A Paradise of Poems

This is a non-editing/filtering version of a live rehearsal session between me and João Grillo (guitarist). One day later, we performed at Lovecraft Beer Lounge Aveiro :)

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times… In life after life, in age after age, forever. My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs, That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, In life after life, in age after age, forever. Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain, Its ancient tale of being apart or together. As I stare...

  You too wanted better things, but love           forces all of us down.  Sorrow bends us more           forcefully, but the arc doesn't return to its           point of origin without a reason.             Upwards or downwards!  In holy Night,           where mute Nature plans the coming days,           doesn't there reign in the most twisted Orcus           something straight and direct...

BGM by Aleksey Chistilin - The Story of One Life

Mother, the folk who live up in the clouds call out to me- “We play from the time we wake till the day ends. We play with the golden dawn, we play with the silver moon.” I ask, “But how am I to get up to you ?” They answer, “Come to the edge of the earth, lift up your hands to the sky, and you will be taken up into the clouds.” “My mother is waiting for me at home, “I say, “How can I leave her and...

often it is the only thing between you and impossibility. no drink, no woman's love, no wealth can match it. nothing can save you except writing. it keeps the walls from failing. the hordes from closing in. it blasts the darkness. writing is the ultimate psychiatrist, the kindliest god of all the gods. writing stalks death. it knows no quit. and writing laughs at itself, at pain. it is the las...

I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank. I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried! If that water hadn't a-been so cold I might've sunk and died.      But it was      Cold in that water!      It was cold! I took the elevator Sixteen floors above the ground. I thought about my baby And thought I would jump dow...

A Nation of trees, drab green and desolate grey In the field uniform of modern wars, Darkens her hills, those endless, outstretched paws Of Sphinx demolished or stone lion worn away. They call her a young country, but they lie: She is the last of lands, the emptiest, A woman beyond her change of life, a breast Still tender but within the womb is dry. Without songs, architecture, history: The emoti...

The World Cup, a global stage, Where nations come to play, A spectacle of skill and strength, A test of will and might. From distant lands they come, These titans of the game, To battle on the pitch, In search of victory and fame. For one bright month, the world will watch, As players clash and scores are fought, A drama of sweat and tears and blood, A contest of both skill and luck. And when the...

Football, the beautiful game, A source of passion and of shame, A battle on the pitch of life, Where heroes rise and villains thrive. With leather ball and studded boots, We chase and kick and score and hoot, A symphony of cheers and groans, As players clash and tackles flown. For ninety minutes and beyond, We fight for every inch of ground, A contest of both mind and might, Where victory is our s...

II My gaze is clear like a sunflower. It is my custom to walk the roads Looking right and left And sometimes looking behind me, And what I see at each moment Is what I never saw before, And I’m very good at noticing things. I’m capable of feeling the same wonder A newborn child would feel If he noticed that he’d really and truly been born. I feel at each moment that I’ve just been born Into a compl...

Countless lives inhabit us. I don’t know, when I think or feel, Who it is that thinks or feels. I am merely the place Where things are thought or felt. I have more than just one soul. There are more I’s than I myself. I exist, nevertheless, Indifferent to them all. I silence them: I speak. The crossing urges of what I feel or do not feel Struggle in who I am, but I Ignore them. They dictate nothin...

My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird— equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. The phoebe,...

Last week, I invited you to share your favourite love poems. Here are a few submissions by listeners, read in English, Chinese and German. Enjoy ：） 1. A love letter from the movie Green Book, read by Valerie Zhang 2. Lösch mir die Augen aus, read by Mr Liu ( Lois Hong 's dad) 3. A glimpse, read by Linda Leng 4. 致橡树 (To the Oak Tree), read by Jielin Liu 5. Shall I compare thee to a summer's da...

Hello, my dear listeners. I'm Camellia . The narrator of this podcast. Thanks a lot for listening to my show over the past two years. I'm glad to have you along the journey with me to feel the beauty of those classic and modern poems. Today is Chinese Valentine's Day, and I'd like to create a special episode featuring your favourite LOVE poetries. I'd like to invite you to read one of your favouri...

Life is a hospital where every patient is obsessed by the desire of changing beds. One would like to suffer opposite the stove, another is sure he would get well beside the window. It always seems to me that I should be happy anywhere but where I am, and this question of moving is one that I am eternally discussing with my soul. "Tell my, my soul, poor chilly soul, how would you like to live in Li...

at high noon at a small college near the beach sober the sweat running down my arms a spot of sweat on the table I flatten it with my finger blood money blood money my god they must think I love this like the others but it's for bread and beer and rent blood money I'm tense lousy feel bad poor people I'm failing I'm failing a woman gets up walks out slams the door a dirty poem somebody told me not...

poetry readings have to be some of the saddest damned things ever, the gathering of the clansmen and clanladies, week after week, month after month, year after year, getting old together, reading on to tiny gatherings, still hoping their genius will be discovered, making tapes together, discs together, sweating for applause they read basically to and for each other, they can't find a New York publ...

She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. I saw her upon nearer view, A Spirit, yet a Woman too! Her househol...

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.          In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!          What peaches and...

Sometimes when my eyes are red I go up on top of the RCA Building and gaze at my world, Manhattan— my buildings, streets I’ve done feats in, lofts, beds, coldwater flats —on Fifth Ave below which I also bear in mind, its ant cars, little yellow taxis, men walking the size of specks of wool— Panorama of the bridges, sunrise over Brooklyn machine, sun go down over New Jersey where I was born & P...

I lived with visions for my company Instead of men and women, years ago, And found them gentle mates, nor thought to know A sweeter music than they played to me. But soon their trailing purple was not free Of this world’s dust, their lutes did silent grow, And I myself grew faint and blind below Their vanishing eyes. Then THOU didst come—to be, Beloved, what they seemed. Their shining fronts, Thei...

If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say, "I love her for her smile—her look—her way Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"— For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for T...

I can’t touch you. His face always returns; we exchange long looks in each bad dream & what I see, my God. Honey, sweetheart, I hold you against me but nothing works. Two boats moored, rocking between nowhere & nowhere. A bone inside me whispers maybe tonight, but I keep thinking about the two men wrestling nude in Lawrence’s Women in Love . I can’t get past reels of breath unwinding. He h...