I've got a little black book (@Occams_Beard)

Some find my death beautiful in all the colours of autumn bringing joy to grey days. Others find it sad - the sign of long nights in winter's embrace. The fall banished fear out of my pores. The feeling of helplessness while being carried by the wind opened my mind for a different reality. Acceptance is not giving in or giving up it's choosing another path where my heart's longing and my peace of...

For this reading I am going to read two poems the first is typical of the period and the second for comparison is by Shakespeare. I will pass no judgment but let you decide which you prefer. My ladies hair By Bartholomew Griffin. Published 1596  My Lady's hair is threads of beaten gold;   Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen; Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold; &nbs...

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, The dear repose for limbs with travel tired; But then begins a journey in my head To work my mind, when body's work's expired: For then my thoughts--from far where I abide-- Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, Looking on darkness which the blind do see: Save that my soul's imaginary sight Presents thy shadow to my sigh...

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed, And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the watery main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itsel...

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,...

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:  Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,  And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;  But thy eternal summer shall n...

Touch Iva Hotko You feel me Not in the light of day Or in the summers rain But in the depths of your being Where you hide all That is not to be seen I tickle you mind I scratch on your heart I'm retracing your steps Lost in time From the shadows of you soul I speak to you From the deepest of your desire I comfort you From this dance of passion and despair We lustfully take all that we can You hide...

If I could tell you. WH Auden Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know. If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so. There are no fortunes to be told, although, Because I love you more than I can say, If I could tell you I would l...

Pablo Neruda Tonight I can write (The Saddest Lines)      Tonight I can write the saddest lines.      Write, for example, ‘The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.’      The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.      Tonight I can write the saddest lines.   &nb...

For Jane a true friend, from Madelaine Milesha Appavoo A friend is a gift A friend is A gift full of strength That comes with a hug And wrapped in a smile, Giving that extra ounce of comfort We need it every once in a while.

Dylan Thomas - Light breaks where no sun shines Light breaks where no sun shines; Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart Push in their tides; And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads, The things of light File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones. A candle in the thighs Warms youth and seed and burns the seeds of age; Where no seed stirs, The fruit of man unwrinkles in the...

Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced i...

Dylan Thomas The force that through the green fuse drives the flower The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax. An...

Dylan Thomas In my craft or sullen art In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms, I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart. Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On th...

Dylan Thomas And death shall have no dominion And death shall have no dominion. Dead man naked they shall be one With the man in the wind and the west moon; When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone, They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death...

Now as I was young and easy under the applle boughs About the lilting house and happy as the house was green     The night above the dingle starry,          Time let me hale and climb    Golden in the heyday of his eyes, And honoured among the wagons I was prince of the apple towns And once below a time I lordly had th...

A Shropshire Lad 31: On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble BY A. E. HOUSMAN On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble; His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves; The gale, it plies the saplings double, And thick on Severn snow the leaves. 'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger When Uricon the city stood: 'Tis the old wind in the old anger, But then it threshed another wood. Then, 'twas before my tim...

A Shropshire Lad 35: On the idle hill of summer BY A. E. HOUSMAN On the idle hill of summer, Sleepy with the flow of streams, Far I hear the steady drummer Drumming like a noise in dreams. Far and near and low and louder On the roads of earth go by, Dear to friends and food for powder, Soldiers marching, all to die. East and west on fields forgotten Bleach the bones of comrades slain, Lovely lads...

A Shropshire Lad 52: Far in a western brookland BY A. E. HOUSMAN Far in a western brookland That bred me long ago The poplars stand and tremble By pools I used to know. There, in the windless night-time, The wanderer, marvelling why, Halts on the bridge to hearken How soft the poplars sigh. He hears: long since forgotten In fields where I was known, Here I lie down in London And turn to rest...

A Shropshire Lad 26: Along the field as we came by BY A. E. HOUSMAN Along the field as we came by A year ago, my love and I, The aspen over stile and stone Was talking to itself alone. "Oh who are these that kiss and pass? A country lover and his lass; Two lovers looking to be wed; And time shall put them both to bed, But she shall lie with earth above, And he beside another love." And sure enough...

A Shropshire Lad  2: Loveliest of trees, the cherry now BY A. E. HOUSMAN Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs a...

BY A. E. HOUSMAN From Clee to heaven the beacon burns, The shires have seen it plain, From north and south the sign returns And beacons burn again. Look left, look right, the hills are bright, The dales are light between, Because 'tis fifty years to-night That God has saved the Queen. Now, when the flame they watch not towers About the soil they trod, Lads, we'll remember friends of ours Who share...

The Clod and the Pebble BY WILLIAM BLAKE "Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle's feet, But a Pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet: "Love seeketh only self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another's loss of ease, And...

The Smile BY WILLIAM BLAKE There is a Smile of Love And there is a Smile of Deceit And there is a Smile of Smiles In which these two Smiles meet And there is a Frown of Hate And there is a Frown of disdain And there is a Frown of Frowns Which you strive to forget in vain For it sticks in the Hearts deep Core And it sticks in the deep Back bone And no Smile that ever was smild But only one Smile al...

Earth's Answer BY WILLIAM BLAKE Earth rais'd up her head, From the darkness dread & drear. Her light fled: Stony dread! And her locks cover'd with grey despair. Prison'd on watry shore Starry Jealousy does keep my den Cold and hoar Weeping o'er I hear the Father of the ancient men Selfish father of men Cruel, jealous, selfish fear Can delight Chain'd in night The virgins of youth and morning b...