless now and then
Of the swift fate of her warship with its seven hundred men;
And she struck out in the darkness at the ally of her foe,
Struck out blindly as a wounded dying bear might strike a blow.
Ah, we well might howl for vengeance, we who killed for killing’s sake—
Murdered helpless men in daylight, in cold blood by no mistake,
We who burnt the homes of women when the nights were cold and damp;
We who murdered little children in the concentration camp!
(When the farmers downed the lion for a season in his pride,
Say, did Russia take advantage then, while England’s hands were tied?)
Wipe away the blood that binds you!—struggle to your feet again—
Shake them from your shoulders, Ivan—Ivan nearly mad with pain.
You must fight it single-handed on the deck or in the trench.
Look not to the boorish German! Look not to the fickle French!
Rather look to blinded England when her sight is clear again.
(And remember in the future there is chivalry in Spain.)
Scoff at Russia on the ocean and her helplessness forget,
But on land the braggart Mongol has not done with Ivan yet;
He’s a fierce and cruel tyrant (we are not as others are);
But his slaves would die by thousands for their country and the Czar,
While a single broken column drags a battery through the mire,
And a single battered cruiser has a gun that she can fire.
poem by Henry Lawson
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Abdul Abulbul Amir
The sons of the Prophet are brave men and bold
And quite unaccustomed to fear,
But the bravest by far in the ranks of the Shah,
Was Abdul Abulbul Amir.
If you wanted a man to encourage the van,
Or harass the foe from the rear,
Storm fort or redoubt, you had only to shout
For Abdul Abulbul Amir.
Now the heroes were plenty and well known to fame
In the troops that were led by the Czar,
And the bravest of these was a man by the name
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
One day this bold Russian, he shouldered his gun
And donned his most truculent sneer,
Downtown he did go where he trod on the toe
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.
Young man, quoth Abdul, has life grown so dull
That you wish to end your career?
Vile infidel, know, you have trod on the toe
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.
So take your last look at the sunshine and brook
And send your regrets to the Czar
For by this I imply, you are going to die,
Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
Then this bold Mameluke drew his trusty skibouk,
Singing, "Allah! Il Allah! Al-lah!"
And with murderous intent he ferociously went
For Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
They parried and thrust, they side-stepped and cussed,
Of blood they spilled a great part;
The philologist blokes, who seldom crack jokes,
Say that hash was first made on the spot.
They fought all that night neath the pale yellow moon;
The din, it was heard from afar,
And huge multitudes came, so great was the fame,
Of Abdul and Ivan Skavar.
As Abdul's long knife was extracting the life,
In fact he was shouting, "Huzzah!"
He felt himself struck by that wily Calmuck,
Count Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
The Sultan drove by in his red-breasted fly,
Expecting the victor to cheer,
But he only drew nigh to hear the last sigh,
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir.
There's a tomb rises up where the Blue Danube rolls,
And graved there in characters clear,
Is, "Stranger, when passing, oh pray for the soul
Of Abdul Abulbul Amir."
A splash in the Black Sea one dark moonless night
Caused ripples to spread wide and far,
It was made by a sack fitting close to the back,
Of Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
A Muscovite maiden her lone vigil keeps,
'Neath the light of the cold northern star,
And the name that she murmurs in vain as she weeps,
Is Ivan Skavinsky Skavar.
poem by William Percy French
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Did you?
Did you see the thoughts of my heart,
When tired, exausted, nearly frustrated,
Yet strong, with the head towards the stars,
I was working for your low rating?
Did you hear the whisper of your soul,
Ashamed, weak from lies and the fraud?
They both had thought you
were bolder,
They both were sure you were better brought,
But they were mistaken and upset:
Your better ego seems to be now dead.
Ivan Petryshyn Chicago Poetry SPJ
poem by Ivan Petryshyn
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At the moment of death I hope to be surprised.
quote by Ivan Illich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Fire In The Pants
Like a storm in a teacup
Billowing from east to west
Trembling at it's foundation
In a horrible situation
A terrifying moment
Your life is dearest to you
And there arises
The scent of the burning Caribean ship's smoke
The blinding ligts of the Paris street lamps
It's like a fire
From your pants
poem by Ivan Chizurum Ezeigbo
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Just Evangelism?
Walking, again, down that dusty path
Fire growing in my veins
How much longer will this continue?
I know what happens every morning
I clench my fist together
The morning breeze affects my blood
It seems to get me angry
With this
Will I keep doing this?
Someone is saying that He knows what I feel;
But I don't know if I doubt it
Does He know how hard I struggle?
