FabSwingers.com forum: World Poetry Day

By *bi Haive OP Man
Forum Mod
over a year ago

Cheeseville, Somerset

So. Yesterday was world poetry day and I completely forgot to mention it.

So here's your chance to post your favourite bit of poetry.

I've borrowed this from the genius that is Brian Bilston.

"Ten Rules for Aspiring Poets

1. Poetry does not have to rhyme.

Well, at least not all the time always.

2. Metaphors can lend a poem power

(although mixing them isn’t good).

Should they start to fly in all directions,

nip them in the bud.

3. Focus and concentration

are important skills to hone.

Close the door. Turn off the wi-fi.

Don’t get distracted by your ph

4. Avoid clichés like the plague.

5. Don’t write stuff that’s a bit vague.

6. The use of unnecessarily long words

may result in reader alienation.

Curb your sesquipedalianism.

Obviate all obfuscation.

7. Always proof-read you’re work.

Accuracy can be it’s own reward!

And remember that the penis

mightier than the sword.

8. Check haiku closely

for lines which have too few

or too many syllables.

9. Never ever follow rules."

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *tar80sWoman
over a year ago

Southampton

I started Early – Took my Dog –

And visited the Sea –

The Mermaids in the Basement

Came out to look at me –

And Frigates – in the Upper Floor

Extended Hempen Hands –

Presuming Me to be a Mouse –

Aground – upon the Sands –

But no Man moved Me – till the Tide

Went past my simple Shoe –

And past my Apron – and my Belt

And past my Boddice – too –

And made as He would eat me up –

As wholly as a Dew

Opon a Dandelion's Sleeve –

And then – I started – too –

And He – He followed – close behind –

I felt His Silver Heel

Upon my Ancle – Then My Shoes

Would overflow with Pearl –

Until We met the Solid Town –

No One He seemed to know –

And bowing – with a Mighty look –

At me – The Sea withdrew –

[Emily Dickonson]

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

One of my favourites by another hopful romantic. Somehow sbe captures some moments so perfectly.

"She wanted him. He was her definition of desire.

She never knew how engulfing the flames could be until now.

The only thing that could bring her back to life...his lips, his hands.

She would follow him to the ends of time just to have another moment with him.

All she knew was she missed him and nothing made sense until she could be with him again.

This is what it felt like to fall and not care where you land."

N.R.Hart / "Land"

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *bi Haive OP Man
Forum Mod
over a year ago

Cheeseville, Somerset

A bit of John Cooper Clarke and my favourite poem about love.

I WANNA BE YOURS

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner

Breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina

I will never rust

If you like your coffee hot

Let me be your coffee pot

You call the shots

I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat

For those frequent rainy days

I wanna be your dreamboat

When you want to sail away

Let me be your teddy bear

Take me with you anywhere

I don’t care

I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter

I will not run out

I wanna be the electric heater

You’ll get cold without

I wanna be your setting lotion

Hold your hair in deep devotion

Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean

That’s how deep is my devotion

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *atthew78Man
over a year ago

Winsford

OverviewLyricsAnalysisVideosListen

There's a bluebird in my heart that

Wants to get out but I'm too tough for him

I say, stay in there, I'm not going

To let anybody see you

There's a bluebird in my heart that

Wants to get out

But I pour whiskey on him and inhale

Cigarette smoke

And the whores and the bartenders

And the grocery clerks never know that

He's in there

There's a bluebird in my heart that

Wants to get out but I'm too tough for him

I say, Stay down, do you want to mess

Me up? You want to screw up the

Works? You want to blow my book sales in

Europe? There's a bluebird in my heart that

Wants to get out

But I'm too clever, I only let him out

At night sometimes when everybody's asleep

I say, I know that you're there

So don't be sad

Then I put him back

But he's singing a little

In there, I haven't quite let him die

And we sleep together like that

With our secret pact

And it's nice enough to make a man

Weep, but I don't weep, do

You?

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

There was a young lady named Alice

Who was known to have peed in a chalice.

‘Twas the common belief

It was done for relief,

And not out of protestant malice

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Was watching a film the other night poetry of First World War Siegfried Sassoon Wilfred Owen Ernest Hemingway really sad and a lot of it was off men but the one that got to me was off lady Margaret Cole The falling leaves

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *lephantisMan
over a year ago

Oxford

A lovely idea for a thread! Happy World Poetry Day, all!

My favourite poems of all are too long, sad, or both for here, but this one always makes me smile.

Valentine, by John Fuller

The things about you I appreciate

May seem indelicate:

I'd like to find you in the shower

And chase the soap for half an hour.

I'd like to have you in my power

And see your eyes dilate.

I'd like to have your back to scour

And other parts to lubricate.

Sometimes I feel it is my fate

To chase you screaming up a tower

Or make you cower

By asking you to differentiate

Nietzsche from Schopenhauer.

I'd like successfully to guess your weight

And win you at a fête.

I'd like to offer you a flower.

I like the hair upon your shoulders,

Falling like water over boulders.

