Favorite poetry thread

[Guest littleloveslars]

Well.. I suggested it be posted in chat and was asked to start the thread myself.

 

So here is where you can post your favorite poems! Try to not make repeat posts for the sake of variety.

 

My favorite is titled "The faces at Braga" by David Whyte.

 

In monastery darkness

by the light of one flashlight,

the old shrine room waits in silence.

 

While beside the door

we see the terrible figure,

fierce eyes demanding, “Will you step through?”

 

And the old monk leads us,

bent back nudging blackness

prayer beads in the hand that beckons.

 

We light the butter lamps

and bow, eyes blinking in the

pungent smoke, look up without a word,

 

see faces in meditation,

a hundred faces carved above,

eye lines wrinkled in the handheld light.

 

Such love in solid wood—

taken from the hillsides and carved in silence,

they have the vibrant stillness of those who made them.

 

Engulfed by the past

they have been neglected, but through

smoke and darkness they are like the flowers

 

we have seen growing

through the dust of eroded slopes,

their slowly opening faces turned toward the mountain.

 

Carved in devotion

their eyes have softened through age

and their mouths curve through delight of the carver’s hand.

 

If only our own faces

would allow the invisible carver’s hand

to bring the deep grain of love to the surface.

 

If only we knew

as the carver knew, how the flaws

in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core,

 

we would smile too

and not need faces immobilized

by fear and the weight of things undone.

 

When we fight with our failing

we ignore the entrance to the shrine itself

and wrestle with the guardian, fierce figure on the side of good.

 

And as we fight

our eyes are hooded with grief

and our mouths are dry with pain.

 

If only we could give ourselves

to the blows of the carver’s hands,

the lines in our faces would be the trace lines of rivers

 

feeding the sea

where voices meet, praising the features

of the mountain and the cloud and the sky.

 

Our faces would fall away

until we, growing younger toward death

everyday, would gather all our flaws in celebration

 

to merge with them perfectly,

impossibly, wedded to our essence,

full of silence from the carver’s hands.

 

 

 

I love this poem because its reminds me not to "fight with my failing", but rather love myself just as i was made. Ok your turn!

[Little Illy]

Annabel Lee

 

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

 

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

[Kara]

One of my favorites   To Althea, from Prison

Richard Lovelace

When Love with unconfinéd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair
And fettered to her eye,
The birds that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round,
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargéd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

 

what it means to me is hard to put to words, but to me it is to be loved even when you can't be together and to never be forgotten.  Have loved this poem since the 6th grade.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Kara

[LacesXo]

EE Cummings- I carry your heart with me

 

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)

[Guest littleloveslars]

Tell me what they say to you!!!

[Guest daddy's_little_shadow]

I was originally going to post something by Edgar Allen Poe, but since that's been done already, I'm going to go with Rupi Kaur. I love all of her stuff. It's very inspirational to me. I keep her book "Milk and Honey" by my bedside. It touches on different topics; anything from self harm to self love. She's just a wonderful poet. Plus, the artwork in the book is amazing, too.

 

Here are a few (they're short):

 

"Us"

We began

with honesty

let us end

in it too.

---

".."

What is stronger

than the human heart

which shatters over and over

and still lives

---

".."

I do not want to have you

to fill the empty parts of me.

I want to be full on my own.

 

I want to be so complete

I could light a whole city,

and then

I want to have you,

because the two of

us combined

could set it

on fire.

[Guest Sweetkittenbj]

I don't know who wrote it, but I always see Merida in my head when I read this

 

Her messy hair a

visible attribute

of her stubborn

spirit. As she

shakes it free,

she smiles knowing

wild is her favorite

color.

[MisterMomo]

Oh!  I can share a Poem with you Slars ! ...

 

 

 

By Robert Herrick ..

 

"To TheVirgins" 

 

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

 

I specially like the first part... about seizing the day and Carpe Diem! ... I take it like it's important to have fun and make the best of your time right now... Today, cauze smiling flower today wont be that smily tomorrow! 

 

They use that poem in the very great and passionate movie (but sad) Dead Poet Society ..  

[LacesXo]

I was originally going to post something by Edgar Allen Poe, but since that's been done already, I'm going to go with Rupi Kaur. I love all of her stuff. It's very inspirational to me. I keep her book "Milk and Honey" by my bedside. It touches on different topics; anything from self harm to self love. She's just a wonderful poet. Plus, the artwork in the book is amazing, too.

Here are a few (they're short):

"Us"

We began

with honesty

let us end

in it too.

---

".."

What is stronger

than the human heart

which shatters over and over

and still lives

---

".."

I do not want to have you

to fill the empty parts of me.

I want to be full on my own.

I want to be so complete

I could light a whole city,

and then

I want to have you,

because the two of

us combined

could set it

on fire.

Ooh I do like Rupi Kaur I'm planning on buying Milk and Honey when I get paid

[LacesXo]

I don't know if you'd call it a poem or an extract from her book but my favourite of hers is

 

I cannot explain the type of courage it takes for me to lay here and give myself to you. Do you any idea how excruciating it is, to reopen the wounds for someone new. How much it hurts to try again. It is like surviving a war. Then starting a new one for no good reason. But I want to be that woman. The one I was before they came. The one I was before they pulled it all out of me. All my life I have given. All my life I have presented myself for the taking with a fork and a knife. What I fear is you are here now. When there isn't anything left for you