Celebrating Philip Larkin
He looks out at you from the photograph
or rather, doesn’t: eyes wide but blank,
thick lenses would place your image
in a plane you don’t inhabit;
like a fish that in an aquarium
suddenly swims direct toward you
stopping at the glass to stare a moment:
was there a meeting? What
are you to the fish?
So, nothing. Then next day,
he’s propping his bike against the wall,
bending down to take off his cycle clips;
caught so close, you exchange
English noises: the weather,
a joke or was it, delivered deadpan:
but the sound of him stays with you:
melancholy and yet celebrating
the confidence in being ordinary.
Then next day, the poetry:
starts matter-of-fact, regretful,
doesn’t miss a thing around him,
sharp eyes hiding behind pebble lenses: then,
dives with us into the sea of greatness:
calls us, reels us in, enslaves the heart
with voice that speaks beyond all melancholy;
haunted by the completeness of eternity.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Aquarium Fun
Have you ever seen an aquarium
With fancy fish swimming around?
Well I saw the most wonderful
Aquarium that I’ve ever found
Every color you can imagine
You’d find in a fish tank were there
Beautiful background for those fish
Not a single thing was spared
The cat fish were so enormous
You could imagine them in a pan
Fryin’ up so crispy brown
So tasty they’d never be bland
But instead we just enjoyed
Watching these fish on display
Swimming ‘round and ‘round
I once even saw them in play
I hope sometime if you haven’t
Been to an aquarium like this
Can observe their beauty as I did
These delightful and colorful fish!
poem by Marilyn Lott
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Prisoner
You have watched me, safe in your anonymity
I have dreamed you, held in your security
Some people believe a photograph traps your mortal soul
Your eyes were the camera and youve take hold
And you captured me
I need you to take control
I am a prisoner of no confidence
Youve entered me now make me whole
Every place I go I feel your lenses trained on me
This distant concentration takes away my energy
Your image burns its negative
Behind my waking eyes
Then the night comes and you stalk your prize
And you captured me
I need you to take control
I am a prisoner of no confidence
Youve entered me now make me whole
Some people believe a photograph traps your mortal soul
Your eyes were the camera and youve taken hold
And you captured me
I need you to take control
I am a prisoner of no confidence
Youve entered me now make me whole
song performed by by Howard Jones
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It Really Doesn't Matter
You say your ugly, i say it doesn't matter.
You say you have a dark past,
i say it doesn't matter.
You say theirs overwhelming responsibility,
i say it doesn't matter.
I don't believe in walking away when things get hard.
In fact they are my spark to continue my march.
Through thick and thin where to begin.
You say you don't have a way.
I say it doesn't matter.
You say that you cant give back what you would like.
I say it doesn't matter.
You say, you say oh it really doesn't matter,
I live one day at a time.
Choices will be made that will save the day
but hurt me financially.
It doesn't matter Choice will be made
that will set me back in my expectations.
It doesn't matter,
It really doesn't matter.
Its well worth it.
To see the beauty that
you have placed before me.
Oh how its worth it.
To settle down and not be looking to be found.
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts
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The fish and I will chat
Sometime it swims right up to the glass
as if it would talk with me –
opens its mouth, fixes me with a watery eye;
a moment when we can exchange silent thoughts,
about whether it’s better to be confined
in a tank, but free of all possessions,
compared with the freedom to acquire
so many possessions; or which of us
dislikes the more, a dentist’s waiting room..
nod and smile to know we both share
that joke about the fish in the water
never being thirsty; swimming in what
we take for granted; like, say, grace, or God..
so the fish flips its tail, is off; both of us
in agreement about freedom, meditation.