I like the shoulders too: they are essential.

Your collar-bones have great potential

(I'd like your particulars in folders

Marked Confidential).

I like your cheeks, I like your nose,

I like the way your lips disclose

The neat arrangement of your teeth

(Half above and half beneath)

In rows.

I like your eyes, I like their fringes.

The way they focus on me gives me twinges.

Your upper arms drive me berserk.

I like the way your elbows work.

On hinges …

I like your wrists, I like your glands,

I like the fingers on your hands.

I'd like to teach them how to count,

And certain things we might exchange,

Something familiar for something strange.

I'd like to give you just the right amount

And get some change.

I like it when you tilt your cheek up.

I like the way you not and hold a teacup.

I like your legs when you unwind them.

Even in trousers I don't mind them.

I like each softly-moulded kneecap.

I like the little crease behind them.

I'd always know, without a recap,

Where to find them.

I like the sculpture of your ears.

I like the way your profile disappears

Whenever you decide to turn and face me.

I'd like to cross two hemispheres

And have you chase me.

I'd like to smuggle you across frontiers

Or sail with you at night into Tangiers.

I'd like you to embrace me.

I'd like to see you ironing your skirt

And cancelling other dates.

I'd like to button up your shirt.

I like the way your chest inflates.

I'd like to soothe you when you're hurt

Or frightened senseless by invertebrates.

I'd like you even if you were malign

And had a yen for sudden homicide.

I'd let you put insecticide

Into my wine.

I'd even like you if you were Bride

Of Frankenstein

Or something ghoulish out of Mamoulian's

Jekyll and Hyde.

I'd even like you as my Julian

Or Norwich or Cathleen ni Houlihan.

How melodramatic

If you were something muttering in attics

Like Mrs Rochester or a student of Boolean

Mathematics.

You are the end of self-abuse.

You are the eternal feminine.

I'd like to find a good excuse

To call on you and find you in.

I'd like to put my hand beneath your chin,

And see you grin.

I'd like to taste your Charlotte Russe,

I'd like to feel my lips upon your skin

I'd like to make you reproduce.

I'd like you in my confidence.

I'd like to be your second look.

I'd like to let you try the French Defence

And mate you with my rook.

I'd like to be your preference

And hence

I'd like to be around when you unhook.

I'd like to be your only audience,

The final name in your appointment book,

Your future tense.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *ittlebirdWoman
over a year ago

The Big Smoke

What a lovely thread OP

This is my all time favourite poem. In fact it means so much to me I am having it as a new tattoo tomorrow

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

By E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it(anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)

i want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;

which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *icecouple561Couple
Forum Mod
over a year ago

East Sussex

Just one!

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Today,as I rode by

I saw the brown leaves dropping from tree

In a still afternoon

When no world whirled them whistling to the sky

But thickly silent

They fell like snowflakes wiping out the noon

And wandered slowly hence

For thinking of gallant multitude

Which now all withering lay

Slain by no wind of age or pestilence

But in there beauty strewed

Like snowflakes on Flemish field

Margaret Cole

The Falling Leaves

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *icecouple561Couple
Forum Mod
over a year ago

East Sussex

This is just one of my favourites

Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building,

Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,

Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done

Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be

Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall

Confident that we have built our wall.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *bi Haive OP Man
Forum Mod
over a year ago

Cheeseville, Somerset

"Just one!

As many as you wish.

I've already thrown two into the mix and another will be along later.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *icecouple561Couple
Forum Mod
over a year ago

East Sussex

"Just one!

As many as you wish.

I've already thrown two into the mix and another will be along later.

Hooray!

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *icecouple561Couple
Forum Mod
over a year ago

East Sussex

From the Song of Solomon

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *ack688Man
over a year ago

abruzzo Italy (and UK)

To wit-

Razors pain you

Rivers are damp,

Acids stain you

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren't lawful

Nooses give,

Gas smells awful

You might as well live.

Dorothy Parker

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *bi Haive OP Man
Forum Mod
over a year ago

Cheeseville, Somerset

Benjamin Zephaniah

"What If?"

If you can keep your money when governments about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust your neighbour when they trust not you

And they be very nosy too;

If you can await the warm delights of summer

Then summer comes and goes with sun not seen,

And pay so much for drinking water

Knowing that the water is unclean.

If you seek peace in times of war creation,

And you can see that oil merchants are to blame,

If you can meet a pimp or politician,

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you cannot bear dis-united nations

And you think this new world order is a trick,

If you've ever tried to build good race relations,

And watch bad policing mess your work up quick.

If you can make one heap of all your savings

And risk buying a small house and plot,

Then sit back and watch the economy inflating

Then have to deal with the negative equity you've got;

If you can force your mind and body to continue

When all the social services have gone,

If you struggle on when there is nothing in you,

Except the knowledge that justice can be wrong.