Maybe He'll say to me,
'It's just evangelism'
poem by Ivan Chizurum Ezeigbo
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Much of the aid we first gave to Russia we took away from what we promised Britain. So in a sense, Britain participated in a very real way in the recovery of Russia.
quote by W. Averell Harriman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Somewhere In The Sun
Stuck here in a hoilday inn, near Austin Texas
Seen all the road that I want to see
Got to hate the snow, even cancelled the show
Makes me long for where I really want to be
Oh I wish I was there tonight on Jost Van Dyke
Sipping on some Foxy's Firewater rum
Or kickin' back with Ivan
With all my friends down in the islands
Wouldn't take much for me to up and run
To another life somewhere in the sun
Got cold fajitas and only one channel on the TV
Andy and Barney on Nick at Nite
Seen an ad for Mexico, God I really want to go
Anywhere out of mind and out of sight
Oh I wish I was there tonight on Jost Van Dyke
Sipping on some Foxy's Firewater rum
Or kickin' back with Ivan
With all my friends down in the islands
Wouldn't take much for me to up and run
To another life somewhere in the sun
Here's a toast to you on the coast and the sailors out at sea
Drink your ales, hoist your sails
Ride the winds and think of me, 'cause
Oh I wish I was there tonight on Jost Van Dyke
Sipping on some Foxy's Firewater rum
Or kickin' back with Ivan
With all my friends down in the islands
Wouldn't take much for me to up and run
To another life somewhere in the sun
song performed by by Kenny Chesney
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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White star! !
White star making another round
Evening sun dawn blooming its sunshine
Making the world web online
Tuning ducet face freakin out
Meanwhile grabbing heartbeat
Burning fire in side
Fire of deep desires taking out
Just with one of his hunting eye
Cribbling scribbling da words
Making a downtown east side
Givng sweet gestures to his way
Making world round round
Grab da heartbeat honney
White star making anodr round
poem by Somia Race
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Grey Wolves Grey
The Russian march is soft and slow,
Through dust and heat, or slush and snow,
When the Russian skies hang grey and low
To the frontiers far where the Russians go;
And they march to-night and they march to-day
Like the grey wolves grey, like the grey wolves grey.
Nor song nor sound their track reveals,
Save the ceaseless “clock” of the waggon wheels;
But a rift in the mist shows a glint of sun
On the long, dark shape of a toiling gun;
And they strain by night and they drag by day
To a distant goal, like the grey wolves grey.
As the horses toil at the ends of trains,
And the ends of roads on the Blacksoil Plains.
And Ivan digs in the frozen clay,
And he rolls the logs a bed to lay
For a gun that’s five hundred miles away,
But as sure to come as the grey wolves grey.
He is marching on with a purpose grand,
For brother Slav in another land;
Whose tongue, perchance, he cannot understand.—
But he knows the cry from the far-away,
And he smells the blood like the grey wolves grey.
And Ivan’s wife in her den at home,
While hunger looms and his lean wolves come—
With her grey-black bread like the Darling mud,
And her tea-bricks bound with the bullock’s blood—
She shields her cubs by night and day
Like the crouching sluts of the grey wolves grey.
And I march with Ivan where’er he be,
With the foreign blood that is strong in me,
And the love and the hate that is fantasy,
Like the ghosts of a father’s memory.
With the blood that is strange to us to-day
As the strange wild blood of the grey wolves grey.
Grey wolves,
Grey wolves—
The strange wild blood of the grey wolves grey.
poem by Henry Lawson
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Russia! ! ! !
Russia has power
The power to build a tower
They will never cower
At the site of a bigger tower
Because they still have power
Russia has power over stuff
Because they are really tough
People in Russia never ever run
Because they always have a gun
Russia owns a big bomb
AND SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO THEM!
poem by Puby Mannheimer
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We must rediscover the distinction between hope and expectation.
quote by Ivan Illich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my country's fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language!
quote by Ivan Turgenev
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Memoriae
The Sands of the Times go down,
Pressed by the winds of Space,
And in the wild, crazy race,
Still is alive the face
Of the Lady.
Never lazy,
the thought,
From the eternity brought,
Many a time had been fought
for the Mother.
I wouldn't bother
the memory,
Words, the gestures of hands:
Daring silhouette stands,
Just recollecting the right,
The beauty of day,
The calmness of voice,
The Starlight of eyes, -
Never expiring life,
Striving for love and for kindness,
Ever protecting the sons,
'thought tiredness.
Ivan Petryshyn Written on 11/28/06, Chicago
poem by Ivan Petryshyn
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