*
[leaning on Hafiz’ poem of that title]
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Hard contact lenses
With my feet lifted
I hang out of balance
while someone skilful observes my eyes
and a bright painful light
shines into the depths of my eyes
seeing where the focus of my own cornea disappears,
measuring the deflection in my eyes,
seeing why and where my sight languishes away
and it’s like a rainbow
that deeper into my eye,
only still deeper wants to notch and spy
with rays in a wide circled bow
and when his eye later peeps at me,
he says look there
and let me look at another place
where he now feeds letters to my eyes
and with hard contact lenses I see like a falcon
but those things scratch, itch and pierce like a beam
there are furrows betraying the age of his face
and his teeth look like white lime,
my own freckles jumps out
and I forthright say to him
how much the lenses are bothering me
that there and then I want to throw them away.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Fish vs. Humans
The fish swim in the coral
and we get stuck in school
Some fish are trapped forever in the aquarium inside the tanks
Some people are trapped by wrongdoings, and are put in prison instead of spanked
Fish swim in schools that look similar to them
Teenagers stay in clicks that I'm sure will never end
Sometimes I go to the aquarium and I admire all the fish
I wonder how many times fish think 'to be a human is all I wish'
poem by Rebecca Bell
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Dreams to Nightmares
I stare at the wall and close my eyes
I started to dream about parts of the world
Beaches to oceans to schools of fish
My dreams turn to nightmares after awhile
The cool, damp beach where sand comes to rest
The emptiness in the pastel blue sky
The sand placed perfectly in place
The smell of salt water against the shore
The crystal clear ocean calm as can be
The current not even moving sea life
Fish eating at the bottom by the sand
The sound of calm waves hitting the shore
The colorful fish ranging from green to blue
Fish from all different sizes
The sound of fish jumping out of the ocean
They swim without a government to follow
The beaches turn to cemeteries
The oceans turn dark gray, and fish floating dead
The sky black as can be with flashes of light
You wake up realizing life is so much different
poem by Kasondra Sytnik
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Love Doesn't Ask Why
Love doesn't ask why
It speaks from the heart
And never explains
Don't you know that
Love doesn't think twice
It can come all at once
Or whisper from a distance
Don't ask me if this feeling's right or wrong
It doesn't have to make much sense
It just has to be this strong
'Cause when you're in my arms I understand
We don't try to have a voice
When our hearts make the choices
There's no plan
It's in our hands
Love doesn't ask why
It speaks from the heart
And never explains
Don't you know that
Love doesn't think twice
It can come all at once
Or whisper from a distance
Now I can feel what you're afraid to say
If you give your soul to me
Will you give too much away
We can't let this moment pass us by
Can't question this chance
Or expect any answers
We can try
But love doesn't ask you why
[Instrumental]
So let's take what we found
And wrap it around us
Love doesn't ask why
It speaks from the heart
And never explains
Don't you know that
Love doesn't think twice
It can come all at once
Or whisper from a distance
Love doesn't ask why
song performed by by Celine Dion from The Colour Of My Love
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Be Alone
To Be Alone
Solitude brings peace but not for long, being alone brings
restiveness, a longing for a voice even if it speaks banal
utterances. Silence doesn’t make a man whole he needs
to hear voices, to make sure we are not alone in a world
full of noises that means nothing for the basic needs of
daily life. Simple things like “what’s on telly darling? ”
if we do not listen carefully we lose love behind words
of domestic murmour. If we lose the ability to listen out
for the ordinary we lose the big picture, our remoteness
becomes agonizing, like a constant hum of melancholy.
poem by Oskar Hansen
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031010 Food Power
i reach the bottom of fish tank
to touch the bottom dweller
stuck to a rock like suction cup
she let me caress her as if she
know me, she's grown a bit
since i bought her at pet shop
this black big head fish i love
she doesn't move that much
i watch her gills close and open
she is always watching me
sometimes i saw her swim
just to get away from other fish
i used to tap the fish tank cover
before feeding them, amazing
every time i tap, they surface
how's that for teaching a fish
food is really powerful thing
just me i can't stop eating
poem by Manonton Dalan
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Poetry is Too Shrewd
Poetry is too shrewd,
She in guise herself keeps hiding,
From my too watchful eyes;
When I plough the farm of others,
She dives into the ocean of my belly,
And swims like a fishing monster.
When I return home after toilsome labour,
She sits on my hanging loathsome arms,
And when in the sterile fruitless land,
My eyes meet indifference,
And they remain bewilderingly forlorn,
She assumes the soothing form of a damsel,
And strolls into the world of my dreams,
When ferocious enemies search me again,
Allege me of stealing the gold of poetry,
At that moment she resides in my heart,
Wearing the costume of fear.
poem by Muhammad Shanazar
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The Lung Fish
The Honorable Ardleigh Wyse
Was every fisherman's despair;
He caught his fish on floating flies,
In fact he caught them in the air,
And wet-fly men -- good sports, perhaps --
He called "those chuck-and-chance-it chaps".
And then the Fates that sometimes play
A joke on such as me and you
Deported him up Queensland way
To act as a station jackaroo.
The boundary rider said, said he,
"You fish dry fly? Well, so do we.
"These barramundi are the blokes
To give you all the sport you need:
For when the big lagoons and soaks
Are dried right down to mud and weed
They don't sit there and raise a roar,
They pack their traps and come ashore.
"And all these rods and reels you lump
Along the creek from day to day
Would only give a man the hump
Who does his fishing Queensland way.
For when the barramundi's thick
We knock 'em over with a stick.
"The black boys on the Darwin side
Will fill a creek with bitter leaves
And when the fish are stupefied
The gins will gather 'em in sheaves.
Now tell me, could a feller wish
A finer way of catchin' fish?"
The stokehold of the steamship Foam
Contains our hero, very sick,
A-working of his passage home
And brandishing a blue gum stick.
