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In honour of world poetry day share your favourite poem

132 replies

TheMarbleFaun · 21/03/2019 19:29

Here’s mine

In honour of world poetry day share your favourite poem
OP posts:
BobbinThreadbare123 · 27/03/2019 21:20

I'm lowering the tone....a little.

On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

Spike Milligan

TemporaryPermanent · 27/03/2019 21:30

@Marblefaun thank you for posting your original poem. I needed that and now I have it forever.

this is an unusually lovely poetry thread xx

Poetry has been essential since my husband died but it can be hard to find exact expressions of some of the complex feelings. until I read this.

The Ideal by James Fenton

This is where I came from.
I passed this way.
This should not be shameful
Or hard to say.

A self is a self.
It is not a screen.
A person should respect
What he has been.

This is my past.
Which I shall not discard.
This is the ideal.
This is hard.

Blompitude · 27/03/2019 21:32

In our Tenth Year by Simon Armitage, pinned on my bedroom wall when I was an impressionable teenager with no experience of relationships:

This book, this page, this harebell laid to rest
Between these sheets, these leaves, if pressed
still bleeds
a watercolour of the way we were.

Those years: the fuss of such and such a day,
that disagreement and its final word,
your inventory of names and dates and times,
my infantries of tall, dark, handsome lies.

A decade on, now we astound ourselves;
still two, still twinned but doubled now with love
and for a single night apart, alone,
how sure we are, each of the other half.

This harebell holds its own. Let's give it now
in air, with light, the chance to fade, to fold.
Here, take it from my hand. Now, let it go.

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Blompitude · 27/03/2019 21:33

And Ode to Solitude by Alexander Pope:

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye.

dangerrabbit · 27/03/2019 21:38

Refugees - Brian Bilson

They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

Coffeecoffeebuzzbuzzbuzz · 27/03/2019 21:59

Blueberry girl by Neil Gaiman. It was read at baby dd christening and she has it framed on her wall (outs self)

GallicosCats · 27/03/2019 23:17

Blompitude Alexander Pope was apparently only twelve when he wrote that poem. Shock

He didn't get his wish, did he? Grin

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