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PostPosted: 14 Aug 06, 1:50 
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I LIKE that, Ellie. It's brilliant, and so true!

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PostPosted: 14 Aug 06, 15:00 
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Ok, so one of my ultimate favourites has got to be Sappho, and this particular fragment means a great deal to me.

Some an army of horsemen, some an army on foot
and some say a fleet of ships is the loveliest sight
on this dark earth; but I say it is what-
ever you desire:

and it is possible to make this perfectly clear
to all; for the woman who far surpassed all others
in her beauty, Helen, left her husband --
the best of all men --

behind and sailed far away to Troy; she did not spare
a single thought for her child nor for her dear parents
but [the goddess of love] led her astray
[to desire...]

[...which]
reminds me now of Anactoria
although far away,

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PostPosted: 14 Aug 06, 15:22 
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Wayhay another Sappho fan. It's nice to know i'm not alone, although the difficulty with Sappho, i find is that there are so many varying translations which give the poems completely different meanings and some of these translations lose the essence of the emotions. This translation of her Jealousy poem is one of my favs.

To me it seems
that man has the fortune of gods,
whoever sits beside you, and close,
who listens to you sweetly speaking
and laughing temptingly;
my heart flutters in my breast,
whenever I look quickly, for a moment —
I say nothing, my tongue broken,
a delicate fire runs under my skin,
my eyes see nothing, my ears roar,
cold sweat rushes down me,
trembling seizes me,
I am greener than grass,
to myself I seem
needing but little to die.

But all must be endured, since . . .

Translated by Diane Rayor (1991)

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PostPosted: 21 Aug 06, 11:08 
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a quote rather than a poem but true all the same...

''let us not fear things too much, for we often suffer more from the things we fear than from those which come to pass..''

Abbe de Tourville


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PostPosted: 21 Aug 06, 11:46 
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Thanks BBoop - that's a great one :wave:


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PostPosted: 21 Aug 06, 12:47 
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You're welcome! I have a book I keep of all my favourite quotes from books and people etc. There is a name for people that do that but I can't remember what it is...anyway I have hundreds!


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 27 Aug 06, 18:48 
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They Say Ben Okri

They say
Love Grows
When the fear of death looms

They say
Courage looms
When the fear
Of never loving again
Disapears
In the smell of the enemy
Who crushes us so much
We can only fight

Love and courage grow together
When the flesh is rawest
And the spirit charged
And distorted within the nightmare
We see the possibility of a future


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PostPosted: 27 Aug 06, 18:54 
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one of my faves ever

And If You Should Leave Me Ben Okri

And if you should leave me
I would say that the ghost
Of Cassandra
Has passed through
My eyes
I would say that the stars
In their malice
Merely light up the sky
To stretch my torment
And that the waves crash
On the shores
To bring salt stings on
My Face
For you re-connect me with
All the lights of the sky
And the salt of the waves
And the myths in the air
And with your passing
The evening would become too dark
To dream in
And the morning
Too bright


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 28 Aug 06, 11:47 
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They are beautiful, tulip. I like this thread a lot.

One of my favourites always comes to mind at this time of year.
But it's also about life beyond youth having meaning, I think.

To Autumn

John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.


Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.


Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

[/b]

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 28 Aug 06, 14:30 
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I also love Sylvia Plath, love this poem

Poppies In October Sylvia Plath

Even the sun clouds this morning cannot match such skirts
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly

A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky

Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers

O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 28 Aug 06, 18:00 
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have been revisiting some of the poems I love, that make me think,

Alice Walker The Diamonds on Liz's Bosom

The diamonds on Liz's bosom
are not as bright
as his eyes
the morning they took him
to work in the mines
The rubies in Nancy's
jewel box (Oh, how Ronald loves red!)
not as vivid
as the despair
in his children's
frowns,
Oh those Africans!

Everywhere you look
they're bleeding
and crying
Crying and bleeding
on some of the whitest necks
in your town


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 28 Aug 06, 21:45 
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GG - I love the Keats Ode to Autumn. It's a gorgeous poem. Some great selections from tulip too.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 17 Oct 06, 11:17 
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Location: Back at the wacky races
Flowers by Wendy Cope

Some men never think of it.
You did. You'd come along
And say you'd nearly brought me flowers
But something had gone wrong.

The shop was closed. Or you had doubts -
The sort that minds like ours
Dream up incessantly. You thought
I might not want your flowers.

It made me smile and hug you then.
Now I can only smile.
but look, the flowers you nearly brought
Have lasted all this while.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 01 Nov 06, 23:24 
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Location: Back at the wacky races
In Defence of Adultery by Julia Copus

We don't fall in love: it rises through us
the way that certain music does -
whether a symphony or ballad -
and it is sepia-coloured,
like tea that stains as it creeps up
the tiny tube-like gaps inside
a cube of sugar lying by a cup.
Yes, love's like that: just when we least
needed or expected it
a part of us dips into it
by chance or mishap and it seeps
through our capillaires, it clings
inside the chambers of the heart
to atriums and ventricles. We're
victims, we say: merely vessels
drinking the vanilla scent
of this one's skin, the lustre
or another's blue eyes skilfully
darkened with bistre. And whatever
damage might result we're not
to blame for it: love is an autocrat
and won't be disobeyed.
Sometimes we almost manage
to convince ourselves of that.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 03 Nov 06, 17:05 
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Posts: 506
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My favourite poem is Stevie Smith's very eerie "At School", which begins:

At school I always walk with Elwyn
Walk with Elwyn all the day
Oh my darling, darling Elwyn
We will never go away


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