If you can speak the truth to common people

Or walk with Kings and Queens and live no lie,

If you can see how power can be evil

And know that every censor is a spy;

If you can fill an unforgiving lifetime

With years of working hard to make ends meet,

You may not be wealthy but I am sure you will find

That you can hold your head high as you walk the streets.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *ycanNightsMan
over a year ago

Workington

I am Nature, the Mighty Mother,

I am the law: ye have none other.

I am the flower and the dewdrop fresh,

I am the lust in your itching flesh.

I am the battle’s filth and strain,

I am the widow’s empty pain.

I am the sea to smother your breath,

I am the bomb, the falling death.

I am the fact and the crushing reason

To thwart your fantasy’s new-born treason.

I am the spider making her net,

I am the beast with jaws blood-wet.

I am a wolf that follows the sun

And I will catch him ere day be done.

Satan Speaks, C.S Lewis

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *bi Haive OP Man
Forum Mod
over a year ago

Cheeseville, Somerset

More Brian Bilston.

Because it fits with some of the threads I've seen today.

"From The Encyclopedia of Alternative Facts"

Frankenstein was the monster’s name.

There’s no such thing as climate change.

A solero is a type of hat.

The planet is not round but flat.

Six is the legal drinking age.

Women are paid an equal wage.

Elvis was influenced by Take That.

The planet is not round but flat.

Achilles had a dodgy knee.

Terror comes from refugees.

Insomnia affects most cats.

The planet is not round but flat.

There are no fascists on the rise.

A politician never lies.

It’s impossible to change a fact.

The planet is not round but flat.

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *ulieAndBeefCouple
over a year ago

Manchester-ish

I love this by Hollie Holden

Today I asked my body what she needed,

Which is a big deal

Considering my journey of

Not Really Asking That Much.

I thought she might need more water.

Or protein.

Or greens.

Or yoga.

Or supplements.

Or movement.

But as I stood in the shower

Reflecting on her stretch marks,

Her roundness where I would like flatness,

Her softness where I would like firmness,

All those conditioned wishes

That form a bundle of

Never-Quite-Right-Ness,

She whispered very gently:

Could you just love me like this?

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

"On yonder hill, there stood a coo.

It must have gone, it's no there noo."

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *eliWoman
over a year ago

Happy belated poetry day you wonderful people!

So I've got a few, will probably dip in and out with extracts.

But this is a paragraph of one of my absolute favourite more contemporary poems, by Sierra DeMulde.

"When the apocalypse does come,

I will rebuild our city with my tongue.

I will suck this world’s ashes from your fingers.

I will refuse to let the fires of this hell

be the only thing that makes us sweat.

When the apocalypse comes,

so will we."

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

I could post soo many of these, both mine and one's that inspired me. Poetry was how I 1st learned how to to explain my feelings and express them. I'm going to drop this one in as it was the 1st that truly opened my eyes to how powerful they can be.

Today is filled with anger

fueled with hidden hate

scared of being outcast

afraid of common fate

Today is built on tragedies

which no one wants 2 face

nightmares 2 humanities

and morally disgraced

Tonight is filled with rage

violence in the air

children bred with ruthlessness

because no one at home cares

Tonight I lay my head down

but the pressure never stops

knawing at my sanity

content when I am dropped

But 2morrow I c change

a chance 2 build a new

Built on spirit intent of Heart

and ideals

based on truth

and tomorrow I wake with second wind

and strong because of pride

2 know I fought with all my heart 2 keep my dream alive

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *atthew78Man
over a year ago

Winsford

Beyond the wild oats,

What awaits the soul,

Is there an honesty

A truth Bourne to all,

Passions speak aloud,

Be it lust, love or friendship,

There is something,

That cannot be denied,

Allow it to overwhelme,

For it is a truth undoubted,

In dreams we are connected,

In life apart,

A decision awaits,

Dare we connect.

One of my own poems

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

""On yonder hill, there stood a coo.

It must have gone, it's no there noo.""

Short n sweet too

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *inell1Man
over a year ago

Ipswich

The boy stood on the burning deck and his feet were covered in blisters

He had a finger up his hole and another up his sisters

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Emma Hackett's Newsbook

Last night my mum

Got really mad

And threw a jam tart

At my dad.

Dad lost his temper

Then with mother,

Threw one at her

And hit my brother.

My brother thought

It was my sister,

Threw two at her

But somehow missed her.

My sister,

She is only three,

Hurled four at him

And one at me!

I said I wouldn't

Stand for that,

Aimed one at her

And hit the cat.

The cat jumped up

Like he'd been shot,

And landed

In the baby's cot.

The baby -

Quietly sucking his thumb -

Then started howling

For my mum.

At which my mum

Got really mad,

And threw a Swiss roll

At my dad.

~Allan Ahlberg

My all time favourite

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

By *asterR and slut mayaMan
over a year ago

Bradford

If been a favorite of mine

The other day I was full of rhyme

But sadly it fell on stoney ground

Apart from the moderator here the lovely lady accept with good cheer .

My rhyme may not suit all but cant helpself when the mood comes

be they short or long a bit rhyme

Can make you smile .

Reply privately

Reply in forum

Reply +quote

Post new Message to Thread