On The Reed (From The Greek)
I was of late a barren plant,
Useless, insignificant,
Nor fig, nor grape, nor apple bore,
A native of the marshy shore;
But, gather'd for poetic use,
And plunged into a sable juice,
Of which my modicum I sip
With narrow mouth and slender lip,
At once, although by nature dumb,
All eloquent I have become,
And speak with fluency untired,
As if by Phoebus' self inspired.
poem by William Cowper
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The Barren Shore
Full many sing to me and thee
Their riches gather'd by the sea;
But I will sing, for I'm footsore,
The burthen of the barren shore.
The hue of love how lively shown
In this sole found cerulean stone
By twenty leagues of ocean roar.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
And these few crystal fragments bright,
As clear as truth, as strong as right,
I found in footing twenty more.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
And how far did I go for this
Small, precious piece of ambergris?
Of weary leagues I went threescore.
O, burthen of the barren shore!
The sand is poor, the sea is rich,
And I, I am I know not which;
And well it were to know no more
The burthen of the barren shore!
poem by Coventry Patmore
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Can't See
We were both cast forth from the same pale hand
And we both moved freely in the shadowlands
And we both were sculpted by the same cold wind
And we both had armor that was made of tin
And i tried to find you, but it's useless
And i tried to speak, but it was useless
And i felt so bad and i didn't know why
And it didn't get better as time went by
I was there for you, but you turned away
And i tried to find you, but you turned away
And i tried to find you, but it's useless
And i tried to speak, but was useless
And i tried to find you, but it's useless
And you're so close, but i can't see you
And you're right there, but i can't see you
And i feel so dumb and i didn't know what to do
You were right there but i can't see you
And i realize that it's useless
And i want to fight, but it's useless
And i know you're there, but it's useless
And you're everywhere, but it's useless
And i tried to say it, but my tongue got tied
And i tried to say it, but i was numb inside
And i can't see you anymore
And my peace of mind has gone through the door
And i realize that it's useless
And i thought i was right, but it was useless
And i know you're there, but it's useless
And you're everywhere, but it's useless
And i can't see now in front of my nose
And i know you're there, and i know you're close
And you're fading away - now you disappear
And i try to focus, but i can't see clear
And i don't know why i feel this way
And i can't control myself anyway
And i don't know why i feel this way
And i can't control myself anyway
And i feel so bad, but it's useless
And i feel so bad, but it's useless
And i feel so bad, but it's useless
And i can't see... now in front of my face.
song performed by by Oingo Boingo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Can't See (Useless)
We were both cast forth from the same pale hand
And we both moved freely in the shadowlands
And we both were sculpted by the same cold wind
And we both had armor that was made of tin
And I tried to find you, but it's useless
And I tried to speak, but it was useless
And I felt so bad and I didn't know why
And it didn't get better as time went by
I was there for you, but you turned away
And I tried to find you, but you turned away
And I tried to find you, but it's useless
And I tried to speak, but was useless
And I tried to find you, but it's useless
And you're so close, but I can't see you
And you're right there, but I can't see you
And I feel so dumb and I didn't know what to do
You were right there but I can't see you
And I realize that it's useless
And I want to fight, but it's useless
And I know you're there, but it's useless
And you're everywhere, but it's useless
And I tried to say it, but my tongue got tied
And I tried to say it, but I was numb inside
And I can't see you anymore
And my peace of mind has gone through the door
And I realize that it's useless
And I thought I was right, but it was useless
And I know you're there, but it's useless
And you're everywhere, but it's useless
And I can't see now in front of my nose
And I know you're there, and I know you're close
And you're fading away - now you disappear
And I try to focus, but I can't see clear
And I don't know why I feel this way
And I can't control myself anyway
And I don't know why I feel this way
And I can't control myself anyway
And I feel so bad, but it's useless
And I feel so bad, but it's useless
And I feel so bad, but it's useless
And I can't see... now in front of my face.
song performed by by Oingo Boingo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Almost Poetic
It's almost poetic
The way you speak
It's almost poetic
The way you think
The way you sleep and dream
It's almost poetic
The way I feel for you
It's almost poetic
The way we argue
It's almost poetic
When we say goodbye
Not knowing the next time
We'll see each other
You are the curved line
And I am the dot
That creates the question mark..