"Behold," says he, "the latest fly;
It's called the Great Australian Dry."
poem by Andrew Barton Paterson
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Some things that can happen with a fish
A fish that drinks like a fish, that is a fish in excess
A fish that fishes in troubled waters, that is a fish taking advantage of another fish in trouble
A fish that fishes or cuts bait, well, to be or not to be, to retreat or to attack, that is the fishy question
A fish that is neither fish nor fowl, is a fish that is neither one nor the other, lacking some convictions
A fish out of water, is a fish feeling left out, no longer in his accustomed environment
Do you have other fish to fry for now?
Is there other matter requiring my attention?
Poor fish,
the lake is finally fished out from his fishy mind.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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31
A fish that drinks like a fish, that is a fish in excess
A fish that fishes in troubled waters, that is a fish taking advantage of another fish in trouble
A fish that fishes or cuts bait, well, to be or not to be, to retreat or to attack, that is the fishy question
A fish that is neither fish nor fowl, is a fish that is neither one nor the other, lacking some convictions
A fish out of water, is a fish feeling left out, no longer in his accustomed environment
Do you have other fish to fry for now?
Is there other matter requiring my attention?
Poor fish,
the lake is finally fished out from his fishy mind.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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We Never Speak
I caught a silver fish
I caught a fish of gold
The first one spoke to me
And so I let it go.
The second told a joke
And I started to laugh
It slipped from my hand
Down into the sea.
Since then I have tried
To learn the language of fish
Of flowers, birds and bears
Sometimes I am they
And they are me
But now we never speak.
poem by Barbara Spring
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Finding A New Pebble
Meeting you is like
Finding a new pebble
Out at sea. I don’t
see
Any similarity
with
The rest
i say
you're unique
And
no one
Believes this pebble
in my hand is
Something significant
In fact
Everyone does
Not really mind
At all
Saying it is
Nothing but a
A very ordinary
pebble
But in my heart
It isn’t
It is something
That
Amazes me
with its texture
of solidity
and
metallic color
it has
Changed the way
i look
At all the pebbles
on the
shore
you lied.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Melancholy Mood
A little collie weed to ease I grief
too much agony living in the limits of big city
a little collie weed to meditate
too much insanity in this society
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
rise this morning smile with the sun
oh I'm blessed another day has begun
everything in life has its purpose
find its reason it has its season
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
tears leave my eyes I just want to fly
deep down I feel pain
but I know I must rise again
from this melancholy mood melancholy mood
melancholy mood I eat for my food melancholy mood
song performed by by Ziggy Marley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Grinning Crab
Come with me, said the fish to the crab
and I will show you a cave where beautiful coral live.
When do we leave, said the crab to the fish
and tell me what I should bring.
Just bring a sense of adventure, said the fish to the crab, and some sun tan oil
You forget, said the crab to the fish, my shell is thick and impenetrable by rays of any kind.
What about the metal-tipped arrows, asked the fish of the crab, from a cheeky cherub?
Oh they don’t stand a chance, said the crab with a grin.
The fish, having eyes that could not blink, felt the molten tears sting his star-crossed eyes.
poem by Vernon Adrian Emuang
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What I Miss The Most
I hear the sound of gentle rain
Like teardrops on the windowpane
A priceless smile in a wooden frame beside the bed
I stare at the ceiling and talk to the walls
I lay here alone and imagine it all
As a river of memories rush through my head
I can almost taste your kiss as I think about how much I miss
Your hungry eyes, your satin skin
The sound of your voice whisperin'
The love I feel inside your heart
When you're wrapped up in my arms so close
That's what I miss the most
I try to rest but sleep won't come
My body aches and my mind is numb
Shadows fall as the morning sun begins to rise
Another day without you here
Has it been weeks or has it been years
I find it getting harder to keep track of time
I breath in and I breath out but it's getting tough to live without
Your hungry eyes, your satin skin
The sound of your voice whisperin'
The love I feel inside your heart
When you're wrapped up in my arms so close
That's what I miss the most
What I miss the most
I can almost taste your kiss as I think about how much I miss
Your hungry eyes, your satin skin
The sound of your voice whisperin'
The love I feel inside your heart
When you're wrapped up in my arms so close
That's what I miss the most
song performed by by Lonestar
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Dont Want To Miss A Thing
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While youre far away dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure
Dont want to close my eyes
I dont want to fall asleep
Cause Id miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
Id still miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
Lying close to you feeling your heart beating
And Im wondering what youre dreaming
Wondering if its me youre seeing
Then I kiss your eyes
And thank God were together
I just want to stay with you in this moment forever
Forever and ever
Dont want to close my eyes
I dont want to fall asleep
Cause Id miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
Id still miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
I dont want to miss one smile
I dont want to miss one kiss
I just want to be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just want to hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And just stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time
Dont want to close my eyes
I dont want to fall asleep
Cause Id miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
Id still miss you baby
And I dont want to miss a thing
Dont want to close my eyes
I dont want to fall asleep
I dont want to miss a thing
song performed by by Aerosmith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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