And it's almost poetic
If it were not so pathetic.
poem by Jeremy Rascon
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Apples
I love apples,
Apples have crunch,
Lovely red apples,
Red, pink color, punch.
I love apple pies,
Family ties,
I love apple juice,
I call it zapple juice,
Without the fizz,
Or sugary twist,
Healthy fibre, Apple is.
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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Clusters Of Grapes
as God nature creates complete
a bunch of grapes growing on vine
each grape an interlocked fold skin
of original envisioned composition
so too human architect craftsman
creates cultivates ideas to time define
each grape is picked complete from vine
each grape is perfect as singular complete
an orb idea formed vine ripe fertile complete
each grape is taste savoured relished eaten
peel me a grape of an idea complete eaten
slave starves creates each gilded grape given
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Poet's Path
My garden hath a slender path
With ivy overgrown,
A secret place where once would pace
A pot all alone;
I see him now with fretted brow,
Plunged deep in thought;
And sometimes he would write maybe,
And sometimes he would not.
A verse a day he used to say
Keeps worry from the door;
Without the stink of printer's ink
How life would be a bore!
And so from chime of breakfast time
To supper he would beat
The pathway flat, a mossy mat
For his poetic feet.
He wrote, I'm told, of gods of old
And mythologic men;
Far better he had sung, maybe,
Of plain folks now and then;
With bitterness he would confess
Too lofty was his aim. . . .
And then with woe I saw him throw
His poems to the flame.
He went away one bitter day
When death was in the sky;
No further word I ever heard
Beyond his last goodbye.
Did battle grim take toll of him
In heaven-rocking wrath?
Oh did he write in starry flight
His name in flame on hell-brewed night?
... Well, there's my poet's path.
poem by Robert William Service
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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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Consequences Of The Dumb Lover
because of love
you are ousted from the palms of convenience
now you are alone in the house
for he comes only when he needs your flesh
pretty dumb, you are such a dumb damsel
native, non-eloquent,
not familiar to the guile & guises of love
and lust
you shall suffer i expect that
you shall be shedding tears alone on the confusing darkness
you hear the sounds of bad omen
the malevolent owl perched on a tree front of your window
at twelve
i could have laughed until morning
until i have seen you fetch the water again from the well
of true love
your eye sockets look like sunk ships
your veins dry up like creeks on drought
surprisingly, you move on
because you still love him after he slaps you because the fish
broth is too salty
when the lights are off
you become more alive again
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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What do we plant when we plant a tree?
What do we get when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship which will cross the sea;
We plant the pencils to scribble our notes,
We plant the ballots to cast our votes;
We plant the paper in which we read,
The news that o'er wooden poles we speed,
We plant the piles to erect our docks;
We plant the rayon for shirts and socks.
What do we plant when we plant a tree?
We plant the houses for you and me;
We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors,
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors,
The beams and siding, all the parts that be;
We plant the house when we plant the tree,
We plant the barrel, the box, the crate;
In which to ship all sorts of freight.
What do we plant when we plant a tree?
A thousand things that we daily see,
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country's flag;
We plant the shade from the hot sun free,
We plant all these when we plant the tree.
poem by Henry Abbey
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Nature tells me
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my riches for I am not
much richer than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my beauty for I am not
much beautiful than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my kindness for I am not
much kinder than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my generosity for I am not
much generous than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my logicality for I am not
much logical than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my judiciousness for I am not
much judicious than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my poetic mind for I am not
much poetic than her.
Nature tells me not to be proud
of my prides for I am not
much prouder than her.
poem by Palas kumar Ray
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First Love
you had swept back your bangs for the first time
when I saw you under the apple tree
the flower-comb in your hair
I thought you yourself were a flower too.
you stretched out your pale white hand gently
giving me an apple:
like the ripening red of the autumn fruit
my first feeling of love
my sigh, without any awareness
touched your hair
the joys of love's offerings
drinking your love...
under a tree in the apple orchard
nature's narrow road
who left this token here?
your question gave me a piercing pleasure.
poem by Shimazaki Toson
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Pity and anger
I take pity on a viable plant
Wilting under the scorching sun.
I get anger towards a thorny plant
Flourishing in a fertile land.
I take pity on a mighty banyan
Uprooted from a wild storm.
I have contempt for a useless plant
Being enshrined as a holy one.
Natural selection is at work.
18.09.2005
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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What They Write About
what they write about
are so poetic, and sometimes i feel
envious, and think all nights to also
write everything poetic like the way
they write about the moon, and stars,
and sun and clouds and hills and
valleys and blooming flowers
about summer,
but honestly speaking, i think every
poetic imagery has only become too
routinary, all metaphors conceived of,
are nothing but simply variations adopted
from one poet to another like an
uncaught plagiarist on the loose,
but somehow, i also like it when i think
that writing is just a hobby, a diversion,
if not a deviation from what
we really want to become.
well, i may be a sour grape for
staying just to be myself,
an imaginary toad in the real
garden untended by its owner.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Thirteen Lines
A brain peered through stoic eyes;
Yet all it saw was rendered into
Flawed interpretation –
No honoured contemplation of a
Gluon, muon, quark of any flavour;
Nor a vision or conception of its world
Within a universe anthropic in its physical laws,
Inside a boundless multiverse.
All it gleaned and modelled
Bore parochialism well beyond belief! –
Delusional perhaps.
Survival only matters here on planet Earth –
Evolution saw to that.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010
na ture nature nature nature
nature nature nature nature
nature nature nature nature
nature nature nature nature
nature nature nature nature
nature nature nature nature
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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Shut my Mouth
There are those whom wish
I would just shut my mouth.
For my words cut them to
the bone when I speak of
an abuse child. Or a person
drowning in the sea of his or
her own addiction. They real
wish I would shut my mouth when
I speak of equality for all. Also when
talk about suffrage one goes through
from AIDS, Cancer to Death. I done had my
words crumbled in thrown back in my face.
I have been given looks as if they want to shove
my words back down my throat until I choked on them.
But for all those who want me to shut my mouth I have
got three times as many who want me to speak.
So speak I will. As long as I got something to say I will speak.
And only when I don’t have anymore to say is when I will
Shut My Mouth.
On Hermocratia (From The Greek)
Hermocratia named -- save only one --
Twice fifteen births I bore, and buried none;
For neither Phoebus pierced my thriving joys,
Nor Dian -- she my girls, or he my boys.
But Dian rather, when my daughters lay
In parturition, chased their pangs away.
And all my sons, by Phoebus' bounty, shared
A vigorous youth, by sickness unimpair'd.
O Niobe! far less prolific! see
Thy hoast against Latona shamed by me!
poem by William Cowper
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Spit It Out
If theres rage inside you so you cannot think
Spit it out
If you get so angry that you cannot speak
Spit it out
Talk to him or her or it
And tell them where they can put it
Spit it out, spit it out
You got to talk to him or her or it
And take aim with your mouth and spit
Spit it out, spit it out
If you get worked over at your job
Spit it out
If a taxi almost runs you down
Spit it out
You got to take aim with your mouth and speak
And give it to them right between the teeth
Spit it out, spit it out
Talk to him or her or it
And take aim with your mouth and spit
Spit it out, spit it out
Spit it out
Hey, hey, hey
If youre patient and you have the time
Spit it out
Wait till theyre on the decline
Spit it out
The chinese say you meet the hard with the soft
The yin with the yang, the down with the up, oh
Spit it out, spit it out
You got to grab that dumb he, she or it
And give it to them right between the teeth
Spit it out, spit it out
Spit it out, babe, spit it out
Hey
song performed by by Lou Reed
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Unplanted Land
Unplanted Land
Things made by man never impressed me, but the fallow land,
where I live, which is going back to nature’s way does impress.
On my walks I see how each plant strive towards the light, one
may say, as man seeks god, but here it is not about being better
or more powerful, it’s just nature. That’s way I see Eifel tower
as a symbol of power, pride and vanity. But in the back of my
mind an unpleasant thought arises: could it be that wars are
a natural cause? Nature’s way of insuring that only the strong
survives? That peace is like fallow land, beautiful but useless?
poem by Oskar Hansen
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